It's been a crazy four days and nights in mehico city - and it definitely exceeded my expectations! Our mehicano adventure continues though, as we head to Puebla, 2 hrs south east of Mexico city...
Am on the bus which happens to have wifi and have just realized that my last two posts speak only of Mexico city's awesome nightlife...and that definitely does not do Maya and I justice as queen sight-seers...
I won't bore you with museum details, but a few of the highlights we agreed really made our stay in Mexico city aside from the nights out on the town w our local amigos:
Palacio National - this enormous and very old building in the centro historico had a fantastic museum about mexicos fascinating history and even included a tour through the presidents offices. It also has a huge mural by famous Mexican Revolutionry artist Diego rivero.
Trotsky museum - the Russian revolutionary figure sought exile in mehico and this museum was in his house, where he was eventually assassinated. Great history lesson here!
Frida kahlo's house - interesting but sad life, amazing art.
Coyoacan - beautiful and leafy area of the city filled with cute cafes and quite bohemian, yummy halaros (ice cream).
San Angel - another chilled out area of the city, lots of cafes and restaurants, great art and handicraft markets on the weekends.
Anthropology museum - locals are very proud of this and it is one of the world's biggest collections, learnt alot about mexicos ancient civilizations, history and culture - the Aztec and Mayan groups were definitely the most interesting (think human sacrifices - Indiana Jones style!!)
Pictures of mehico city adventures to follow soon!!
LiZZie
xx
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
SpeakEasy
SpeakEasy: an establishment that illegally sold alcoholic beverages during a period in the United States history known as the Prohibition (from 1920-1933).
I first heard this term when I was studying on exchange in the United States. It is basically an underground bar or party, that is technically illegal because it sells alcohol without a commercial license. Although it refers to a past 'movement', some of these establishments have been known to pop up today as an alternative to the usual bar scene.
Friends of friends connections to a musician type led us to a SpeakEasy here last night in Mehico City...we arrived at the address - an old colonial style terrace house in a trendy neighbourhood called La Roma...and stepped inside to a private house party with a fully serviced bar, wait staff and a dj...the crowd was well-heeled to say the least but our mehicano amigos welcomed us with open arms. The house was beautiful and many mojitoes later we stumbled out to a very cool nightclub nearby. All in all - partying with locals is definitely the way to go...and Mexico city has an awesome night life!!
LiZZie
xx
I first heard this term when I was studying on exchange in the United States. It is basically an underground bar or party, that is technically illegal because it sells alcohol without a commercial license. Although it refers to a past 'movement', some of these establishments have been known to pop up today as an alternative to the usual bar scene.
Friends of friends connections to a musician type led us to a SpeakEasy here last night in Mehico City...we arrived at the address - an old colonial style terrace house in a trendy neighbourhood called La Roma...and stepped inside to a private house party with a fully serviced bar, wait staff and a dj...the crowd was well-heeled to say the least but our mehicano amigos welcomed us with open arms. The house was beautiful and many mojitoes later we stumbled out to a very cool nightclub nearby. All in all - partying with locals is definitely the way to go...and Mexico city has an awesome night life!!
LiZZie
xx
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Mescal and salsa in Mehico City!
After a long day of sightseeing, Maya and I were excited to hit the town with our local amigo Hector!! A friend of Georgie's from her exchange in Sweden, Hector kindly picked us up from our hostel. As good student backpackers tho, we had been pre-drinking for quite some time (including a free tequila 'welcome to mehico' shot in our local supermarket) before Hector arrived - and losing track of time we ended up having to run around the corner to where we had agreed to meet him...as we ran up the street, some little Mexicano did the usual 'holaaaaa' to which I yelled 'no gracias' and instead ran to a big red ute which I assured Maya was probably the right car - unfortunately the ute was empty, and the little Mexicano that i had so politely greeted was in fact, Hector!!
Despite the rough start, the night definitely took a turn for the best! Hector took us out to the bar district, called La Condesa and we bar-hopped into the wee hours of the morning...
