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Our first morning in Mexico City was pretty busy. Our itinerary still had gaps that had to be filled.
We booked a Oaxaca van through Mexbus online while still in New York City, but they cancelled the last
minute. So at 8:00am, we took our first Metro ride to the TAPO terminal to buy tickets to Oaxaca.
There are no buses running on Christmas Day so we settled for 11:30pm tickets on December 26. We
picked the first class UNO bus which cost us about $45 each one way.
Back at the Zócalo we decided to visit the Palacio Nacional, which houses various government
departments. The National Palace takes up the whole eastern side of the Zócalo and it has the
façade of tezontle, a red volcanic stone. Once you step inside, it's like a whole different
place. The noise outside is blocked out and everything is serene. Most of the walls are
decorated with Diego Rivera's murals but the staircase leading up to the first floor has
the most impressive, known either as the La Gran Tenochtitlán or the El mercado de Tlatelolco.
The central panel depicts the history of Mexico from 1521 to 1930. The right side shows pre-Hispanic
Mexico while the left shows El mundo de hoy y de mañana, The World Today and Tomorrow.
Since most places were closed, we just went back to the hostel and idly pass the afternoon by
drinking beers and having our first sample of the local firewater: mezcal. We decided to skip the free
Christmas Eve dinner provided by the hostel and finding dinner became a challenge.
We walked around a lot looking for places that were open. We found Aguas Frescas
which had excellent tortas and fruit juices. Tortas are like Cuban sandwiches, with buns pressed
and grilled, only better. They put all kinds of stuff in there, avocadoes, onions, bell peppers,
cheese and eggs with either your beef or chicken. Right next to Aguas Frescas was a rotisserie called Molino's.
We bought half a grilled chicken to eat later after midnight.
We went to the Cathedral at 11:30pm but to our chagrin, we had misunderstood the time and watched as people
filed out of the church. We stood in the middle of the Zócalo where the giant Christmas tree was and
greeted each other Merry Christmas right there instead. We went back to our room and devoured
the pollo ranchero with some wine to celebrate my birthday. I received my present and given
our surroundings, I couldn't have been happier with our noche buena.
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 Palacio Nacional
Open everyday for free. You have to leave an I.D. with the guards.
 Aguas Frescas
Cinco de Mayo Avenue and Rep de Chile.
A Torta Combinar, meaning everything they've got, is worth every penny. Try their melon ice drink.
The Torta Cubano is also excellent. Two tortas and a drink cost us P69. Try looking
for a very good sandwich in New York City that's $7.
Molino's
Half a pollo ranchero, grilled chicken, was P21.50. The price made me so happy I wanted to laugh.
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