Bienvenidos - first day in Ciudad de Mexico

From a modern airport with quick passport control to a dirty, noisy, hot, but so charming in an old fashioned way city! 

Here are the first feelings and where they come from:

• Colorful! Is this a feeling at all? It is here! First I noticed the fruit and nut street vendors, with their push carts, then the bright yellow apartment buildings close to the airport and villas in Zona Rosa and Condesa - everywhere is just an abundance of color 
• Surprised! Many buildings look shabby even in the historic center and many scream for repairs but among them are the pearls - like this exquisite cafe Praga29
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• Surprised! Eating at Azul http://www.azul.rest/  all dishes have the names written in Spanish and the description in English. A Japanese woman at a neighboring table spoke beautiful Spanish! And finally, every table has a stand where ladies can hang their purses.  
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  Fantastico!
• Shocked - everything has a price written in $ but it's Mexican dollars - aka - pesos.  So if the mezcal I tried for the first time in my life was $120 and a double espresso was $30, no worries, they were real bargains: US$6 and US$1.5, respectively. 
• Surprised! Food! Would I ever eat corn pudding with plum sauce? No!  Well, only here.  And it was scrumptious! It was called nicuatole  zapoteco, and the description read corn creme custard with black sapodilla plum sauce.  It tasted smooth and slightly sweet, just gentle, velvet to my taste buds.  There is something adventurous and satisfying about trying food you've never had before and this was an awesome start for my vacation.  

Some funny facts, too, which make any trip more adventuresome: 

• I asked the waiter what drink from the menu was less strong than the tequila- he pointed out the mezcal list! That potion was so strong, I got tipsy from inhaling the smoky-flavored fumes from across the table.  
• So few people speak English, my Spanish is improving.