walking around the city

disclaimer: interfecto spelling and grammar.
I love this city! This city has been growing on me day by day! It is one of the biggest cities I have been in..from how I feel at least. Such a metropolitan city. Thid being my last full day here, I went to roam around the colonias la Roma, condesa y zona rosa. I walked everywhere, and loved la Roma! If I had to pick a place to live in Mexico city, I would pick it! Such a cute charming and friendly neighborhood area. The archticture is inspired by Rome, there was this little plaza with michaelangelo statue in a fountain! And many other such parks, little plazas with fountains. I stopped and chilled at each one I encountered. I was sitting at one such plaza, and this girl came up to me and asked me to be an extra in a movie they were filming. My first time as an extra..just sitting in the background on the fountain :) then, another lady came up to me asked to interview me in Spanish. I was like what is happening here. This must be a famous video recording area or something. Anyway I was like no habla mucho espanol. Lo siento. Only if my Spanish was perfect, I would have agreed to the interview!! The camera crew went and interviewed someone eelse. I watched and took a pic of them instead! Then I walked and walked some more. Founf this lovely park. I love parks and swinging. I swinged for half hr relaxing and watching cute dogs and little kids. Then got sudden motion sickness feeling of being nauseated. I decided to stop and then rest. Headed to find condesa after that! This area was really fancy and liberal!! The rype of restaurants and shops, even people reflect that. Had lunch at a very eco friendly place..will add more pics and details later if I have time. Then headed to zona rosa. Found a vegetarian place..yug vegetariana. Everything was vegetarian!!! And they had Mexican dishes!!! I was ecstatic. I have pico de gallo-so spicy. But here they put sugar shaker everywhere instead of salt and pepper. Comes handy! Lovely waiter. He was so sweet. Aww so touched by kindness of others. As I was heading back, I realized I lost my trvel guide. I wanted to confirm the direction with the witer. Then this nice lady overheard me ask, and she pulled out her phone nd google maps. She helped me confirm the direction I need to goin. How kind!! Then I went back to the ice cream shop I thought I might have left the travel guide with the map in, but it must have closed since I did not see it. Just walked back down reforma..one of the largest avenues in the city! Long walk but good exercise and people watching. So many people ride bikes, even in business suites. I am impressed. Torow, just want to chill. Park or ride bike may bem I might head to that vegetarian place if have time, but need to catch my flight too! Buneos noches.

Each new place is like an added tune to the melody of life creating one fine master piece.  once bit by the travel bug, the itch to break away and make a new place your new home and create a new lifestyle never leaves. I have to come back and see different parts of Mexico en el future cuando tiene mas tiempo. Pero por ahora, make the most of the last few horas left here.

..going to go to that awesome vegetarian restaurant again and stuff my face. :)

¨¨manzil jo rahi dundh lete hai..raste magar kho jaate hai¨ (The traveller finds the destination, but the roads get lost)

Insurgentes metro station circle..

Cuidad es muy grande

Buenas dias amigos! Here I am chilling with a cup of coffee watching comedy central en espanol. I came downstairs with my leftover pasta from last night to warm up and have I

