After being in Mexico earlier this year and not having the time to visit Mexico City, I decided to pass by the DF (as they call it here) for a quick visit. Now having live in Cairo with around 20 million people for half my life, I had several expectations of what the DF will be like with 22 million people. However, what I saw there was beyond impressive and somewhat depressing when compared with life in Cairo.

The Mexico City I saw is a well organized, relatively clean and smoothly flowing city. They have clean undergrounds, buses and metro buses moving all kinds of people around the city at very regular and frequent rates. And I say all kinds of people, because they decided to give their stations not only meaningful animal and historic celebrity names but also logos, so that those who can’t read can still recognize the logos on their own and get off at the right station. Giving even those who are illiterate the feeling that this is not a modern means of transport for the elite or educated but for everyone. Outside the main stations you can always find vibrant street markets with a bunch of different foods and products and even dancing at nights.

Another way the DF is moving people around is by closing of several main streets on Sundays, as was the case in Bogota, and dedicating them for joggers and cyclists. They decided to do this after noticing how much pollution the people live in all week and so as a way of reducing this, they encourage people to get active and leave their cars at home. But also because health is a critical issue in Mexico as it is considered the second fattest nation after the US and it’s true. People here eat so much fried food all day and are bombarded with so much american fast and processed food products as well, that obesity has definitely become a problem.

Another thing I loved about the city is how many parks they have and parks that are used by the people to enjoy life not just for decoration. Where you can find families with their kids playing around, youngsters on skateboards or with their dogs or even senior citizens meeting to dance together. I really enjoyed passing by the parks and seeing people of different social classes enjoy outdoor life together.

Just next to one of those parks, a friend showed me their public library, which used to be a fort and prison in the past. For those in Egypt now, imagine turning prisons in to libraries!! Anyways, you could just walk in and read anything or use their computers to go online. The most impressive thing was that the library was full with people and not just books. It seems that education is taken very seriously in general here. The Mexico City university is free and has a huge campus, almost like a small city. They have their own bus system and university taxis inside the city!! No police is allowed inside the campus and the students get really defensive about this, with history of several violent riots and demonstrations, so the police now know better. The University library is also a very special place and with it’s beautifully decorated murals has earned itself a UNESCO World heritage site status.

Another important site in the DF is the Basilica Guadalupe, which is latin America’s biggest church complex. As I went there on a sunday, it was packed with people going to attend mass or to baptize their children. From the church at the top of the hill, you also had great views of the complex. On the way back I passed by another cool site called the Plaza de las tres culturas. Here you have 3 different cultural buildings on the same square; Aztec Temple ruins, a catholic church and a modern building complex.

However, one of the best experiences on a Sunday is the La Lagunilla street market. This was by far the coolest market I have seen so far. It is split in to two main sections. The more traditional clothes, shoes, bags market you could find anywhere in the world and a more alternative and original hipster/antique market with funky hair dressers, tattoo parlors, gourmet food stands, original T-shirt designs, nail and beauty salons, palm readers, antiques and all to the soundtrack of great music. It’s a place you could easily spend 4-5 hrs in and not get bored, hungry or tired.

On my last day I decided to go on the free walking tour with a moroccan girl I met at the hostel. The tour itself was still a bit amateurish but still fun. We found out that the city started after the Aztecs came looking for the promiseland, which would be where an eagle is sitting on a cactus and eats a snake. And they actually found this in some swamplands and decided to establish the city over the swamp. That’s also why a lot of buildings in the center are sinking as we speak at a rate of about 1 cm per year. That’s also why the emblem on the mexican flag is of an eagle sitting on a cactus and eating a snake.

It also happened to be independence day during my time in Mexico, but we learned that it wasn’t entirely correct as an old president moved the holiday from the real independence day to his birthday, which was 1 day before (or after). Close enough, right? Mexican presidents also seem to be obsessed with getting involved with actresses.