We were introduced to Mexican's drink of choice - mezcal...which is a disgusting spirit much like tequila but stronger - they sip the shot while drinking a beer, which to me just drew out the painful process of downing the awful substance!!
Then later in the night (after a few mezcals I must admit) we tried our hand at salsa!! Maya used to dance, so she was pretty profesh! I on the other hand, was hopeless - but that didn't deter an old Mexican man, at least 60 yrs old and with one of those crazy Mexican moustaches that curls up at the ends, attempting to teach me in the middle of the club for a good 15 minutes! While I enjoyed the lesson (he was actually really good) my salsa skills remained nonexistent and my face had been spiked by my teacher's moustache ends a few too many times for my liking!
It was a great night and we loved seeing the local bars... we were very thankful to our guide Hector who unfortunately had to get up for work again just a few hours after dropping us home!! One thing is for sure - Mexicans party crazy!!
LiZZie
xx
Despite the rough start, the night definitely took a turn for the best! Hector took us out to the bar district, called La Condesa and we bar-hopped into the wee hours of the morning...
We were introduced to Mexican's drink of choice - mezcal...which is a disgusting spirit much like tequila but stronger - they sip the shot while drinking a beer, which to me just drew out the painful process of downing the awful substance!!
Then later in the night (after a few mezcals I must admit) we tried our hand at salsa!! Maya used to dance, so she was pretty profesh! I on the other hand, was hopeless - but that didn't deter an old Mexican man, at least 60 yrs old and with one of those crazy Mexican moustaches that curls up at the ends, attempting to teach me in the middle of the club for a good 15 minutes! While I enjoyed the lesson (he was actually really good) my salsa skills remained nonexistent and my face had been spiked by my teacher's moustache ends a few too many times for my liking!
It was a great night and we loved seeing the local bars... we were very thankful to our guide Hector who unfortunately had to get up for work again just a few hours after dropping us home!! One thing is for sure - Mexicans party crazy!!
LiZZie
xx
Taxco - photos!
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| Taxco - very picturesque town sprawling across the hillside... |
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| Very hilly!! |
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| Quesadillas in the market! |
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| The streets are very windy and narrow... |
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| Can cause a problem when you need to back and fill just to get around the tight corner!! haha There are heaps of white VW bugs too - they are the towns cabs! |
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| Festival of the Music in the towns central plaza - Maya asked to salsa with the locals! |
Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende...pics!
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| Beautiful Guanajuato |
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| Guanajuato is famous for its traditionally Mehicano multi-coloured buildings! |
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| Narrow winding cobblestone alleyways!! |
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| Tortilla soup - my favourite dish so far! |
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| Festival for the anniversary of Mehicano Revolution |
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| San Miguel de Allende |
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| Typical Mehicano in San Miguel |
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| San Miguel de Allende |
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| Mexican fascination for the dead - these skeletons are common for the Festival of the Dead! |
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Jogging in Mehico City!
After a restrained night on the town last night, I managed to hit the pavement this morning for a light jog around the central historic area of mehico city!
Jogging in foreign countries/cities is a bit of a favourite past time of mine - even tho most people insist that I should learn to relax when I'm o/s, running is relaxing for me and I love to jog around new places when I'm travelling!
It is a great chance to explore new areas off the sightseeing map and see some of the local life before the day really gets going!
This morning, there were street stalls serving the breakfast trade, markets setting up in the big Alameda Park, tortillerias churning out hot fresh tortillas with customers picking them up by the dozen, and most randomnly about 25 riot policia (that look more like the swat teams of the US!) catching up on lost zzz's in the park - literally all slumped asleep w their riot shields and huge gear at their feet (took me somewhat by surprise!)...
As expected I got lots of encouragement by the mehicano men - whistling and jeering me along the way...in fairness - don't think many mehicano women jog in the streets, and my electric blue running shorts probably don't help either!!
Not to worry - had a lovely time and now ready for a big day of sightseeing ahead!!
LiZZie
xx
Jogging in foreign countries/cities is a bit of a favourite past time of mine - even tho most people insist that I should learn to relax when I'm o/s, running is relaxing for me and I love to jog around new places when I'm travelling!
