food and some other stuff: Trip Report: Mexico City, Day Three

The first thing we did Monday morning was head to the supermarket to buy sunscreen. There was one a short walk from our hotel in lovely Condesa.

In the circle of streets around Parque Mexico, the medians are all forested with a central sidewalk.

As in most cities, a lot of the tourist sites are closed on Mondays, so we decided to go to the privately owned Antique Toy Museum. It was pretty close to our hotel, but in the middle of Doctores and as we now knew what that meant, we took an Uber. Uber was our preferred way to get around in Mexico City, super easy and safer than dealing with the crowds on public transportation right now. We never waited more than 5 minutes or so and the trips were extremely cheap. I sometimes had to double check the currency conversion math because I couldn't believe how cheap - usually around $3 for a 15 minute trip.

The Antique Toy Museum is the collection of a Japanese-Mexican man who just likes weird toys. It was five floors packed full of all sorts of strange things.

Most of the toys were from the 80s or earlier, although there were a handful of newer items sprinkled in here and there.

There were only two other groups of people in the place while we were there. In some rooms the lights were off and we had to go looking for the light switch. (There were signs that said it was OK to turn on the lights if they weren't already on.)

Here is Ben being like, "what IS this place?"

I had Aerobica Barbie!

As you go higher in the building, it gets weirder. This guy was two stories tall, in the middle of a large central courtyard.

The top floor and roof was all street art and graffiti. It was all very well done.

If there was any information about why this art is there, we never found it.

The top floor also seemed to have been some kind of institution at some point. There were a bunch of small bathroom stalls complete with showers, each decorated in a different way.

This place is awesome. You should go.

It was lunchtime so we got another Uber and went back to Condesa to the row of restaurants our hotel had mentioned. We chose a sushi spot and ordered four rolls for $6 each and they were ENORMOUS.

I tried to ask in Spanish if we could take the leftovers home ("Lo podemos tomar?") but the guy said to me in English, "what are you trying to say?" and I said, "can we take it?" and he said, "yes." I TRIED.

We relaxed in the hotel for a while during the afternoon rain and then decided to walk to dinner at Maximo Bistrot in the Roma neighborhood, another popular middle-class area with lots of shops and restaurants. It was about a 25 minute walk.

All over Mexico City we were seeing these green squares painted on the sidewalk. It turns out they're markers for a safe space to gather in case of a major earthquake - supposedly, if you stand there, no buildings will fall on you. Good to know.