Day 1: Mexico City, Mexico

Today I arrived at the airport of Mexico City in the very early morning. Besides I still felt dreamy, the immigration process was very smooth indeed. It was quite interesting after my suitcase got through the x-ray, that everyone needed to press a red button. If it showed the green light on the screen, you could directly go to the exit; If it showed red light, then your luggage had to undergo a thorough inspection. And me? It was lucky to be a green light.

After exiting to the arrival hall, I immediately sped to the public phone stands to call to the hostel for their free pick-up service. But the volume of that damn phone was very low that I could only hear the pick-up service was only available from 8 a.m.! I then needed to take the taxi to the city. There are some official taxi companies selling taxi ticket in the arrival hall. The ticket was very expensive and cost 250 pesos after comparing the prices among different companies.

When I walked to the taxi station, a very enthusiastic and handsome Mexican guy came greet me and pick up my luggage. I was too naive to think that this young handsome kid was the driver, but then I was introduced to the real driver who was an old guy. That kid was only responsible to take the luggage for passengers (Goodbye, the first cute kid I ever met in Mexico!).

Then the driver drove me to the city center. The sky was still dark on the way, if you asked me to leave the taxi at that moment, I would probably be scared to death.

My schedule of today was just to do sight-seeing in the city center. Since the hostel is very close to Zocalo, I decided to make it a half day tour in Centro Historico district. After lunch I headed to Palacio de Bellas Artes by walking along Av. Madero. Then I walked to Alameda Central which located next to Palacio de Bellas Artes. There are many local food vendors in the park, but the smell of the oil made me want to puke.

The local food vendors in Alameda Central

Ice cream seller

The super bad looking cake

In fact, the street scene in Central Historico was bustling and noisy, many people even gathered together on Zocalo. This Zocalo is the 3rd largest square after Tienanmen Square in Beijing and Red Square in Moscow. I suddenly realized I had already been to these 3 squares in the same year, what a coincidence!

Afterwards, I followed the crowds to the corner of the Zocalo, and I saw a lot of vendors selling the Mexican national flags and other things related to the country like the marshmallow in Mexican national colors. I thought to myself at that moment, 'Mexican people are very patriotic to their country!' In other countries like Turkey, I did also see people hanging out their national flags everywhere on the street. Meanwhile, I can barely see a flag of HKSAR in my birthplace. It can tell how much Hong Kong people love Hong Kong! But then I reckoned, hanging out flags did not superficially mean loving Hong Kong, I believe patriotism remains at hearts! (Later I got to know the people were actually preparing the celebration of the Independence Day on Sept.16, no wonder there were many vendors around the corner!)

The marshmellows in Mexican national colors

Zocalo

Catedral Metropolitana

I continued to follow the crowds, and I passed by a small park. It was a very small amusement park with plenty of simple and shabby children's rides. Again I got to know the children in Hong Kong were very lucky. In my generation, there was Happy Paradise. Nowadays, there is Jumping Gym for the kids. While the Mexican kids could only go to this kind of parks to play these simple rides and exchange the replica of cartoon figures back home!

The fake Spider-man

The fake Sponge Bob ride

The elderly I saw on the way

The sleeping old man

After getting some rest in the park, I turned around to walk back to Palacio de Bellas Artes again. I walked along Av. Juarez and Av. Republica, and reached Monumento a la revolucion. I sat under the monument when I was watching some people dancing and my favorite skateboard practice. While watching people skateboarding, I wondered why they needed to repeat one move for 100 times. I also had no clue why they had to put on a cool face while playing?

Under the monument, there were many soldiers holding guns. Their job was to station there and march for a few times for the whole day. The more I looked at them, the more boring I found they would be.

The violinist

Palacio de Bellas Artes

The sky was still not dark at 8 p.m., so I started to go back to Av. Madero. I chose a very old-looking restaurant to have dinner there! I saw many people eating 'Mole', but I did not take the risk and ordered one pork chop! To make sure it was pork but not beef, I pretend the sound of a pig in front of the waitress! It was quite embarrassing but feasible in the end. The food was cheap with high quality, I promised myself that I could try again later!

At night, I did the research in the hostel for planning tomorrow's schedule. I talked with my friend Keh and she recommended me to go to Teotihuacan tomorrow! Before sleeping, I asked the hostel staff regarding the transportation in Mexico City. In conclusion, all the night shifts working at the hostel were useless!