It is a great chance to explore new areas off the sightseeing map and see some of the local life before the day really gets going!
This morning, there were street stalls serving the breakfast trade, markets setting up in the big Alameda Park, tortillerias churning out hot fresh tortillas with customers picking them up by the dozen, and most randomnly about 25 riot policia (that look more like the swat teams of the US!) catching up on lost zzz's in the park - literally all slumped asleep w their riot shields and huge gear at their feet (took me somewhat by surprise!)...
As expected I got lots of encouragement by the mehicano men - whistling and jeering me along the way...in fairness - don't think many mehicano women jog in the streets, and my electric blue running shorts probably don't help either!!
Not to worry - had a lovely time and now ready for a big day of sightseeing ahead!!
LiZZie
xx
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Arrival of Maya and onto Taxco!
Maya arrived bright and early in Mexico on Monday morning!!
Our rendez vous was incredibly excited, high pitched and loud for 6am in Mexico city!!
She was in good form and so we headed straight out to Taxco, for a bit more of a relaxing couple of days rather than the hardcore sightseeing we have planned for Mexico city...
Taxco is a beautiful silver town that is about 2.5 hrs south-west of Mexico city - it is very picturesque, sprawling across a hill and again full of narrow, twisting cobblestone streets! The town is very hilly, and consequently I now have buns of steel!!! The hills also mean there are heaps of local taxis to help people get around...all old fashioned white volkswagon bugs!! The buldings are all white, so it looked quite 'Greece' too.
The town is famous for it's silver, and silver shops are everywhere!! I am proud to say that I was very restrained!! Despite it's big reputation tho, there were hardly any other tourists - apparently the tourism has taken a hit after all the drug violence recently...
Taxco has a big fresh food market, where we had a few meals - delish fresh fruit, fresh-squeezed oj for $1, and some quesadillas for 80c too! Our only negative was the Mexican attempt at a coffee frappucino this morning - tasted like nail polish remover?? Epic fail.
It has been getting very warm here, which is lovely - except for the sleazey stares and 'hola chicitas' that we keep getting from all the Mexican men - swear they are undressing us with their eyes!!! Not sure if it is pasty limbs, bohemoth-like height (compared to them!) or perhaps too revealing clothes (not fair bc they are all in jeans and jumpers!)...
Gotta run, we are headed back to the big smoke soon!
LiZZie
xx
Our rendez vous was incredibly excited, high pitched and loud for 6am in Mexico city!!
She was in good form and so we headed straight out to Taxco, for a bit more of a relaxing couple of days rather than the hardcore sightseeing we have planned for Mexico city...
Taxco is a beautiful silver town that is about 2.5 hrs south-west of Mexico city - it is very picturesque, sprawling across a hill and again full of narrow, twisting cobblestone streets! The town is very hilly, and consequently I now have buns of steel!!! The hills also mean there are heaps of local taxis to help people get around...all old fashioned white volkswagon bugs!! The buldings are all white, so it looked quite 'Greece' too.
The town is famous for it's silver, and silver shops are everywhere!! I am proud to say that I was very restrained!! Despite it's big reputation tho, there were hardly any other tourists - apparently the tourism has taken a hit after all the drug violence recently...
Taxco has a big fresh food market, where we had a few meals - delish fresh fruit, fresh-squeezed oj for $1, and some quesadillas for 80c too! Our only negative was the Mexican attempt at a coffee frappucino this morning - tasted like nail polish remover?? Epic fail.
It has been getting very warm here, which is lovely - except for the sleazey stares and 'hola chicitas' that we keep getting from all the Mexican men - swear they are undressing us with their eyes!!! Not sure if it is pasty limbs, bohemoth-like height (compared to them!) or perhaps too revealing clothes (not fair bc they are all in jeans and jumpers!)...
Gotta run, we are headed back to the big smoke soon!
LiZZie
xx
Monday, November 22, 2010
San Miguel de Allende
Pronounced: San Migelle day Ayenday
Defintion: colonial city in Mexico that has become a major base for American retirees ('gringos').
San Miguel de Allende...beautiful name, beautiful city - but depressigly westernized and now a tourist/expat hot spot!!
