{"id":14098,"date":"2013-02-14T23:21:34","date_gmt":"2013-02-15T05:21:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=14098"},"modified":"2013-02-16T01:29:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T07:29:27","slug":"mexico-city-day-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/?page_id=14098","title":{"rendered":"Mexico City Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Continued from Mexico City Day 3 Part 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I opened my eyes this morning to blurry vision. After 15 plus drinks last night, I am still drunk. I reach for the giant bottle of water sitting on the nightstand and start chugging. I drift off back into sleep. This cycle continues all morning. Finally, around noon I grew a pair and got out of bed. Yup, still stumbling drunk, I can barely stand straight. I make my way into the shower. Funny how I made that decision. I am drunk, have trouble with my footing, so I am going to walk into a wet slippery place.<\/p>\n

I feel like shit, I don’t want to leave my room, but at some point, I’ll need to eat some food. More alarmingly, my water supply is starting to run low. Ugh. As the alcohol starts to wear off, I feel my hangover taking over in its place. Finally, I drank all of the water that I have with me in the room. It’s time to brave the outside world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAnother beautif….ugh…why is the sun so bright in my eyes!!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis is my hotel. I never realized how beautiful of a building it is until now. I asked the front desk where to go to eat some tacos al pastor. They recommended two places to me. I started walking, then realized that I’d rather just go eat at the heavenly tacos al pastor place that I had the other day. I think I can still find it…<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIt’s 2:30, but people are still hungry for street food.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nBack in Zocalo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe plaza closed off for military exhibit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe National Palace. I want to look at the Diego Rivera murals inside.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI think it might be closed today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nYup closed to tourist, this other entrance is also fenced off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe side of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. I’ll be visiting this in a bit. I’ve decided that since I am already here in Zocalo, I might as well do some lightweight sightseeing first and eat later.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMexico City is built on top of a dried lake, so everything is sinking. You can see here how nothing lines up straight due to uneven settling.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nTemplo Mayor, Aztec ruin next to the Metropolitan Cathedral. You can buy a ticket and enter the site, but in my tired state of hangover, I didn’t feel like baking in the sun. Plus, I didn’t find this that interesting.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAh, let me ask if the National Palace opens tomorrow. Yup, it does. It’s closed today because government meetings are taking place. How dare the government business get in the way of eager tourists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMetropolitan Tabernacle front facade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nImpressive stone carving.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nUnderwhelming interior.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nMeh. I hope the Cathedral next door is more impressive inside.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nYes, the cathedral is much more impressive. And yes, it’s got that acoustic that I am looking for in a large stone interior. The soft murmurs of voices. Ahhh.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAll these closed off chapels line the outer edges of the church. There are so many little nooks and crannies in here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nImpressive organ.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSo many things happening at once.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAs I was about to take a photo, this little kid in grey looks at me and says, “No flash.” Yeah, OK, I know. If you haven’t noticed, kid, I’ve been taking all these photos inside here for a while and not once did my flash go off. Punk!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIf the floor looks slanted, it’s not the camera angle. The floor is slanted due to the massive weight of the building sinking into the ground.<\/p>\n

For some reason, I didn’t come away super impressed with this church. I love the exterior, but only lukewarm about the interior. Certain churches feel calming, others feel powerful. This church was neither. Maybe it’s too bright inside to feel calming and maybe it’s not as big as St. Peter’s to feel powerful. Or maybe it’s just my hangover being mad at the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOutside there are glass windows on the ground that show some sort of structure that lies underground. I like this photo for the reflection of the front facade.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWell, that’s enough sightseeing for the day. I think this is the street with the heavenly tacos al pastor place.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nShit, I can’t find it. Maybe that’s a good thing. Perhaps it won’t be as good the second time around. This way, I can always remember that place as the spot that I had a heavenly meal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI don’t think I’ve seen many of these bikes get used. This area is so walkable that bikes are not really needed.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI decided to come back to the rotisserie chicken place that I walked by earlier.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nPay at the register, get tickets, then hand the tickets to one of the staff working behind the counter and they’ll prepare your food.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nSmells delicious.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThat’s one entire chicken. I don’t think Mexicans eat much vegetables in their regular diet. I never see people eat vegetables around here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI am a failure, I couldn’t finish everything. Sigh. It sure was delicious though. I was craving fried chicken earlier while recuperating in bed, this is just as good.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nA group of cops came in here to eat. I took this as a good sign. If the cops get sick from eating here, they’d surely make life difficult for the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI like the design of this bench. Stupid graffiti ruining it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI’ve got such a soft spot for accordion buskers. They always get my money. All these accordions have missing or broken off bass buttons. How do they play with such limited buttons?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nOK, I am tired now. I saw some stuff, ate some lunch, and got some bottles of water. Time to retreat back to the hotel room and blog blog blog. Lots to be caught back up.<\/p>\n

I spent hours doing some major blog catching up. Feels good to be almost caught up. It’s time for dinner. My friend JM flies into Mexico City tonight. We might try to meet up later tonight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nInteresting way to hide a fire extinguisher. Except, isn’t that something that you don’t want to hide?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI like the way this one turned out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI don’t think I can walk by breasts without taking a photo of them. Here’s the funny thing, I am not even a boob man.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThis is the tacos al pastor place that the concierge had suggested to me earlier. It’s been in business for over 50 years.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThere is a cover band playing upstairs. They sang a crappy cover of Radiohead’s Creep.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nNice translation for soup. Haha.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nTacos al pastor, get in my belly! So good, but not as good as the other place. I think that other place will reach mythical status pretty soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nAsked if I wanted dessert, I said yes. I’ll have the flan. My mom makes the best flan, but I had to give flan a try in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nFirst Asian restaurant I’ve seen in Mexico City.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWhat do you do with the small area that lies between the entrance and exit of a parking garage? You turn it into a street food stand, of course.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI walked by this cafe the other day, but didn’t come in. Not so tonight.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe barista overfills my coffee. Oops.<\/p>\n

I came back to my room to blog some more. It’s amazing how long this shit takes. I waited for JM to call\/email\/text me like he said that he would once he arrives. It’s been radio silence thus far, and I have no way of reaching him other than email. I guess I’ll be staying in tonight.<\/p>\n

To be continued at Mexico City Day 5 Part 1<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Continued from Mexico City Day 3 Part 3. I opened my eyes this morning to blurry vision. After 15 plus drinks last night, I am still drunk. I reach for the giant bottle of water sitting on the nightstand and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":13486,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14098","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14098"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14319,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14098\/revisions\/14319"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gottobepresenttowin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}