Despite having travelled for over 15 hours and having a nightmare of a time at the car rental place just the day before, we were up bright and early. It’s funny how that works. You can travel an ungodly amount of hours, go to bed after 3 am, but still somehow awake just after the sun does. Jet lag’s a bisch.
Somehow, even though the blinds were closed, our room was alarmingly bright. Before long the possibility of continuing to sleep was all, but impossible. Therefore, we got up, took turns in the shower and ran out to the taco place we had found the night before. After once again shovelling food into our face holes, we stopped in at a convenience store to grab some water.
However, while we were still at the taco place, we met up with this local. He used to live in the area but had since moved to the other side of Mexico City. We spent some time chatting with this guy. You know, to get advice on what to see you while we were here, where to eat, etc, etc. His response? “You found it! This is the place to eat. Even though I moved to the other side of Mexico City, I still drive all the way back to eat at this place! It is the best place in all of Mexico City.”
After having a fantastic conversation with this dude and picking some stuff up from the convenience store, we headed back to the hostel to change rooms and relax. Get rid of the jet lag and whatnot.
Mexico City
After switching over to a dorm, we spent the next few hours relaxing on the rooftop patio. I spend some time exploring the hostel, seeing all the various “amenities” it had. The place was actually really nice, but it offered a “gym” that was really just a room with one of those exercise balls and a bench press. I don’t even remember really seeing any weights for the bench press, and the room seemed to primarily be used for luggage storage.
After those few hours, Lisa and I decided to make our way into downtown. So we walked the streets of downtown for a couple of hours, looking at the outside of museums, popping into churches, and just kind of taking in the city as people prepared for Mexican Independence Day.
We grabbed a quick bite to eat from a street vendor…you guessed it, more tacos. Now don’t get me wrong, these tacos were good, but they had nothing on the place that we had been the night before and that morning. The place that we thought was named “La Terrazza” was, after all, recommended to us as the best place for tacos in Mexico City.
It was fascinating! In the main square, there was so much going on. Two guys were having a rap battle, of which neither of us could understand, but amusing to watch nonetheless. There were buskers, skateboarders, a bunch of old people dancing…there was so much going on and so much to do that it was just straight overwhelming.
After a few hours of travelling the town, we decided to head back to the hostel. It was starting to get a little bit dark and the jet lag was wearing on us, so we headed back.
What Do You Do When You Can’t Sleep?
Upon arriving back at the hospital, there wasn’t much going on. Lisa decided on her second nap for the day, nap probably should be in quotation marks. I went up and hung out on the roof. Up there was a small bar, tables spread around, a couple of hammocks, some comfy pillows… Overall, just a really chill vibe.
An hour or so later, Lisa got up from her nap, and we went out again. Touring the city a little more until it got dark, at which point we came back. See, the hostel was not in the best neighbourhood, so we didn’t want to get back too late. Yet, even though it was a bad neighbourhood, we felt pretty safe. Once we were there we stopped, ordered a pizza from a nearby place, and I waited for it well Lisa went in did… I don’t know what.
Finally, the pizza was ready. So I paid, headed back to the hostel, and went back up to the patio where the night had livened up a little bit. People were sitting around drinking and Lisa had made some friends. So I sat and ate some of the pizza, making sure to leave some for Lisa, and did some work stuff. After a little while, Lisa joined me and immediately ate half the pizza. Like, I’m not sure if she breathed while she was eating. There was half a pizza there, I looked away for a second, looked back, and it was gone. I hadn’t realized how hungry my wife was.
So, finish up some of the work I needed to do. Once done, we drank a bit, socialized a bit and retired. We were still tired. The journey had really been rough on us.
