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28th APRIL 2009 - WALKING THE STREETS OF PUEBLA!!
I got woken up at around 6.30am by a girl leaving. That meant I had had around 30 minutes sleep as I only dropped of at 6am anyway...not good and I felt a little rubbish to put it mildly!! I jumped in the shower to try and wake myself up and clear my head. Nothing like a little bit of freezing cold water to make you feel better eh?!! Once we were both up and ready, we went down for breakfast. I was not hungry at all...think I was too tired to eat! I forced a banana in for a little energy and then we set off to the tube station with our backpacks. The more you carry them the worse it gets...you certainly don't get used to it anyway!! Wish a barrow man was around now...I would happily have paid a few pesos for my bag to be wheeled along for me. As we got near the station, we donned our masks and travelled the now familiar route to the bus station in time to catch our 10.30am bus to Puebla.
We arrived at the bus station at around 10am.
Once again we were filmed as we went in..the camera seemed to follow us for ages. I tired to avoid the camera especially considering I had only slept for 30 minutes!! No such luck as a photographer came right up in our faces and began taking pictures. At that point I was glad to be wearing a mask!! Before we were allowed to get on the bus, we had to fill a form in about any symptoms we had. It seems that they would have stopped our travel if either of us had a cough or cold etc. We thought this pig flu business must be kind of a big deal!! The bus journey lasted for 2 hours. They are 1st class buses and are very comfortable...the seats reclined and everything, but it was almost a case of death by aircon!! Far too cold and after 5 minutes I looked like a plucked chicken with all the goose pimples!!
We arrived in Puebla at around 12.50pm. We got a map and directions to a hostel from the tourist information desk. The lady even spoke English...it was brilliant...no pointing or speaking French or anything!! Sweet as!! We followed her advice
and jumped on another average joe bus to Zocolo (Centro Historico). Usual buskers on the bus again but I didn't enjoy the experience what with having a great big backpack on and it being scorching!! Eating my words about the aircon now!! We managed to get off in roughly the right place and made our way to the hostel. It was a bit of a walk but we kept our heads down and kept going. Zocolo seemed nice on 1st impressions though I couldn't really appreciate it when carrying all my stuff.
Puebla is a mosaic of culture, art, magic and history. It has a very urban design and legend says that it was created by angels!! There are around 2600 Historic buildings there and on 1st glance I would say that 1000 of them were churches!! They were everywhere! I know that a lots of Mexicans are Catholic but there was almost one church between 10 people. Wow!! The architecture of the buildings were amazing and I would describe it at first glance as an archeological jewel!! Nice description if I do say so myself!!
The hostel was nice enough. Not many people there...pig flu scaring the
tourists off I think. I was given a bottom bunk as was Nat. Looked clean and the sheets were crisp..always a good thing! There was a big indoor courtyard and cafe below, cheap internet and a tv that didn't work. I liked it! We dumped our bags and then had a wander back into the town to take in some of the sights and actually be able to appreciate them this time!! The buildings were amazing. Tall, 16th Century looking, balconies, light coloured. It was how I imagined that Italy would be and I really felt like I was roaming the streets of Venice. It was very pretty and so different to anywhere I had been before. I took a lot of photos of the buildings which is unlike me...I am usually a people photo kind of girl. Then again...with the dark circles under my eyes, it was better that I stayed behind the camera!!
At around 3pm we went to Cathedral Square and sat in a lovely restaurant for a spot of late lunch. We were seated outside and our table overlooked the square. Soooo nice. You may think that it must have been a bit pricey but
Posh Restaurants!!
Surprisingly cheap...even we managed to afford a meal there!! no!! It was actually cheaper than when we ate in the dirty market 2 days previous!! Brilliant and it had an English translation on the menu!! In heaven and was the best meal I had eaten in Mexico so far despite being a little on the hot side. The only downside was the sellers that actually come around to your tables whilst you are eating. The worst are the child sellers who just stand and look at you with big wide eyes. Felt sorry for them!! We had to utter the words "no gracias" a few times throughout lunch...thinking of getting a t-shirt or a sign printed with it on so that I can save my voice a little.
Once eaten we wandered the streets a little more before over-indulging on a big ice cream. Not really by bag as it was a soft scoop but they poured melted chocolate on the inside of the cone and over the top of the ice cream before covering it in chocolate balls and coco pops. The chocolate coating was scrumptious but not a fan of the actual ice cream. Worth a try but won't be going there again as was very
sickly and wasn't quite the taste sensation I had imagined!!
After ice cream we walked the streets some more. I honestly lost count of the number of times we walked up and down the same streets. We walked about 10 miles!! Quite a funny set up as each street had all of the same shops on. There was a shoes street selling shoes, a hat street selling hats, an internet street selling internet time....you get the idea!! Nothing like a bit of healthy competition I suppose! As we walked about we understood what the German guy said about Mexican men liking western women. Every 2 steps we took we got whistled at, leered at, cars were beeping and more often than not, something would be shouted at in Spanish. I was glad that I didn't understand the language as I would rather not know what was being said. It was quite off putting!! We visited one of the many churches that afternoon - Iglesia De La Compania. Oh my...I liked it from the outside but they had overdone the gold on the inside. Very bling. It was really impressive in its own way but not to my taste. I
wandered if all the churches would be trussed up the same. I guess I would find out soon enough!
After walking for an eternity we headed back to the hostel and relaxed for half an hour before heading out again. Nat wanted a new journal as hers was nearly full. We trekked around for about half an hour but had no luck so called it a night. Back at the hostel we went on the net for a bit, had something to eat and then chilled out in the room chatting. I really like Puebla and despite not really doing anything, we had a full day out with lots of walking. I was tired when I climbed into bed but once again I could not sleep. It was about 4am when I finally nodded off. Not sure how I would function the following day!!
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