it for breakfast, but then I saw one of the girls watching The Nanny.  I hadn't seen that show in ages!! So grabbed coffee, and the lovely ladies in the kitchen who cook breakfast made fresh juice! I lobe their freshly made fruit juice! They are so sweet. The people here are so incredibely kind and nice. Genuinely nice. Yesterday, I was trying to walk to chapultepac park and museo de anthropologia. This nice kind young woman was so helpful. I wanted to walk the whole way, like 40 min walk, but she wanted to help me get a bus. I was touched by hwr kindness, so I took the bus, then walked a lot still! I love places were you can walk. Tored of cars. I prefer walking, riding bikes, or public transport. So I went to the anthropology museum. It is so large and has wonderful artifacts!! I love history but get tired of museums as my brain gets fatigues after a while. Same thing happened, but enjoyed the museum. It is truly spectacular. I love the architecture here! How innovate, sunstainable, and creative. Even the tiniest things as the museum were creative. The flush for the toilet was a foot press! How sanitary! The buses say para una cuidad verde! (Or something like that!) So many initiatives for environmental sustainability, public health, and preserving history and culture through major excavation projects. I had also checked out Templo Mayor in Zacolo area yesterday. It is amazing how well archeologists have preserved theseplaces or found the many layers in the first place! Saw the palacio nacional in zacolo as well. I dont care fot palaces or govt. Buildings though, although the flag in front of it was marvelous. I felt pride for this beautiful city and country looking at it. It is humongous! The Capultepec park is also amazing! There is a zoo, lakes, food carts, so much nature and a great place to hang out. Anyway, I dont have wifi outside because I cant figure out how to use the city public wifi, and my phone is strange. Well, after coming to hostel to rest and charge my phone, I headed out to look for dinner. I searched for vegetarian restaurants but they all were too far to walk at night when i was half sleepy and it was windy. I headed out to just see whats on the street as I walk, but then a rally of people crowded. Looked liked a protest or something, but not sure. Then it was crazy windy, so I went to one of the nearby restaurants. It was Italian, but at this point, I just wanted to eat something healthy and filling. I had papas fritas and a cheese quesadilla for lunch at the park (so unhealthy!). I justwanted something, anything at that time though!  Well this Italian place was pleasantly surprising. The outdoor sitting was nice. I loved the soup and pasta. It was bettwr than food I had in Italy last year (IMO). Mexico city is surprising me everyday. It is so large and has so many different neighborhoods, architecture, kind people, and everything a big city should have!! Well today, off to explore this hip part of town were creative people live apparently. Heard so many nice things about It. Haha the Goldbergs is on TV now in the lounge.. I really should get going if I want to walk all the way! May be i might rent a bike! I love thesr rent a bike stands everywhere! Ahh i could just move here!

Third day

Hola amigos! Estoy muy cansada. I am very tired. I guess my thighs are still sore from the pyramids yesterday. Today was wonderful. Travelling is such a joy. The people you meet and stories you share are incredible. Makes you realize that there is so much more to life than living in a box. Life is meant to live. So over breakfast at the hostel, met some cool people from different corners of the world. Funny how those from U.S. are the ones with least amount of days travelling compared to all of the other travellers/backpackers I meet from across the world. No surprise there though. So there was this girl in my hostel who was planning on going to Guatemala, village to village, another girl going to Columbia after here, a guy at the end of his trip, another guy going across South America. Every one is on these long adventures. Last year in Europe, I did that, city to city, cohntry to country in matter of days. This time, one city only. Time constraints, and plus la cuidad de Mexico es muy grande y necesita mas dias. Mexico city is very large and need more days, so 6 days es todo aqui (is all here). Even then, I won't see all there is to see. I have learned to take it slow and not rush to every museum or monument. I have top picks that interest me, and try to get rest as well. It is my vacation time afterall. This morning, maroon 5, J. Lo, Vannesa Carlton (last name?) Were playing in the common area downstairs. Good ol music. Anyway, saw el.museo de Frieda Kahlo today in Coyoahcan (sp?) Her house is the museum and its so lovely. The architecture, decoration, natural vibe to it... just made me want to either nap in the garden or paint! She is a amazing.. What a lady! All that she endured, yet shined through. Really admire her more after learning more about her. I wish I had my student ID for discount. In Europe, i got by just telling them I am a student and left my ID at home. Did not work here. Then, we went to this mercado (market) area that was very nice. Ton of shops and food places...had tamale for the first time. So good! Now I have to have it again! Then, walked forever trying to find the metro station to get back. Needed to relax those legs.. then I wanted to go to centro historico or museo de anthropologia but the museums are mostly all business hrs so they were closing. I decided to go find a restaurant to eat at and chill in the park. Walked around the park and soaked in the rain but loved it. Wish we had parks that felt safe at night. This park here was filled with people, and it was beautiful. There is this famous fine arts palace that's next to it, but I was more drawn toward watching the kids play under the statues!! Fancy things don't interest me as much. Kids on the other hand, catch my eye everywhere. I am lucky to be able to be here. So grateful!! Someday, I want to backpack through all of Mexico, central America, and South America. ..and all of India. The list goes on..but it is possible. Once your mind is open, it cannot be closed. You know the possibilities, then si se puede! Yes you can! ... (some of you may recognize this movie peference! ) but remember, in life, if you set your mind to something, and work hard, todo es possible. Tell yourself, si se puede! :) oh and I had tacos from taco carts! So good but so.picante(spicy)! Took some re wording and failed attempts to try to get the food cart owner to make them vegetarian. After some weird looks from first cart, the second one was a success! He understood and politely and kindly served the tortillas, and I put the ingridients I wanted on them! Remember, never apologize for being yourself. No one is perfect, and times like these, when there are language barriers, make you realize kindness is a universal language and you can only try. 

