That City's Metro Impressed Me Really

Yea, I decided to catch up with writing up the past travels. I am gonna go backwards. Just a little bit of everything. I know some of you think it’s weird, but it’s better than nothing!

Mexico City was the last place Glen and I went to. It is the capital of Mexico, which is our neighboring country here in North America. The flight from Portland to Dallas on American Airlines took about three hours, and Dallas to Mexico City was only about two hours. Not bad! What was bad, we arrived in the middle of the night so all we had to do was catching up with some sleep. Huge city, I thought. And quite surprisingly, the next morning I found out that the metro stations were actually very clean. They’re cleaner than any other ones I’ve been to in a few major cities (NYC, Paris, London, Toronto). I saw one or two folks sweeping one station's floor every now and then, which was cool. If I had to do the five in a comparative manner, it would be Paris being the smelliest; London being the dingiest *quite distasteful*; and probably NYC being the dirtiest. Toronto ones are actually pretty nice, much tolerable than the rest (excluding Mexico city here). Please note that these are to my own measures and are subject to change XD.

Glen sitting in front of the Cathedral overlooking some palace, Centro Historico.

Some like to think that Mexico City is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, which may be true to some extent. However, we did not find being there threatening at all. It was probably because we stayed at Centro Historico, which is a relatively safe area (Man, lots of cops there. Security was pretty tight). It was a bit touristy but that worked just fine for us. At night the area got very lively; lots of shops, big crowd, tourists and local people roaming around the street, street vendors lining in a few sections. Was quite a scene, I tell ya. The narrow streets reserved with no traffic reminded me of being in Western Europe (Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam), while the street vendor sight rang me a bell on Indonesia.

Centro Historico at night

And in the morning

The weather in October was just perfect, around 18 C in the morning and got warmer later in the day. As always, we stuffed ourselves like on any other vacation -not a good idea, so DO NOT COPY. One of the highlights of our dine-out was at this restaurant called ‘Café de Tacuba’. This place is a bit pricey compared to other local places (dishes ranging from $10-$20/item), but their food’s pretty good. We found the review on Lonely Planet so we thought,…why not give it a go?

We did not visit Mexico City for very long. It was actually a weekend trip (10/13-10/16). We only got to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday there. If you ever think about visiting this city, do consider Centro Historico for your lodging location. It’s within a short walking distance to Zocalo metro station. It’s very vibrant, and you will have options with the type of lodging (either hotel or hostel). Hampton Inn, where we stayed at, was quite nice; it’s reasonable, and the breakfast was surprisingly good. It was a good value overall.

OH, PLEASE TRY MEXICO CITY'S STREET TACOS. THEY’RE ALL OVER THE PLACE AND TO DIE FOR :D

Me & some kids at the National Museum of Anthropology

I guess what intrigued me the most was when three Mexican kids approached me while on our visit to The National Museum of Anthropology in Chapultepec -another part of the town. They asked me if I spoke English, and what the purpose of my trip was. Ah, and a few other questions that were kind of typical. But I forgot what they were :D

My brain stops cooperating anyway at this hour. It’s dinner time! I’ll sum up a different trip later tonight!

My dish at Cafe de Tacuba. It's making me hungry now.