Damn it, I wanted to update often so I wouldnt have a ridiculously long post. But, I have a ton to cover since my last post so this is really long, again.
The rest of my time in Mexico City was good and bad. I made it to the Zocalo, its the biggest city square in the world I hear, and the Cathedral finally. I have plenty of awesome pictures of both, but I am still with no way to upload them, so until then you'll have to just trust me when I say they are amazing. The Cathedral was ridiculously huge, I felt like I was watching a movie or something walking into the place- the ceiling is I think a mile high, gold statues everywhere, everything looking very old and very expensive and very grand and all. I'm not religious so I didn't really have much to do, I walked around the place taking some pictures, being impressed, until I took some pictures of an area I guess it is rude to take pictures of, and I was asked to leave. It was the last area anyway so I was on my way out. And I got the pictures. So ha-ha.
The Zocalo was kind of funny. It was a warm day, 20 degrees or so (thats around 70 for you Americanos) and right in the center of the square there is an iceskating rink. It couldnt have looked more out of place, and from the people I talked to they have very mixed feelings on it. There is a LOT of poverty in the city, and the country in general, and people think that the money should have been used to help something to that effect. Evidentally though, the people in charge decided that poor people dont get to travel and they never get to ice skate so why not put an ice skating rink in for those who would never get to skate otherwise. Seems silly to me, I've actually never ice skated either, but I think if I was living in the conditions of some of the people here I would not be happy with this decision.
After that I spent a lot of my time getting really lost. Everyday I was lost atleast an hour a day. The only thing that kept me from freaking out was the metro, whenever I would finally find a station I could make it home again, but they are fairly spread out. One evening I was feeling like I knew the area well and decided to go find a 'gringo bar' I had heard about in the area- this was near sunset, and my rule had been be near home at dark but since I figured it was easy I'd be fine. I never found the bar or my way back to that station but I did get to go through an interesting experience- I need some type of hidden camera so I can record video without being the douche walking around recording things here- anyway, it was very similar to the black market area only MORE people and MORE commotion. It was dark, things were starting to close, and people were everywhere, shopping, or yelling for you to come in to their stores, or just shoving through people trying to get where they were going. This was Jan 6th.. here they have a kind of Christmas thing on Jan 7th I found out later so I guess that explains it, but it was still intense being lost in the chaos.
Speaking of which, I met a 'friend' at a festival they have setup in one of the parks downtown for the 7th. It was like a carnival, selling everything you can think of, the game booths for popping balloons, and the rides. Their rides are WAY more awesome than our carnivals by the way, some were borderline themepark awesomeness but I didnt want to stick out even more by riding one. Anyway, so I was sitting down around a giant fountain, eating and studying some spanish and this guy that had been sitting near me struck up a conversation. He had pretty good English so we talked for awhile then he showed me around the area, all the historic buildings and telling me the story behind everything. Gotta give him that, he knows the history of everything and I half expected him to ask me for money at the end as some sort of tour guide. He didn't however and we parted ways with plans to meet up tomorrow to show me another area. Day 2 with my friend would take a sharp turn towards WTF. He was laying the ground work for it for awhile tho, asking how I was making money etc etc. Then he told me a story about a friend of his that made money by basically being a gay prostitute. I figured what was coming next and so we started heading back toward the metro cause I said I had seen a cibercafe earlier and wanted to use it. Sure enough he starts telling me how much money I could make being a handsome gringo and all and I had to politely say no. He kept pressing and I almost told him to fuck off but didn't want to offend the guy and managed to come up with an excuse and split. I wondered around a bit more and randomly got on TV afterward, I'm not sure what it was about exactly, there was a gorgeous woman, a giant rat man, and I think an alligator, asking me about the 7th of January and its meaning, then I think making jokes about me being from Sweden and then Canada? They played with my hair a bit and said more things too fast for me to understand, but I had a pretty huge crowd watching so it was awesome in that respect.
I ended up leaving the next morning, earlier than I had expected and without cellphone due to some drama I don't have time to get into. Actually I don't have time at all, this will have to be 2 parts again.. I have to go to the bar I'm working at now ha. Adios.
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