1st day in Mexico City

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7.30 PM.
First of all, let's briefly go back to yesterday night.
My final flight landed in Mexico City at around 11.05pm and after filling in a couple of forms I got through immigration with no questions asked.
Obviously, I had missed the deadline for my hostel pick up, but I had discovered earlier in the day online that the airport have what seemed like a decent taxi system. They have authorised taxis with booths in the arrivals hall. There's bit of competition and they're all calling you to get the business. I don't know why but I didn't even think of haggling (I discovered today that I should have) and picked one at random. They charge you at the booth what seems a price depending on the zone you're going to. For me it was 170 pesos (just under £10). Then you go outside and another official looks at your ticket and puts you in the correct taxi and tells the driver where to go. Therefore no cash is exchanged with the driver and the fare is decided in advance, so they might as well get you there as soon as possible. I made it to the hotel just after midnight, by which point I had been up for 24 hours. I was shown to my dorm and went straight to bed. Only to wake up 4 hours later, incapable of going back to sleep. I eventually got up around 7.30 had a passable shower and went upstairs to wait for breakfast at 8.30. I tried eggs “Mexican Style” which appeared to be scrambled eggs with tomatoes, chillies and maybe a few other secret ingredients. It was really quite nice and I think I shall have the same tomorrow.
After that I ended up having a brief chat with a couple of guys in the dorm (one from the USA and the other from the Czech Republic). I think the first one wanted to go to the Anthropology museum and the second to the historic centre so I decided to tag along with the latter. We had a great first day (turns out it was also his first day) and walked for ages. We did manage to find the historic centre (without a map) by asking repeatedly to strangers, practising our Spanish at the same time. We had a look at the cathedral, but mainly walked around, soaking up the atmosphere. There are street sellers absolutely everywhere. They all sell pretty much the same things (food along the lines of tacos and quesadillas with various fillings or sweets and drinks). We stumbled across a few markets which were all heaving and had some fresh orange juice (squeezed in front of us) and also saw a few monuments. After the historic centre, we decided to head for the anthropology museum. That was a long walk, which took us past some political demonstration with TVs and police cordon to boot and then to a big park in which the museum is located. It was definitely well worth it. And so were the 51 pesos (less than £3) entry fee.
The museum is on 2 floors. The ground floor is dedicated to the more ancient civilisations, such as the Aztecs and Mayas. It contains vast amounts of artefacts which impress either by their size or their detail and include the Aztec sun stone. The upstairs is very colourful, with traditional costumes and concentrates on the more recent past and the legacy left by the elders. I could have easily spent a whole day there.
By the time we'd finished, we'd been on our feet for about 7 hours so decided to get the tube back, That was nothing special, just a big city's tube at rush hour...
On the way back to the hostel, we stopped for some lunch at one of the street stalls, although it was nearly 5pm by then and I was starving! I picked something at random seeing as I didn't know what any of it was and got some mini poppadom looking base with spicy meat, cream and probably grated cheese on top, it was delicious and about 50p. I think tomorrow I will go to the supermarket as I am in serious need of fruit and veg.
Tonight is definitely going to be an early night for me as I need to catch up on last night's sleep and rest my poor feet after today.

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Comments

[Ste]

Woot
Sounds like a good first day, keep us up to date with your adventures!!