Segundo Dia

Second day in Mexico=awesome! Well, its raining on and off now with occasional thunder. I kind of want to go walk in the rain. I didn't bring an umbrella as my backpack was too small to fit it. I am too economical to buy a new umbrella when there are plenty en mi casa en estados unidos. Lluvia es muy bonita a veces, pero  it is just so comfy relaxing in my hostel after all that piramides climbing. So to talk about my day, after a much needed good night sleep, woke up realizing I really am in Mexico city! Then, got ready and headed outdoors for an early morning walk. Found this cute little park and walked around. So pretty. People were exercising and just chilling. This city has so many parks, public transportation, I love it! 

Anyway, walked back to hostel for free breakfast. Sweetest ladies in the kitchen. They were adorable. I tried to talk to them. They made me smile. Anyway, as I was finishing jugo, frutas frescas, pancakes, cafe, the tour guy came. Went on a tour of some places in the city, villa de Guadalupe, santiago, and lastly, las piremides. We stopped at this place in teotihuacan before reaching the piramides. The place had art work and cactuses from the village and a man explained to us the significance befind his cactus plant and artwork, volcano stones. Nature can be so medicinal or therapeutic. Would love to learn.more about the benifits of these plants someday. Well, then as expected, the shop guide person tried to talk us into buying things. I believe in memories as suveniors, not expensive items. So I was like: "estoy una estudiante, paga mi tuition la semana pasada, no quiero mas dinero." I don't.fall for sweet talk from sales people. Then this kind lady tried to sell me this snack made with peanut and rice (in Gujarati/India, we call it chicki). I love chicki and it was about time I had some energy, so I bargained the price down. She was ripping the other tourists off, but I was like "no. Es mucho mas." Saved 10 pesos. Then, we headed to the pyramids. So much fun!!! Muy divertido!! Me encanta caminar mucho. Climbing them was fun too. Even ninos pequenos( little kids) were climbing! Climbing the piramide de la luna was not as exhausting as the piremida del sol, but Good work out and felt nice to soak up the Sun while being in such a historically significant area. I wish I could remember more about the history behind anctient civilizations from old spanish classes. Its ok I am trying to learn and remember more. On a side note, I love barhaining. So my bag broke apart while climbing pyramids-no surprise there! It was half ripped to start with. I have been using it since India trip 2012. Well the safety pin only holds it together so much, so the rest ripped. Good thing I had my oodhni (scarf) to tie it with until I got to puetra salida ( exit gate). I baught a new bag after bargaining the price.  There is a limit though because people have to make a living off of these profits too! After that, we stopped at this road side restaurante. Had good food with view of piremida del sol. The staff was so sweet. By this time, I was exhausted and ready to be back at the hostel. On the car ride, we passed by areas of town on the outskirts of the city that were not as fancy as the mexico city i had seen so far. People were.living in houses on govt. Property on hillsides which flood a lot during monsoon/rainy months. Reminded me so much of India, and Honduras even. Especially Ahmedabad because of the contrast between highly developed areas and not as fancy places. It makes me frustrated when society is so divided. So what if its govt land?! The people are citizens of the nation, or at least human beings who deserve proper housing. Money shouldn't define how someone is treated. Some people happen to be born into priviledgepriviledged.families and others, not so.much. Many people work very hard in life to get out of economical troubles and still cannot own banglows. I know so many immigrant families from many different countries including mexico, had friends from all over the world as a child and know their struggle all too well. Anyway, got too serious in.my head. Well, may be I will just chill at the hostel and hit the different places tomorow. I could study some espanol now or go walk in the rain and get dinner.

park

park

park

free breakfast-muy delicioso

antient ruins

Add caption

the houses were so cute-lovely architecture

this was appealing to me

paper pealed from cactus-antient civilization and people from the village used this as first paper or plastic

also used this to drink things out of

making art work from volcanic stone reflecting traditions

from top of the pyramid of the moon

view of te pyramid of the sun from the top of the pyramid of the moon

catching a breath and the stunning view down below from top of the pyramid of the sun

in the village of   Teōtīhuacān

villages or areas that reminded me of India..