One very beautiful building we passed by on the tour was the post office. Inside it’s like a palace with italian marble and gold plated staircases. It also used to be where people came to make calls and it turns out that till today people answer their phones here in Mexico by saying “Bueno”, which means good. Unlike almost everywhere else in the world, where it’s more common to say “Hello”. This turned out to come from the early days of the telephone, when the lines where not so clear and so people would first ask if the line was good “Bueno?” before actually talking, otherwise they would hang up and call again.

Finally we passed by a square well known for getting fake IDs and certificates. Apparently it’s also where Che Guevara got his traveling documents at one point in time. Today a lot of teenagers go to get IDs to get in to bars and clubs. You need to be careful not to get caught in the vicinity though, because here in Mexico people are guilty till proven innocent.

So of course not everything is great here, they also have dangerous neighborhoods and corruption but the general impression and vibe that I felt here was overall surprisingly positive. I would definitely consider living here from what I’ve experienced so far, but probably in one of the several more interesting middle class neighborhoods with beautiful parks and more original cafes, bars, live music and restaurants. Condesa and Roma being two of the nicer neighborhoods we walked through. We also spend sometime in probably the coolest neighborhood in town; Coyoacán. The vibe here is so nice that you could spend the entire night just people watching. We passed by the Frida Kahlo house, which was unfortunately closed, then met another friend and made our way to a typical Taqueria (Taco place). Here you get the warm soft tortillas in a basket and the taco filling on a plate and you pick up the filling with your hands using the tortilla. It was a lot of messy fun for us amateurs but still very delicious.

Afterwards, we headed to the Metro to go to a salsa club. And after having discussed Om Kalthoum (probably the most famous arabic singing diva in all of time) with my new moroccan friend earlier that day, since her father used to play and sing her songs back home in Morocco, we jump in the metro and they have an Om Kalthoum song playing on the metro in Mexico City!! But that was just the beginning of the craziness, when we got to the San Luis Salsa Club we walked in to a parallel world. It was a very fancy place with velvet red decorated walls and a dance floor in the middle with a stage for the band behind it and a lot of older single ladies sitting at most of the tables. As the band started to play and we started to dance, more men came in to the club and we discovered that the single ladies actually dance with the guys in exchange for money. So they kept track of how many dances they danced with each guys and get paid at the end. That’s also why the head waiter came to my friends and asked them not to dance with the clients, since they wouldn’t be making any money. Asking for a song directly from the band was also “forbidden” since all song requests would have to be paid for as well. It was definitely an interesting end to a very long day and a great time in the DF. So after taking a break to visit an old friend for thanksgiving, I made my way back south in search for Middle Earth.

Walking through one of the many parks in the city.

One of the many outdoors dance parties outside the metro stations at night.

The ex-fort, ex-prison, now public library.

And this is the impressive university library.

The Basilica Guadalupe complex.

La Plaza de tres culturas. Here you can see the ruins and the church.

One of many hairdressers in the sunday street market.

There was definitely no shortage of food there as well…

…. or dessert!

I actually met someone who knows this guy!

Our tour guide in the beautiful post office building.

The national palace of arts had a dome that looked awful in reality but nice in the photos.

Some military and police school demonstrations were taking place in front of the independence monument, but there wasn’t much interest by the locals as you can see.

Turning 15 or La Quinceañera in Mexico is a huge deal for a girl. It’s like a prom as girls graduate in to womanhood. Families save and borrow money for this birthday, which features fancy dresses, limousines and huge parties.

This is the church of the saint of thieves. On this saint’s day, a lot of thieves come to this church to ask forgiveness and it is said to be one of the safest days to walk around town hehehe

This was a huge cinema complex with different forums and featuring foreign movies as well. It’s also just a cool place to hang out.

We say these guys giving out free coffee and bread on the streets and when we asked if they belonged to an organization or church, they said no. It’s just a spontaneous thing they thought of since the weather was getting colder.

They had a design competition a few years ago for designing some street benches and now they are featured on one of the city’s main streets for people to use.

Aywa Bekya!