The city is preserved much like Guanajuato, so is beautiful to walk around - but less authentically Mehicano, and more like Sovereign Hill (set up for Tourists and filled w shops,
for tourists!) It is amazingly westernized - this does bring some amazing looking restaurants (beyond my bujet to actually try of course!) it does mean that we seriously had to hunt to find somewhere to eat that was actually Mexican (instead we found lots of Italian, even argentine Italian and French too!)...and our final, exasperted choice turned out to be very proudly owned by 'Fannie and Dan' - have you ever heard of two less Mehicano sounding names before?!! That said, the chicken burritoes were truly amazing! Went for a jog in the morning and it turns out that most of the expats actually live in gated communities, some of
the houses were pretty impressive!!
Hostel was average - shared a room amongst others with a 50+ yr old American woman who was visiting to learn sculpture - apparently one of her life long dreams...must admit I definitely could not see my own Cazi doing such a thing!! I think her loyalties lie well and truly with the five star types rather than at Hostal Alcatraz!!
Returned to Mehico City tonight (Bon voyage to my San Fran friend) and very excited to meet up w my new travel buddy Maya! Unfort my planned bus was full when I turned up, so had to buy a ticket for the 'economie' bus service - never a good thing!! Epic milk run!!! We picked up and dropped off countless randoms, literally from the side of the hwy (as you do in Mexico)... 5 hrs later - I had watched three movies, all in espanol (comprehension levels next to zero!!). And finallllly arrived back in the big smoke - nervously arranged a cab (am somewhat paranoid w my increasingly valuable pack, due to certain shopping forays!!) only to be told that the cab couldn't enter the street of my hostel and I would have to walk...?!!
Three blocks of darkness in mehico city walking solo is not exactly an appealing thought - despite my attempts to convince the cabbie - 'no quiero caminar solo por favor!!!', I was made to walk nonetheless!! Thankfully there were plenty of people around - but I still half ran down the road, looking like a right loony in my technicoloured maxi dress, flip flops and paranoia-eyes inspecting every dark shadow!!
Ahhh such are the highs and lows of backpacking!!
Be in touch again soon and apologies for the excessive post - can't sleep!!
LiZZie
xx
Defintion: colonial city in Mexico that has become a major base for American retirees ('gringos').
San Miguel de Allende...beautiful name, beautiful city - but depressigly westernized and now a tourist/expat hot spot!!
The city is preserved much like Guanajuato, so is beautiful to walk around - but less authentically Mehicano, and more like Sovereign Hill (set up for Tourists and filled w shops,
for tourists!) It is amazingly westernized - this does bring some amazing looking restaurants (beyond my bujet to actually try of course!) it does mean that we seriously had to hunt to find somewhere to eat that was actually Mexican (instead we found lots of Italian, even argentine Italian and French too!)...and our final, exasperted choice turned out to be very proudly owned by 'Fannie and Dan' - have you ever heard of two less Mehicano sounding names before?!! That said, the chicken burritoes were truly amazing! Went for a jog in the morning and it turns out that most of the expats actually live in gated communities, some of
the houses were pretty impressive!!
Hostel was average - shared a room amongst others with a 50+ yr old American woman who was visiting to learn sculpture - apparently one of her life long dreams...must admit I definitely could not see my own Cazi doing such a thing!! I think her loyalties lie well and truly with the five star types rather than at Hostal Alcatraz!!
Returned to Mehico City tonight (Bon voyage to my San Fran friend) and very excited to meet up w my new travel buddy Maya! Unfort my planned bus was full when I turned up, so had to buy a ticket for the 'economie' bus service - never a good thing!! Epic milk run!!! We picked up and dropped off countless randoms, literally from the side of the hwy (as you do in Mexico)... 5 hrs later - I had watched three movies, all in espanol (comprehension levels next to zero!!). And finallllly arrived back in the big smoke - nervously arranged a cab (am somewhat paranoid w my increasingly valuable pack, due to certain shopping forays!!) only to be told that the cab couldn't enter the street of my hostel and I would have to walk...?!!
