Moments of Happiness in Mexico City

Moments of Happiness in Mexico City

I’ve been thinking about what and how to write about Mexico City since returning from the trip. It’s not that I didn’t love the city, because I really did but there isn’t just one thing that would make a decent post. Obviously there is the food and that will make a post but I feel like I needed to write something more than just telling you what I ate. But, the thing is this wasn’t a normal action packed trip where we walked thousands of steps and covered the whole city. This was a slower kind of trip.

Until I boarded the plane I hadn’t even opened the guide book, I’d read one blog about the food and looked at a map of the city purely to find directions to our Airbnb apartment. I went to Mexico City with no expectations of the trip. No list of must sees and dos. The real reason I was going to Mexico City was to meet my boyfriend and go to the F1 with him, rather than explore everything. With this in mind the focus was more on having a good time than exhausting ourselves with long days of sightseeing. I wanted to sit and enjoy food, to drink in the sights and sounds of the city and not get to the end of the day with tired legs.

This may sound relatively easy for some people, but for my boyfriend and I this is a challenge. We get itchy feet, we want to explore everything there is to do and normally have every minute mapped out before we fly. This is why I think that i don’t really know how to put Mexico into words. Why I’m finding it so hard to know what to write about the city. Because I didn’t really do enough to create any of my normal posts.

moments of happiness in mexico city

So where does that leave us? A chance to create a new kind of post.

More than anything this trip gave me moments of happiness. From seeing the city in daylight for the first time, to eating Mexican street food day after day. It was a trip of small joys that will keep me smiling until our next adventure together.

Moments of Happiness in Mexico City

mercado roma - moments of happiness in Mexico City

Hot chocolate and churros from Meracado Roma

I know, I know I said I would write a separate post about food but I can’t write about Mexico City without including food. It can’t have been more than a few hours after I’d met JP at the airport that we wandered up to the market. Not sure what we would find there but in need of a morning snack. At first I thought it was still closed but as we wondered through we found a seating area and a hot chocolate stand. In our best Spanish we ordered a delicious sweet snack of churros and hot chocolate enjoying each other’s company as we did. People watching around us and just enjoying the familiar feeling of anticipation at what this new city will bring.

mexico-city-airbnb-2 - moments of happiness in mexico city mexico-city-airbnb - moments of happiness in Mexico City

The character of our Airbnb apartment

I’d arrived 12 hours before JP so had checked into our Airbnb beforehand. But the character of our place hit JP in the same way it hit me. What some people could complain about as being old, we loved. The way it wasn’t an apartment block but a cluster of ground floor houses contained within a courtyard. The different colours of the buildings and the personal touches inside. It felt local and authentic and it was perfect for our slow paced trip.

day of the dead - moments of happiness in mexico city

Being there for the first Day of the Dead parade

After visiting the historic centre on the first day we went home and watched the Day of the Dead scenes from Spectre. Placing what we had seen that day and what we still had to see. It then had us wondering if the parade was a real thing. A little Google later told us that it was about to be. So on Saturday afternoon we joined thousands of other tourists and Mexicans to enjoy the first Day of the Dead parade. I can’t say we saw much but the atmosphere was fantastic and so many locals were out in full dress I couldn’t stop staring. To be part of the first ever parade was a special moment.

mexico F1 - moments of happiness in mexico city

Watching the F1 podium as confetti rained down on us

If you’ve followed my blog for a while then you’ll know our gap year incorporated not one but two races. So it isn’t really a surprise that our meeting in Mexico was entirely based around the F1. Still, I’m not complaining as the atmosphere at this race was one of the best. The dressing up, the friendly crowd and of course the cheering. We were seated in the stadium area and it had the best atmosphere, still nothing could beat the confetti pouring over us as the podium celebrations happened in front of our eyes.  There is something that makes you feel like you are winning at life when confetti rains down on you.

moments of happiness in Mexico City

Canal rides and the mariachi in Xochimilco

When you wake up with an entirely free day in the city what do you do? Instead of pack the day full of everything we hadn’t done we decided to head out of the city down to the flower canals. We hired a boat and rode around on the water of the community whose home this is. As we drifted along the water a mariachi band were playing and we felt like we were finally living out the lyrics of ‘Are you with me?’. Having finally found the water underneath the Mexican sky.

Have you ever taken a trip where you have really felt those moments of happiness?

jodie

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