This morning, I woke up at 5:30 and could NOT fall back asleep. This was partially due to heat and partially due to the rush hour noise directly outside our window. I got up around 6 and headed to the shower room. The shower was quite an adventure I must say. There was warm water which was a nice surprise, but the stall had a window open to the 8°C outside. It was quite cool in there and at one point a bee flew in through the window. Very camping vibes.
After my shower, I went up to the terrace and climbed onto the roof to watch the sunrise which was super pretty! I got cold though so quickly headed back to our room after a bit. Maman was still sleeping so I did some computer work (actually I was super productive so that was excellent). Maman got up around 8:30 and showered before we both headed up to the terrace for breakfast at 9:30.
We had forgotten that the hostel served breakfast and were told yesterday to show up between 9:30 and 10, otherwise it might be over. We sat at one of the long picnic-style tables and made ourselves instant coffee (also very camping vibes), which reminded me of dipping Velveeta toast in mocha with Grand-Maman when I was little. We were then served a beautiful breakfast with bowls of yogurt and fruit, and a fancy poached egg on toast. There was glitter and purple cheese on the eggs and I have no clue what any of it was but it was incredible.
During breakfast, we struck up a couple conversations with the people sitting near us and ended up meeting a super nice Finnish girl called Niina. She had just gotten in last night as well so didn’t have many plans for the day except walking around and exploring, which sounded great to Maman and me so we decided to explore together.
We walked around 40 mins to the historical centre and ended up at the Palacio de Bellas Artes where we wandered around the grounds a bit before heading across the street to the Casa de los Azulejos. It was beautiful, but one side was under construction, unfortunately. We then decided to head inside the Palacio Postal, it only cost $50 MXN (less than $5 CAD) and it was gorgeous! It was like a museum inside we got to see stamps from all over the world, different styles of mailboxes and even some art.
We were getting pretty hungry by the end of our walk-through so we decided to head over to a restaurant called El Cardenal Tacuba which Niina had saved in her maps before coming. We noticed an older english-speaking woman by herself when we were in line to be seated, and we ended up inviting her to join us for lunch! Her name was Margaret and she was from Winchester. The food at El Cardenal was delicious. The prices were more similar to restaurants at home, but it was so worth it. I had smoked tuna tostadas for lunch and we later shared dessert. Margaret ordered a guanábana mousse (Niina told us guanábana is a really yummy fruit and after looking it up we discovered that it’s soursop which I first tried in Dominica during my Sea|Mester trip in 2022). I got a ricotta-filled crêpe with mango and blackberry sauce, and Maman got tres leches cake with a latte. We all tried a bit of each and my favourite was definitely the crêpe, with the mousse coming in second. The tres leches cake was okay but I actually prefer the one from La Taquería back home 🤫.
After lunch, we split up from Margaret and walked to the Metropolitan Cathedral which was stunning. It was MASSIVE, with two separate naves and multiple chapels. There was some sort of event going on in the adjacent square so we couldn’t get the clearest view of the front which was a shame.
We wanted to go check out the Mercado Juarez right by our hostel before it closed at 6, so we began the 45 min walk back in that direction. We noticed that there are districts on the street where every shop seems to be selling the same thing. We walked through a street where practically everyone was selling jewelry, then there was one stretch where you could only find light fixtures, and by our hostel it seems to be industrial food processing machinery. It’s interesting and makes sense for shopping that way I guess. The market was huge but lots of stalls were already closed (we got there at 5:30) so we just walked around a bit. There were lots of stalls selling spices, produce, dried fruit, flowers, meat, and candy.
I did end up getting some amaranth bars because Soph and I used to have them in Mexico as kids but we didn’t know what they were and we’ve never found them again! They’re kind of like a puffed wheat square but less gooey and a little bit powdery (which I know sounds terrible but we love them). I paid $10 MXN (less than a dollar CAD) for both and promised Soph that Maman would take some home for her.
We were all exhausted by the time we finally got back to the hostel so we decided to meet back up for supper in a couple hours but we needed to chill first. I decided to head up to the roof a little bit and that’s where I met Dave from Sydney. We chatted for a bit and were quickly joined by a group of others, all from the UK and Australia. We watched the sunset and then Dave’s friend Bill pulled out a guitar and started playing some singalongs. The rest of the group left around 7 because they had to go see a Lucha Libre show tonight which Maman and I are doing on Friday. I stayed on the roof by myself for a little longer before heading back down to hang out with Maman in our room. I had to wake her up when it was time for supper but we didn’t have to go far, we met Niina and walked back to the same place as last night.
The food was delicious once again, I had 3 Árabes tacos, Maman had a chicken and cheese torta which was amaaazing and we helped Niina finish her al pastor and Árabes tacos because we ordered too much again, whoops.
We walked back to the hostel after supper and got ready for bed. Mom and I were both in bed when someone knocked on our door. I had no clue who it could be so I waited a minute and waited until they knocked again to go open the door. It was Dave and Josh from the roof earlier, they had been looking for Bill and got confused about which room was which. When they saw me they said “Oh my god we’re so sorry Kat! We were looking for Bill, we’ve lost a friend so you can come fill the quota” and proceeded to try to convince me to go out with them. They were persistent but I was exhausted so I said no thanks, maybe tomorrow but it was a funny interaction. Maman and I had a little laugh about it before going to sleep.
And that’s a wrap on our first full day in Mexico!
2 responses to “Day 2 | Wandering Around”
Wonderful day! Do they have ‘free’ walking tours?
They do! We actually almost did one today but the route was very similar to what we did ourselves so we walked elsewhere instead!