This was a slightly different trip as it was taken by only one of us. Maggie stayed home for the weekend to study and get better. I showed up at work Friday morning and asked Andrew Curley, a fellow NU alum at work if he still wanted to go to Mexico City that weekend. Eight hours later, we were sitting in business class for the short flight down.

Our taxi ride into Ciudad de Mexico seemed as if it were descending through layers of scents: pungent break dust, exhaust, and the occasional hint of sewage. After running a few red lights and navigating through a ton of glorietas, we made it to the hotel. As soon as we checked into our hotel, we were out the door in search of some entertainment. MEX did not let us down. In the Zona Rosa district, we followed the sound of Nothing Else Matters to a place called (no joke)"Yuppie's Sports Cafe." That was only the beginning of the entertainment. A local goth rock band called "Hamleth" was on stage singing various 90's rock tunes with some Mexican songs mixed in there for good measure. The bass and the guitar players were awesome and it was as good of live music as I've heard anywhere.

The next day we took off from our hotel towards Chapultepec Park. This is a huge park with a zoo, museum, markets, all kinds of tourist and local stuff. We went to the National History Museum, which was at a former palace of an emporer of Mexico. I should say at this point that Andrew is fluent in Spanish and that came in very handy during the trip. The museum was laid out very nice and provided some scenic views from the roof. On the way back through the city, we passed all kinds of monuments to independence and revolutions, apparently still big news.

Our next desination was the Zocalo. This is the 2nd largest town square in the world. Andrew and I surmised that countries wouldn't have so many civil upheavals if they didn't give everyone a place to congregate. This was truly the craziest sight of the trip. The cars driving around the square literally looked like they had parked that way they were so tight. We took a stroll around and saw all kinds of protests, picnics, and vendors selling their wares. The Metropolitan Cathedral on the North side was quite a site as well. Started in 1527, it took 250 years to complete. It was in the middle of a massive restoration on the outside but the inside was amazing and very grand.

After fighting our way back through the crowd and a quick stop into an unreal pastry shop, we decided it was time to throw caution to the wind and eat at a street cafe. The place was called Kioskito and after a brief consultation of the menu, we ordered a plate of carnitas to share. Now, I don't know much Spanish, but I have ordered a carnitas burrito from Chipotle; it's shredded free-range pork. Perhaps the waiter was just jerking us around and wanted to see if we'd eat it, perhaps Chipotle isn't disclosing its ingredients, and perhaps it is just wrong, but here is what we ended up with. In case you can't tell, alongside the chunks of pork on that plate is a big pile of pig intestine. (The pink stuff on the left) Throw in some (amazing) salsa probably made from local water and well, when in Mexico City...

Despite our gamble, no harm came to either of us. All in all, I had an excellent time down there. It was just the right amount of grit, culture, and randomness for a city. It definitely isn't the safest place in the world but I don't think it was any worse than some bad parts of US cities. It is odd how unknown this city seems to be to Americans. Outside of the airport, we saw maybe 10 other Americans the entire weekend. Made for a pretty unique experience though and being the same distance from DFW as Chicago, it's hard to beat.