Solo to Mexico City, Day Four

Originally published on onlyonewaytofindout.travel

Make sure you check out day one, day two, and day three.

Day four started off with more lounging around and reading. The day was setting up to be a good one - birds chirping, motorcycles ripping by, the classic cool morning without a cloud in the sky hinting at warm weather once the sun rises fully.

I went off in search of the previous place cafe I got a latte and the cookie yesterday. I walked down the block, the place was literally a block away from the airbnb, and kept walking… And walking… And I couldn’t find it. Ultimately I ended up walking up and around the block just to double check. It’s amazing how different a section of a street can look when all the shutters are pulled down and no one is out and about. I eventually concluded the place must be closed on Sundays and stopped in at another cafe that I had seen.

El 123 is one of those cafes that is less cafe and more restaurant… But yet still wants to be a cafe. I walked in and was directed to a table for breakfast. The menu I was offered was Spanish, but appeared to have some familiar looking items, such as french toast with fruit salad, waffles and the usual egg dishes. I ended up going with the enchiladas suizas, mainly because the table next me also ordered them and they looked great. I also asked an Americano and a kiwi soda.

The atmosphere was great and the seating was comfortable so I was pretty content with just hanging out. I didn’t have to wait too long for the food to show up, I could basically smell it coming as the waiter brought it over. The crispy and chewiness of the tortilla and the mild spiciness of the sauce paired with what I think was a bit of coconut milk in the cream. It had a robust flavor, but not overly complex, making it perfect for breakfast. The bill ended up being 100 Pesos, and I paid with a 200. Unfortunately the waiter came back with a handful of change to make up the difference. With that I decided to walk off the meal through the park and head back to the Airbnb to dump the excess weight now jiggling around in my pocket.

The next stop was to head to the subway and make my way down to a new neighborhood. Luckily for me there’s a Subway station about 2 blocks away. It’s almost a shame that I didn’t end up using it more, but I was more than content walking around my current neighborhoods. The station itself was fairly well signed and I’m sure it helped that I’m familiar with Google’s instructions (they read pretty much the same no matter what city you’re in), so I headed towards what I consider the downtown direction, towards Universidad.

After feeding my ticket into the machine, a process probably more familiar to old token based transit systems, I made way down the stairs and reached a relatively normal platform. It was clean and well lit and even had markers indicating where to stand and where the doors opened, something not even NYC has gotten right.

When the train arrived the first thing I noticed was how narrow it was! The second was that the doors seemingly opened right before the car fully came to a stop. I hopped on, along with a handful of other people and managed to find my way to the middle of the car. I was in for a relatively long ride. Of which - wasn’t so bad. The particular train car reminded me of the r32 cars in New York City, almost what one would consider antique, lacking modern signage and lighting. There no station announcements either. One thing I learned was that the cars do not have any AC and rely only on forced air. It was only 75 out today, but already the car was getting a little stuffy, I cant imagine what it’d be like on a hot day. Based on what I’ve read there are other newer cars in use as well, I’d be curious to see how they compare to other cities.

11 stops later I hopped out! This station was totally different, I didn’t have a chance to take many pictures but it was themed with a jungle inspiration throughout. It was pretty cool, much better than the utilitarian/barebones station I entered the system in.