Ciudad de Mexico

So the trip begins...

With trepidation in my heart and thoughts of "what am i getting myself into" I tried best to show some excitement while my parents drove and parted with me at SFO on Friday night. I think if I weren't scared of the impending trip and the uncertainty associated with it I wouldn't be doing it probably in the first place, aren't we all striving and pushing our boundaries? we'd be plainly stupid not to be afraid of what's out there behind the invisible line of unknowingness... It is human to be afraid of uncertainty, everyone is, it's just that the best of us hide it behind a mask of sureness so quickly the rest of us don't even notice it (wink, wink Landmark :) At any rate, I suppose that's exactly what this trip is - my boundary.

The flight to Ciudad de Mexico was uneventful and I won't bore you with customs details, although I do have to say nobody beats the lines of Ukrainian customs, and even the US ones for that matter. Given that I had 12 hours to spare in Mexico city I decided to put it to good use and roam the 22million inhabited mecca. The minute i boarded the metro to the city, the adventures began :) The immersion in spanish culture is rather intense when you're without a map and don't exactly speak the language, but that's where common sense kicks in (as for the lack of a map, that was my overlooking). Every ride between stations in Mexico city is characterized in general by some sort of a seller advertising everything from chewing gum to math booklets, but of course what brings color to the situation is boys (probably under 20) who have a CD player in their hand and a traveler's looking backpack that is essentially one big speaker with it's power supply strapped to their backs. The idea here is to sell CD's so they play short excerpts of their songs through the metro ride. Here you can pretty much hear whatever your heart desires, starting from spanish ballads, to electro house, to the fanfare filled mexican dancing songs. I thought it was brilliant :) so much so that whenever they would not come in the metro wagon I would start falling asleep (my general state of being:)

Immediately after walking out of the metro (which I do have to say is rather extensive and connects all parts of the city very well) you realize that la Ciudad de Mexico is essentially one big market. Everyone is selling everything on pretty much every street, so naturally I felt just like at home (whoever has been to Kishinev may make other decisions but that is mine :) I was looking for Zocalo, also known as the National Plaza, probably the #1 thing to see in Mexico city for tourists (i hate labeling myself as such, but inevitably that's what i was). I knew the general direction to go and kept asking people along the way. I stumbled upon street vendors of tacos and had a chicken taco with freshly squeezed orange juice (for the first time in my life :) it did not disappoint). I don't know whether i was just hungry in the morning or excited with adventure, but, as cliche as it may sound, that was the best taco I've had. Continuing my quest for el Zocalo, as you get closer to the infamous square you notice more and more federal police in full uniform with knee, shoulder and helmet protection standing at every corner of the street. I don't know whether they were getting ready for a riot or such, but mexicans sure take their national security seriously. The National Plaza has a huge flag raising in its centre and  Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary of Mexico City bordering its north side. It is the largerst and oldest cathedral in all of the Americas. The church is and feels really old, gorgeous of course in the best catholic traditions. I sat on the bench in front of a basorelief wall with sculptures of numerous saints and angels and that's where it hit me that i'm on the road, it's when you come to a church to rest in its cool, dark confinements knowing that you've got nowhere else to go and this is your sanctuary, that you realize that you're one with everything surrounding you and your home is mother earth... It's a peaceful feeling, it makes you think that the world is your playground, and almost feel mother earth embracing you and keeping you to herself, with no obligation of bills to pay, rent to scramble for, or place to be at. I've only felt it once in my life before, that was when i was also homeless, having only just arrived to Boston and spending all my warm august days outside looking for a potential rental room. This is also the first time in my life when I left a church fully rested and recharged with energy and desire to explore and see more things, i suppose that's what churces are there to do in the first place.

In the best of my traditions of misjudging time and being late everywhere I decided I had plenty of time for a visit to the parks of Chapultepec, this is a large historic parc with a lake, where I initially thought I would spend some time at. What i didn't know that the park also contained the National Historic Museum of Mexico hosted in the Chapultepec castle situated on a hill overlooking the city. So i decided to do that instead of the lakes (Ksyusha would be proud of me :)), it was a good choice indeed. The museum featured the entire mexican history, starting from the arival of the Spaniards  through the modern era when it served as the residences of Mexican emperors.

Of course, in every country's history there's a place for  Iosif Vissarionych (or his look alike :))

 This is probably the thing I liked most of all in the museum, it's a painting on a dome ceiling portraying the struggle for Mexican independence. There's just so much pain and suffering in it, it reverberates through the colors.

In my route to Lima, Peru i finally figured out a way to take a picture of myself :)

  More magic, this is a dormant volcano right outside of Mexico City, the camera simply can't relay the sheer magnitude of the mountain and it being bathed in sunset colors. I also met my first really awesome trip acquaintance on the plane to Lima, an Argentinian guy who spoke English rather well and who I could converse with. I won't bother you with details, since we covered a broad range of topics, including string theory, reincarnation, universe energy content and how to lead a happy life (they're really all the same thing if you think about it ;) However, as we parted there's 2 things I took from that discussion: everything happens for a reason, and there's a right time for every stage in one's life.