Feeling as if we had mastered the Metro system, we hopped on once again and got off at the Chapultepec stop. We entered Chapultepec Park and walked to the Castle of Chapultepec, where we took advantage of being national students yet again and entered for free. The castle offers amazing views of Mexico City, and also hosts the National History Museum. We spent a couple of hours walking around the outside of the castle, exploring the various sections and rooms within the castle, and soaked up all of the history and information surrounding Mexico City and the castle itself.
Between 3 and 4, we left the castle and took the subway to the stop of our hostel. The location of the hostel was excellent, only a minute or two from the subway. However, this was just about the only thing the hostel had going for it. Our room, or little shack, was on the roof of the building, and the bathroom was a 4 X 4 shack with a toilet and shower, all on cement. The thought of showering in this hut was as appealing as spending an entire week at Casa del Sol, but being as how I had not showered since Wednesday, I endured a quick and ice-cold shower. I got ready, we made our way down the death-threatening stairs, and started out on a search for the neighborhood Condensa, an area of Mexico City that we stumbled upon the first time we were there and really enjoyed. Once we reached the neighborhood, we began to look for the cute and quiet Italian bar and restaurant where we had eaten last time. Just as we were about to give up and settle for another small restaurant, we looked across the street and were thrilled to see The Flora Lounge. We ordered tasty pizza and a couple of drinks, before taking advantage of the delectable desserts (flan and some sort of banana cream pie cake) and free mixed drinks that the bartender had made. Filled with delicious food and excitement for Norah Jones, we took a cab to the National Auditorium, where several vendors were selling Norah Jones t-shirts, CDs, etc. at ridiculously low prices. So, of course, I couldn’t resist the bargains and bought two t-shirts before entering the National Auditorium.
The inside of the auditorium/theatre is quite impressive, and the building seats just under 10,000 people. We made our way down to our seats in the “preferred seating” section, which were to the left of center stage in Row D. From this point, we had a view of Norah when she was on center stage. However, her piano was positioned oddly on the right hand of the stage, almost facing the audience, so that even if you were in the first row on the right hand side, you wouldn’t have been able to see her. But, she sounded amazing, and the acoustics in the National Auditorium were very impressive. The majority of concerts that I have attended, I have left feeling disappointed with the quality of acoustics, but Norah sounded just as good as her CDs, if not better. She performed several songs from her newest album, The Fall, before singing some of her classics. She was not all that interactive with the crowd, and did not share information regarding the significance behind her songs, which to me really makes a concert. But, I think a lot of this was due to the fact that we were in Mexico, and she probably didn’t know how exactly to relate and interact with the crowd. She only performed for an hour, before leaving the stage and returning to perform 3 more songs. So, the concert was quite short, and we didn’t feel like we quite got our money’s worth, but she did sound amazing, and it is pretty cool to be able to say that we saw Norah Jones in Mexico City at the National Auditorium.
Pictures from Norah Jones:
Since we weren’t familiar with the area of our hostel and had to get up early the next morning to meet the rest of the group, we just decided to head back to our “campsite” and call it an early night once we left the concert.
Saturday morning we climbed down from our igloo and took the metro to the Zocalo, where we met the rest of the USAC group for the Mexico City field trip. We started the morning with a tour of the National Palace, which was very informative and fascinating. We did not actually visit the presidential quarters or offices, but did walk around a portion of the palace that features several Diego Rivera murals. We had a fabulous tour guide who has been giving tours for 50+ years, has connections throughout the palace, and actually saw Diego Rivera paint. The history and stories illustrated through Rivera’s work are incredible, not to mention the perspectives and talent that all of his works contain. (See pictures)
After the tour at the National Palace, we took the van to the Anthropology Museum. There we had an hour and a half to enjoy the museum. I am so glad that we decided to visit the museum the first time we were in Mexico City, because it has so much to offer, an you need at least a day to go through the majority of the museum, not a measly hour and a half. I visited two more exhibition rooms, before we all gathered again for lunch in the museum’s cafeteria. We had access to the buffet, and I took full advantage of it. Thankfully after lunch, we had an hour or so drive to Teotihuacan, so I was able to enter into my food coma and sleep for a bit. Since we have seen so many sets of ruins and pyramids in our short time in Mexico, I was not exactly looking forward to seeing yet another set. However, I had completely underestimated the size and extent of the town and pyramids. The area was absolutely massive, and it took us 2-3 hours to walk through the ruins and the famous Avenue of the Dead, as well as climb several of the pyramids including the famous Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon. The views from the top of Pyramid of the Sun, the larger of the two main pyramids, were breathtaking, and it also felt like quite an accomplishment to make it to the top. Once we had made our way through all of Teotihuacan, we did a little shopping, before loading into the van and making the two-hour drive back to Puebla.
Pictures from Palacio de Bellas Artes, Castillo de Chapuletepc, Palacio Nacional, and Museo de Antropologia:
Pictures from Teotihuacan:
No comments:
Post a Comment