Three blocks of darkness in mehico city walking solo is not exactly an appealing thought - despite my attempts to convince the cabbie - 'no quiero caminar solo por favor!!!', I was made to walk nonetheless!! Thankfully there were plenty of people around - but I still half ran down the road, looking like a right loony in my technicoloured maxi dress, flip flops and paranoia-eyes inspecting every dark shadow!!
Ahhh such are the highs and lows of backpacking!!
Be in touch again soon and apologies for the excessive post - can't sleep!!
LiZZie
xx
Friday, November 19, 2010
Guanajuato - the gem of Mexico´s colonial heartland!
Guanajuato is an absolute gem in the middle of Mexico´s Colonial Heartland!
Known by many as Mexico´s most beatiful silver city, Guanajuato is home to about 120,000 locals and is a 5 hour bus trip Nth West from Mexico City. The city is surrounded by rugged hillside and once supplied a quarter of Mexico´s silver output. Wealthy mine owners built stately mansions and impressive churches alongside Guanajuato´s narrow twisting streets - and the beautiful colonial architecture, cobbled streets and central plazas have remained intact since the city was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The city has a youthful vibe with many cafes, restaurants and bars, due to its large student population (there is a large arts university here)! Another interesting fact is that there is a huge tunnel network underneath the city for vehicles (no pedestrians) due to the crazy geography of the city (very hilly!)
Today I made a new friend at my hostel - a girl from San Fran, then spent the day getting incredibly lost in the maze of narrow cobblestone streets, bought a Starbucks...in this tiny city in the middle of mexico (depressing I know, but I was with an American?!), brushed up on my Mexican history as we stalked an American couple and their tour guide thru Diego Rivera´s art museum (yanks have an annoying habit of pretending to know everything and telling the tour guide about the art that he is there to guide them on!?! why bother hiring the guide at all??), taking endless photos of the technicoloured landscape (Mexicans like to paint their houses in every possible colour of the rainbow, including electric blue, banana yellow, hot pink and violet purple!!), looking in shock and horror at young mexican couples who clearly do not observe the generally universal dislike for PDA (rules against Public Display of Affection definitely DO NOT apply in Mexico!!), spending more than 2 hours in an amazing silver shop (oops) and chowing down the most delicious tortilla soup!!
All in a good day´s work here in Mehico!!
Better get some rest before it all starts again tomorrow!
Adios,
LiZZie
xx
PS photos to come later hopefully!
Known by many as Mexico´s most beatiful silver city, Guanajuato is home to about 120,000 locals and is a 5 hour bus trip Nth West from Mexico City. The city is surrounded by rugged hillside and once supplied a quarter of Mexico´s silver output. Wealthy mine owners built stately mansions and impressive churches alongside Guanajuato´s narrow twisting streets - and the beautiful colonial architecture, cobbled streets and central plazas have remained intact since the city was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The city has a youthful vibe with many cafes, restaurants and bars, due to its large student population (there is a large arts university here)! Another interesting fact is that there is a huge tunnel network underneath the city for vehicles (no pedestrians) due to the crazy geography of the city (very hilly!)
Today I made a new friend at my hostel - a girl from San Fran, then spent the day getting incredibly lost in the maze of narrow cobblestone streets, bought a Starbucks...in this tiny city in the middle of mexico (depressing I know, but I was with an American?!), brushed up on my Mexican history as we stalked an American couple and their tour guide thru Diego Rivera´s art museum (yanks have an annoying habit of pretending to know everything and telling the tour guide about the art that he is there to guide them on!?! why bother hiring the guide at all??), taking endless photos of the technicoloured landscape (Mexicans like to paint their houses in every possible colour of the rainbow, including electric blue, banana yellow, hot pink and violet purple!!), looking in shock and horror at young mexican couples who clearly do not observe the generally universal dislike for PDA (rules against Public Display of Affection definitely DO NOT apply in Mexico!!), spending more than 2 hours in an amazing silver shop (oops) and chowing down the most delicious tortilla soup!!
All in a good day´s work here in Mehico!!
Better get some rest before it all starts again tomorrow!
