Solo to Mexico City, Day Two

Originally published on onlyonewaytofindout.travel

Well last night was a little rough. This Airbnb is definitely on the lacking side of sound proofing. Being in the city it was the typical sirens and cars honking but around 6 am the roosters and dogs started waking up – and the neighborhood around them.

My main goals for the day included getting breakfast at a bakery in the Roma neighborhood, checking out Bosque de Chapultepec, a park with numerous museums, and visiting the National Museum of Anthropology.

After finally getting going I started heading down to the South, to a neighborhood called Roma. My destination was a bakery that was highly rated. About a 30 minute walk and roughly on the way to the park. Unfortunately when I reached the bakery I found a line out the door with even more people waiting on the benches close by. Starting to get pretty hungry and not wanting to deal with figuring out the flow of the crowd I continued on down the block.

It turns out the cafe I found was a vegetarian place – this isn’t the first time that this has happened – but I went with it anyways. After carefully translating one of the items to eggs, tortillas, mole I placed my order. The food was delicious. And the atmosphere was perfect.

On to the park. My route took me past a hospital and a small business area. Nearing the park it began to feel like the area outside of the London Science Museum, or even the Upper West Side in New York City.

The first stop in the park was a large fountain below Chapultepec Castle and National Museum of History. I followed the paths within the park every which direction – past a botanical garden, some food vendors, and down past the lake and back up. Overall I was very impressed. While not a big park, it had all the amenities you’d normally expect including paddle boats.

Satisfied with the park I made my way to the museum and bought my ticket. Only about $5. Walking through the entrance way the first thing visitors see and experience is the massive courtyard with each exhibit tucked away along the borders. Starting to the right, you’re lead through many individual halls linked together through either geography, time period, or culture. Many of the halls have back doors and encourage visitors to step outside to further explore.

One thing I found interesting was the lack of English signage. The major signs explaining key pieces of exhibits had English portions, as well as some English closed captioning on the videos, but individual artifacts only had Spanish explanations. Personally I was ok with it – they gave me a chance to parse through and try to understand based on context.

After completing the loop around the museum I grabbed a cup of coffee from the cafe. At this point I was getting hungry, and a little tired. I passed an intriguing cafeteria style restaurant and bumbled through the ordering process once again.

Back at the Airbnb it was time to rest for a bit and figure out dinner. During this time I did some research on food tours in the area and settled on one for the next morning.

Not quite ready to eat yet, but feeling ready to head back out I grabbed my things and walked back up to the nearby park. Today it was packed with various vendors selling clothing, cheap handbags and wallets, as well as some decent looking food. It felt like a totally different park than when I was there previously.

For dinner I opted to try the restaurant across the street from my Airbnb. I got steak with Mole and sweet potatoes. For a drink I had gotten a gin and strawberry lime juice. Overall it was pretty good, and more importantly a break from the typical street food that I’ve been eating.

Day two. Complete.