Tag / El Palacio de Bellas Artes

by Kelly Mattei

See Mexico City

See Mexico City

I know what you’re thinking, because I have heard it a million times. “It’s so dangerous!” “You’ll get kidnapped!” “Won’t the cartel get you?” No, no, and no. Most people in the United States don’t know about Mexico City, the governmental center of the country directly to our south; they don’t know it’s a beautiful, vibrant, cosmopolitan city with some of the best food in the world!

I just got back from Mexico City. I’m not a “sit at a resort” kind of vacationer. I like to move around. I like to learn. I like to have experiences. If you’re like me in that regard, you will likely appreciate this magnificent city. I visited several times in the 1980s and 90s, but I had not been since my daughter was born in 2003. Many times, I have tried to get friends or family members to go with me, and finally, my friend, Jennifer, from Ohio, agreed to go. Not only did she agree to go, but after she looked up information online, she was downright excited! You know why? Because she had taken a little time to learn something about the city, and she found, quickly, that it’s an amazing, massive city that is safer than many cities we don’t hesitate to visit in the United States…like Baltimore, Dallas, Portland, St Louis, and even San Antonio. In my opinion, the US media makes the entire country of Mexico look scary, but really, it’s only certain areas that are particularly dangerous. Even the US government has the same level of travel advisory for Mexico City as it has for France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Sure, other parts of Mexico are considerably more dangerous, but we never felt threatened in Mexico City.

Allow me to share some fun things to do there (we did some, but not all of these):

  • Walking food tour of Polanco, the “Beverly Hills of Mexico.” Tacos! Enchiladas! Chilaquiles! Mexican Hot Chocolate! Let me tell you…Mexico does food way better than we do food in the US.
  • Museum of Anthropology. If you’re like me, and the word “museum” just sounds boring, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this massive museum.
  • Ride bikes on Paseo de La Reforma. On Sundays, from 8am to 2pm, the city shuts down one of the main arteries, a street called Paseo de la Reforma, allowing people to ride bikes, run, skateboard through the city safely. Some of the crossroads are open, so they have people there directing traffic for safety. Rent a Citybike! We used it as a “first look” at the city.
  • Helicopter tour of city. Yep. It’s a thing. Most of them are about a half hour, and they’re not cheap, but wow!
  • Eat street food. We had street tacos and street churros…both delicious! Our general rule of thumb for eating street food was to only use crowded vendors.
  • Chapultepec Park. This park is the largest park in the city and is about three times the size of New York’s Central Park! Inside this park? Lots of sidewalks for strolling through various vendors; the aforementioned Museum of Anthropology; Chapultepec Castle, a real castle; Pole Climbers, also known as Danzas de la Voladores (see info here); three lakes, and you can rent paddle boats on at least one of them; a zoo with a panda! There is so much to see in this park. And the zoo was the first to successfully breed pandas in captivity outside of China. The panda they have now is the only panda in Latin America, and she is very old…so hurry.
  • El Palacio de Bellas Artes. This gorgeous neoclassical building is in the historic district and houses several Diego Rivera murals and other beautiful pieces, plus an auditorium, where you can see scheduled performances of the Ballet Folklorico.
  • Gran Hotel. You don’t have to stay at the Gran Hotel, built in the Art Nouveau style, to go inside and admire the Tiffany-style ceiling and birdcage elevators. It’s free! Make a lunch reservation at La Terraza, the hotel’s rooftop restaurant overlooking El Zocalo, and enjoy an al fresco meal with a view!
  • Stroll through a market. There are lots of markets throughout the city. San Juan Market offers lots of different foods…vegetables, meats, seafood, even insects! There are small restaurants inside where you can dine, if you want to feel like a local. Mercado Jamaica is a flower market that operates 24 hours a day! And there are lots of other markets…
  • Metropolitan Cathedral. This magnificent cathedral, located in the historic center and bordering El Zocalo, is a must-see. Constructed in the 1500s, it’s free to visit and is well worth your time.
  • MORE! There’s no way I could possibly list every single thing there is to see and do in and around the city. There are pyramids outside town. You can take a hot air balloon ride to the pyramids. There’s Xochimilco, the floating gardens. How about the Frida Kahlo Museum and Diego Rivera Museum? The Soumaya Museum in Polanco? Go to the top of the Monumento de la Revolución. Like I said, there’s no way for me to list everything. There are tons of ideas on TripAdvisor. Here’s a video that shows the flavor of the city:

All of that information doesn’t even begin to touch on the restaurants! When I say it’s a world-class foodie city, I mean it’s world class! The only problem with the restaurants? There’s not enough time to try all of them!

