Pete's Trip

    Forgive any bad spelling, puncuation and excessive letters or spaces, I'm writing this from a pretty dodgy internet cafe where the keyboard hates me (and is  Spanish so lighten up) in San Cristobal. Taking a laptop with you is incredibly convienient... until you leave the chrager in a hostel.
We spent a couple more days in Mexico city, exploring museums, aart galleries and the university. It took me aa few days to be able to find my way around, it must be nice to have a sense of direction. And of course the day that I've finally got it figured out, we leave.
We nicknamed all the streets to make it easier for ourselves, for example there was Zara Burger street, it had the Zara store and the big burger place, there was jewlery store street, bookstore street and gun street. The giant christmas tree in the main square helped me out too.
The palace of art was amazing, the architechture absolutely stunning from inside and every direction out. Matty Lee was entirely spot on when he described Mexico as a mix between the cheap and delicous of Asia and the extrordinary buildings of Europe. There are so many beautiful cathederals here, one even has a solid gold alter. The whole district was full of old, spectacular architechture and the streets contrasting with markets and cheap food carts.
We went to the university thinking it would be old and impressive but sadly no. We also wanted to go to their science museum because science museums are fun. You'd think there would be a few maps (mapas in español) considering it was huge and over a few neighbouring capuses. Alas, we found two and tried to ask for directions by using our amazing spanish skills of "dondè esta... ah... that" and pointing.
We never found it in the end but the trip out there was justified by our delicious lunch. Which we ordered all in spanish and had to wait for them to call our number to go pick it up. We struggle greatly with numbers so 136 was a fun guessing game.
As we were lazing around after afternoon beers and nachos and a bit of shopping, Jeff had the brilliant idea of leaving Mexico City last night instead of tonight, why not we figured. So after trying to find the bus ticket place and getting lost, I asked a policeman for directions. I was quickly surrounded by at least 8 of them trying to help me. Turns out the place didn't exist though. We somehow ended up on a bus that night.
We caught the metro to the bus station with our bags, thinking it would be empty at 9:30pm. It was packed. So much so that Jeff had to walk on backwards as the door started closing on him. This was after we had to run to the station and couldn't go to certain platforms because they were female only, Jeff let the team down on that one. We were allowed to get on the women, children and their husbands carriage. I dont think they really thought it through though, because not all the stations had the same conditions so it was just full anyway.

Buses are fun. And I dont mean in the oh yay we're having fun way, I mean in the haha why did we decide that 13 hours on a bus would be a good idea kind of fun. The bus was full and we had a couple with their baby in the seats behind us. You cant put your seat back on a baby! Well not in the first 5 minutes. As soon as I sat down I felt a tiny hand on my shoulder, Jeff and I joked about waiting until it leant forward and then slamming my chair back. Dont worry, we didn't, we're nice people. Jeff put his chair back and the family told me to put mine back too. After a few awkward spanish to english "are you sure?"s and "I dont want to hit the baby" I started putting it back really slowly. I stopped when I thought it was far enough but turns out it only clicks into place in 3 spots. So as I'd finished putting it back, they let the baby sit up again and as I sat back, Whoops!, the seat wasn't clicked into place and went back and hit the baby. I swear I didn't mean to, it was just a hilarious coincidence. 

Not many people will agree with me here but, I love overnight buses. There is something wonderful about being trapped on a bus full of strangers, when no one knows who you are and no one you know knows where you are. I can always face the window and gaze at the stars while listening to music that somehow feels more pertinent than ever for a couple of hours while leaving a town late at night. That feeling is one of the best you'll ever have. Unfortunately, it is replaced at about the 3 hour mark when your imagination takes over and you fantasize about how nice the bed that you would trade your first born for at that moment would feel and what you would do to lay down.

The novelty wears off pretty quickly and it takes forever to get to sleep. The best sleep is always in the morning, between 4 and 9. There is something to be said about being woken up by the Spanish dubbed Mamma Mia movie, however that something is not really acceptable to be said here.

We're in San Christobal now, a cute little town in the South. I like it because its small enough that getting lost isnt that big of a deal (I do that a lot) and it's on a grid so it's easier to navigate, a sense of direction would be really helpful but then I wouldn't be so happy and surprised when we magically (following the way Jeff says is the way home) end up back at the hostel.

That's it from me for now, it's taco time!