Publicado: 23.07.2019
I had already been in Mexico City after my 26-hour flight from Australia. Due to my jet lag and because the city is just so unbelievably huge, we hadn't really seen much in the three days. Now we were there for the second time on the weekend. Time to summarize my experiences. :)
On Friday to Saturday we stayed in an Airbnb in the popular neighborhood of 'La Condesa'. Unfortunately, none of Julio's friends were in town and we were a bit too tired to go out, so we ended the evening with some Churros at the famous 'El Moro'.
On Saturday we visited the Chapultepec Castle, located on the top of the park of the same name, the largest urban park in all of the Americas. Now we knew where all the tourists were. In the historic center, which we had visited shortly after my arrival in Mexico, we had surprisingly seen almost no tourists.
Unfortunately, we didn't have much time left to explore Chapultepec, as we were invited to a family birthday party in the afternoon. Julio's Aunt Ivonne, with whom we could stay again, picked us up by car from Chapultepec. The birthday party was also in CDMX, and yet we were about 1 hour away by car. The 20 million inhabitant city is just so incredibly huge... Finally arrived, we spent a fun afternoon and evening with UNO, Tequila, funny videos from previous family celebrations, and Mexican 'Postre'.
On Sunday, we had breakfast together with Julio's Aunt Ivonne and cousin Ingrid in a vegetarian restaurant. Since it was Sunday, there was even a buffet for 125 pesos (about 6 euros). For the first time, I could eat everything without having to ask what's without meat in it :)
Afterwards, we finally came to Mexico's most important monument, the Ángel de la Independencia, which I had only seen from a distance before. What I particularly liked was that the Paseo de la Reforma, the most famous street in the city center, is only open to cyclists on Sundays and it had a completely different atmosphere without traffic noise and with open-air dance shows.
Then we spent most of the day on the 'Turibus', the tourist bus, which you know from all major cities. Normally, I'm not a fan of these tourist buses, but in Mexico City, this is really the best way to see many sights and places in the limited time available. And 180 pesos (about 9 euros) for a day ticket, which allows you to ride on all lines, is really a cheap price.
We made a stop in Coyoacan, where we initially wanted to visit the Frida Kahlo Museum. After waiting in line for half an hour, we found out that we should have bought the tickets online beforehand. Well, you can either get annoyed.... or simply watch the colorful activity in the historic center of Coyoacan from a café, which we did.
In summary, I can say that I still haven't seen more than a small part of the city and the city is too big for me. As for safety, I felt very safe the whole time because of my male companion. But you have to be careful, carry your valuables invisibly on your body... and allow a lot of time to get from A to B!