If you’ve ever considered it, or even if you haven’t, you might want to think about visiting Mexico City now! It’s gorgeous! The food is incredible. You’ll never run out of things to do. And the people are awesome too!

Viva Mexico!

by Kelly Mattei

Mother’s 80th Birthday

My mother’s 80th birthday is approaching…September 3. She was born in Alabama two days after World War II started in Poland. Sadly, she isn’t here to celebrate her 80th birthday. She died 20 months ago, on December 30, 2017. To say I miss her is an understatement. I’ve written about her before. She was nurturing…nurturing us as well as lots of neighborhood kids and our classmates. She liked for things to be done “the right way.” Yes, she was a rule follower…I got it honestly. But she also had a fantastic sense of humor…it’s necessary in dealing with my brother, for sure. And she had a great sense of adventure and encouraged us, her children, to have a sense of adventure, as well. My husband would tell you she did a good job of instilling a sense of adventure in me.

In November 1997, I decided I wanted to go to Mexico City for vacation. I didn’t have any friends who were interested in going, so I decided I would go alone. A few days before I was scheduled to go, Mother called me and offered to go with me. I knew she was going simply because she didn’t want me to go alone, but it turned out to be the trip of a lifetime. She purchased her airline ticket, and a few days later, we were on our way to an adventure. I had visited Mexico City in 1982, but Mother had no idea what to expect. I tried to make sure she saw everything she could safely see while we were there. We visited El Zocalo, which she found fascinating. We spent a lot of time touring the Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral, a place she considered one of the most beautiful places she had ever seen. We had coffee in the Gran Hotel, an historic hotel facing El Zocalo, admiring the beautiful glass ceiling. We shopped in local markets. We toured El Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Museum of Anthropology. We ate street food. We ate in great restaurants and dined al fresco at different places in La Zona Rosa. She always ordered chicken in molé sauce. And she fell in love with the warm people of Mexico. We spent Sunday afternoon in Chapultepec Park (see info here), visiting the zoo (pandas!) and Chapultepec Castle atop the hill overlooking the park. She laughed for years at how much I made her walk while we were there. And she laughed that we ordered late night room service every night while we were there. In fact, when the hotel put a copy of our bill under the door, I was shocked at the total. Remember, I was single and thirty years old…working in the travel business. I took one look at the bill and said to Mother, “Ummm…this bill is $8000. My credit card won’t take that much!” We quickly remembered, of course, that it was 8000 pesos. At that time, that translated to just over $1000 USD. Since I worked in the travel industry, I had secured us a great rate on the hotel room…80 percent off the rack rate…and we were staying in a beautiful hotel in La Zona Rosa. And in the end, it didn’t matter about my credit card, because Mother picked up the tab, as my parents had done so many times. Good times, no doubt, and it’s an adventure I’m glad we shared. She knew I loved Mexico City, and I am thrilled we experienced it together. I hope to one day take my own daughter to Mexico City to show her the same sights.

I have lived in North Carolina for the past 19 years, and Mother lived in Alabama, so I didn’t see her all the time. Many times, after Daddy died in 2006, I tried to talk her into moving to Charlotte, but she didn’t want to move this far north. I saw her several times a year, but we spoke on the phone every day…and often, more than once a day. She loved to talk about current events. She loved hearing about my life. She loved hearing about my daughter. She loved hearing about our adventures. She loved to talk about football.

She and my daddy also loved sunflowers. I grew some in my garden last year, and this year, I’ve grown more. Some of them are blooming now, but I hope a few will hold out a little longer. I want to have some blooming on her birthday, and it would be great if a few would hold out till Daddy’s birthday on September 14. In fact, two of my Mammoth Sunflowers are side by side…one is about two feet taller than the other, and that height difference makes me think of Mother and Daddy too. Mother was under five feet tall, and Daddy was 6’3″…so it makes me smile every time I see those two mismatched sunflowers.

When she fell ill on Christmas Eve 2017, I got up on Christmas morning and drove to Alabama, with the intention of bringing her back to Charlotte with me. On the long drive there, I thought of what I would say to make it clear she didn’t have a choice in the matter…she was coming home with me. But after arriving and speaking with the doctors, I realized she wouldn’t be coming home with me. She would be going home to the Lord. She would be laughing with Daddy soon. She died on December 30, 2017.

On her birthday, I will add a little Bailey’s Irish Cream to my coffee in memory of her. She would laugh if she knew that.

Happy Birthday in Heaven, Mother.