Day 4: Mexico City, Mexico

Chinese Version / 中文版本

The one day trip was very exhausting yesterday, hence I slept until 11 a.m. today and I did not want to wake up at all! The ultimate arrangement of today was to take the night bus to Oaxaca, therefore I needed to check out from the hostel before I went out today. The hostel staff told me I needed to pay for the storage for my luggage. I had never been to a hostel which required payment for storage before. They really knew how to do business! Then I went to my favorite restaurant to have pancakes for breakfast. When I wanted to take some photos of it, I realized I left the camera battery as well as my cellphone in the luggage. I had to go back to the hostel after I finished my breakfast at rocket speed. When I thought I could really go out this time, it seemed like it's going to rain in any second. As a result, I had to go back to the storage to get my umbrella again. That staff with bad attitude might think I was super annoying!

The schedule of today was to visit Frida Kahlo's museum aka The Blue House (Casa Azul), then would go to Condesa district later. Casa Azul is located near Terminal del Sur, meaning I had to take 30 minutes metro again. I already felt dizzy on the metro, after getting off the metro I had to transfer to another local bus, which made my head hurt even more! The hostel staff told me the bus would be right in front of the metro station, but I did not see any. I had no map with me and did not know where my location was, I needed to ask the local people for help in the end. Although the Mexican lady did not know which bus I should take, she was too nice to ask around for me. Eventually she took me on the bus and asked the driver to let me know the stop when I got there. In conclusion, Mexican people are really amazingly nice and friendly.

After getting off the bus, I had no clue where to begin again. I just saw a very busy market but not the blue house. Then I walked straight the road for 5 minutes and I could see the museum with a long queue outside. It was very cold and my head hurt so badly, as well as I was not allowed to take photos inside, my mood got worse at once. When I got inside, the first things I could see were paintings.  Besides the paintings of Frida Kahlo, there were many works of her husband (Diego Rivera) too. 

Inside Casa Azul I got to know more stories of Friday Kahlo, including how she met her husband, when they got married, the love affair between her husband and her sister and even the story of how they got back together in the end. Besides their relationship, I could also get to know how they helped Leon Tolstoy when he fled to Mexico and stayed at this house. Afterwards, I visited their studio on the upper floor, it was huge with various professional drawing tools. Comparing to the simple kitchen and bedrooms, it was way more beautiful.

Frida Kahlo museum (Casa Azul)

Colorful door no.

My head started to hurt again when I left Casa Azul, but I still decided to look for the nearby Leon Tolstoy's museum. The staff in Casa Azul told me I should turn left and turn left from the entrance, but it was a lie! I walked for a long while and then finally I could see the indication signs, it was actually a few more blocks away. 

When I went inside of the museum, I started firstly to visit the front room, all the information such as the documentary photos, texts and prints were tenfold more interesting than those in Casa Azul. I was so indulged in this museum and my headache was even healed without taking medicine! Then I followed the sign to the yard, there were the animal cages and cactus which raised and planted by Tolstoy. In the middle of the yard, I could see the communist stone tablet engraved with Leon Tolstoy's name. I followed the path to walk to his house. It was the house where his whole family and colleagues stayed and worked at when they fled to Mexico. Later, he was assassinated in this house. On that particular day the assassins opened fire to his house, until now many big bullet holes could still be vividly seen on the wall. It was very eerie as if I were there to witness the whole situation.

Leon trotsky museum

The animal cages in the yard

Communist stone tablet engraved with the name of Leon Trotsky 

The chair in the bedroom

 The work place

The bathroom still kept the stuff left there after the assassination

The chair in the bathroom

The study of Leon Trotsky

Bullet hole on the wall

Kitchen

The young Leon Trotsky

When I finished my museum tour of today, I then returned to the busy market and took the metro to Condesa. This new district is not close to the metro station I got off, but it is definitely newer and more tranquil than the busy Central Historico district. There are even some fashion stores for young people to shop at. 

At night I went back to my good old Centro Historico to have grilled chicken in a very dodgy place, it was DELICIOUS!!! Then I walked to Zocalo to find other street food to eat. The sky was pitch black at that moment, a street vendor offered one unknown piece of food for me, I ate it and the texture was awfully disgusting, it was most likely a piece of animal organ!!! (ewwww) At last, I bought a bag of chocolate churros to dilute the weird taste in my mouth!!!

Metro in Mexico City

 Yakult in Mexico

Condesa

Didn't know Mexican like drinking bubble tea too

Terrific grilled chicken 

The night bus to Oaxaca departed at Terminal del Este. In these few days I have already been to North, East and South station, only haven't been to the West.

Terminal del Este is conveniently close to the hostel. I bought the ticket once I arrived there and took the 12:15 a.m. bus! Goodbye to Mexico City for 2 days! Hello to Oaxaca in 6 hours!