Adios,
LiZZie
xx
PS photos to come later hopefully!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Hola!
Hola and welcome to my new followers!
I safely arrived in Mehico City this afternoon...and love it already! It is a huge city, but I am staying in a cool area called Centro Historico that is complete with colonial style buildings and cobble stone streets!! Definitely not what I expected from Mexico City! I did expect the thick layer of smog and heavy traffic when I arrived tho - we are definitely very fortuanate at home! I am lucky to be in a very new Hostel that is more like a boutique hotel than a hostel, very clean and comfy - and a bargain at $14 per night for a dorm room w breakfast included! It even has a cool cafe/bar attached too!
I wanted to practice adding pictures - so have included some photos of the hostel website below...
Despite this pretty sweet setup, I am actually heading out of town to a small silver town, called Guanajuato - it is famous for its colonial architecture (UNESCO world heritage site!) and of course the silver mines...very excited to be spending about 3-4 days there, should be very relaxing and looking forward to some silver shopping too!!
Till then, keep well -
LiZZie xx
PS for those that can´t sleep on long haul flights - I have a cure!! Don´t sleep at all the night before! I was so disorganized with packing that I had to pull an all-nighter before my flight over here, and must admit - I slept almost the whole way, as in deep, completely-out-of-it sleep...only negative was that I couldn´t really stay awake either, so felt more like I was sedated for the entire trip...haha not so good when I am trying to watch movies or eat - can totally relate to narcolepsy now...
PPS random observation = Burger King is called La Casa de Whopper here in Mehico!! haha I know which one I like better!!
I safely arrived in Mehico City this afternoon...and love it already! It is a huge city, but I am staying in a cool area called Centro Historico that is complete with colonial style buildings and cobble stone streets!! Definitely not what I expected from Mexico City! I did expect the thick layer of smog and heavy traffic when I arrived tho - we are definitely very fortuanate at home! I am lucky to be in a very new Hostel that is more like a boutique hotel than a hostel, very clean and comfy - and a bargain at $14 per night for a dorm room w breakfast included! It even has a cool cafe/bar attached too!
I wanted to practice adding pictures - so have included some photos of the hostel website below...
Despite this pretty sweet setup, I am actually heading out of town to a small silver town, called Guanajuato - it is famous for its colonial architecture (UNESCO world heritage site!) and of course the silver mines...very excited to be spending about 3-4 days there, should be very relaxing and looking forward to some silver shopping too!!
Till then, keep well -
LiZZie xx
PS for those that can´t sleep on long haul flights - I have a cure!! Don´t sleep at all the night before! I was so disorganized with packing that I had to pull an all-nighter before my flight over here, and must admit - I slept almost the whole way, as in deep, completely-out-of-it sleep...only negative was that I couldn´t really stay awake either, so felt more like I was sedated for the entire trip...haha not so good when I am trying to watch movies or eat - can totally relate to narcolepsy now...
PPS random observation = Burger King is called La Casa de Whopper here in Mehico!! haha I know which one I like better!!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Rise and Shine!!
With the recent end of my University studies, I truly believed that I had seen the last of the all-nighters (the non-alcoholic variety!) that have become all too common over my final semesters at uni. But I sit here now, having only just finished packing my bags and ticking off my never-ending 'to do' list - and the birds have kindly reminded me that it is in fact 5.36am, not 10.36am as the blog post time receipt may suggest...the bags under my eyes confirm - it was certainly another epic all-nighter but I have finally managed to get myself (mostly) organized...I might even catch a few lost ZZZs before I jet off - first stop, Mehico City!!
Catch you on the flip side bloggers!!
LiZZie
x
Catch you on the flip side bloggers!!
LiZZie
x
Welcome!
Welcome to The Curious Tales of Libby...a collection of my adventures through Mehico, Centro Americano, Japan and onto Sydney - as they unravel over the next three months!
Exciting times ahead, so stay tuned!!
LiZZie xx
Important Disclaimer: despite what the title of this blog may suggest, I still detest the name Libby - its use should remain confined ONLY to the blogosphere!! Muchos Gracias!
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