Swiss roads, Swiss chocolate, Swiss Alps

Our cute little car for traveling from Munich to Venice and
whatever else in between. So glad it was a small car. 

Our trip to Switzerland came at just the right time for us. We drove from Memmingen, Germany, through Austria, a brief stop at the Lichtenstein border, through Interlaken, Switzerland, to Stechelberg where we had to park our car. I have to say, I was really nervous about renting a car and driving it in a foreign country. It worked out wonderfully, though. The car wasn't too big, gas wasn't too expensive, and I didn't break too many road laws. I'm pretty sure. There were a couple of toll roads that I had no clue as to how to operate. I was supposed to go into one lane but went into another or something like that. I think we missed a couple of payments. But no tickets. After driving through all of these countries, I wonder why people always say, "You have to drive the Autobahn in Germany!" Firstly, "autobahn" is just "freeway." Secondly, the driving laws are the same in all of these countries. I reach a certain point on the road and I can go however fast I want. I really just stuck around 75 to 80 most of the way. I got a little over a hundred for a while just so I can say I did so.

A small view of a Swiss road. 

Once we got into Switzerland, driving got a bit more scary. All of the signs and rules were the same. It's the roads that were different. Switzerland is pretty much all Alpine Mountains. That means that all of the roads are either going around or through a mountain. I was either twisting around the roads or spending 10 plus minutes in a tunnel. My arms were beginning to lose circulation because I was keeping them and 10 and 2 the whole way, leaning forward a bit, staying as focused as I could be as I navigated roads that swerved around 350 degrees and tried to make sure the car behind me didn't hit me because its driver wanted to go twice as fast as what I deemed a safe speed for those roads. Eventually we finally made it to Stechelberg which is where we were to leave our car for three days while we took the cable car up to Gimmelwald and stayed in the beautiful Mountain Hostel.

The stunning view from our
hostel in the Alps.

I think that what we enjoyed the most about staying in the Swiss Alps was that we were away from the city, only had one site to set out and enjoy, and everyone else was there for the same reason. It was wonderfully relaxing. The hostel has four rooms. The girls room, boys room, family room, and the lovers room. We were housed in the lovers room. It was a bunch of row of bunk beds, but what made them cool was that they were in sets of two, so we could actually lay next to each other even though we were in a shared room. There were a lot of other people there our age and we had a great time hanging out and visiting, talking about travels and life plans. Pretty much everyone there was en-route to somewhere else and a common question to be hear was "So where's your next stop?"

One of the many cows we walked by
on our hike. Ain't she beautiful?

We had one full day in Gimmelwald. We used that day to go on a hike. We thought about going to the very top of the mountain, but we were told by seasoned travelers that it wasn't really worth it and that another hike was better. So we went on that other hike and regret nothing. The trail is called the North Face Trail. It pretty much follows the north face of the mountain. Get it? It was fantastic. We hiked for about three hours (with stops) and saw so many wonderful parts of the mountain. The view was amazing. The trail took us through farmlands, herds of cows, fields, electrified fencing, over a river, and along cliff-sides. We had to set aside all of our lifelong training of what trespassing means and go through a whole bunch of gates, walking through people's yards and by farmers working in their fields. The gates were attached to electrified fencing where the herds of cows are kept with their noisy bells, poo piles, and flies. We struck it lucky in that our one full day was the one clear day of the week. It was foggy before we got there and foggy again when we left. So we were treated to all kinds of awesome mountain views. We were also treated to a lot of hot sun. I got a lovely sunburn that I'm still babying today.

Probably the best meal we
had in Switzerland. For real.

Food in the Alps is terribly expensive. Check that. Restaurants in the Alps are terribly expensive. We at at a restaurant before we went on our hike but then after that we bought a bunch of food at the market and brought it back to our hostel. The hostel has a kitchen with a bunch of baskets and space for people to keep food there. They also had a couple of "free" baskets where they put things that people leave behind. So along with our market food and whatever we could scrounge from the "free" basket, we made ourselves an awesome dinner of tortellini and and salad and a delicious breakfast scramble that everyone was so jealous of. It felt great because, not only did we save an amazing amount of money, but a few of our new friends complimented us on how well we worked together to make some great food!

Two things about Gimmelwald that I didn't witness myself, but heard from other guests of the Mountain Hostel:
1 - Gimmelwald is home to Europe's first ever Honesty Shop. This is a store that doesn't have any staff manning a till. It's simply a room with a lot of stuff in it. You go in, find what you need - general supplies, souvenirs, clothes - leave the money in the designated location, and leave with your goods. Awesome idea for such a small town.
2 - One guest said that there was a cheese shop on our road that isn't advertised except for a little tiny sign outside of a house. He went up and knocked on the door and an old woman poked her head out of an upstairs window and called down, "Hallo?" He said, "I would like to buy some cheese?" She responded with an "Oh!" shut the window, ran downstairs, and opened the door he was standing at. She welcomed him into a little room that had three big things of cheese along with other knick-knacks and she sold him some cheese right there.

So that's Switzerland for you! Scary roads, cool mountains, great hikes, nasty sunburns, AHmazing chocolate. Really, we got some super cheap Swiss-made milk chocolate and it's the best I've ever had. I'm sad to leave that behind. We're about to finish up Venice, Italy, and I'm pretty sure our place in Rome has a decent computer so that blog will be coming soon! So, until next time, my friends!

Germany - The land of my birth

"New Town Hall" in Munich. Looks much
older than the "Old Town Hall."

Firstly - I'm writing on a really weird keyboard and I want to get done as soon as possible, so please forgive me if I get a little lazy with my writing. Really.

So we took a train from Prague to Munich. It seems so long ago. Right now, at this very moment, I'm sitting in a hostel in the Swiss Alps. But that's for the next blog. This one is about our experiences in Germany. One thing at a time, my friends!

Munich is an amazing city. Brandon was really excited about Germany because of his passion for WW2 history. I was excited for Germany because I was born in Memmingen, Germany, almost 27 years ago. Ew, gross. 27? Really? Let's pretend I didn't say that and move on.

The pillars are all pockmarked
from bombings. Up on the left
you can see a couple of patches.

Since we got in a little late, like 3:30 in the afternoon, it was too late to do any museums or tours so we just wandered around the city center by ourselves. The buildings all look so old. Some of them still have evidence of the bombings in WW2. We walked through large plazas and could just picture the major Nazi rallies that were probably held there. The next day we did a three hour city tour and found that we were correct in our assumptions. There's a big plaza outside of the Residence Hall where kings lived and Hitler held rallies there.

As we were walking into the city center we went through a plaza called Karlsplatz and there was a man preaching against Islam. That was right when we got into the city so it was an interesting welcome. There were cops all around him and a big crowd of people - some booing, some cheering. What was pretty scary about the situation was that there was a very large group of men and women who were obviously Islamic and who were getting a little crazy. There was a lot of yelling. I took some video and then we got out of there. I have no idea what he was saying, but the people were not pleased.

Brandon with his massive beer.

After our three hour long tour we went to the Hofbräuhaus which is an internationally known beer house. A king a long time ago was having beer shipped to him from far away and was costing the city a lot of money so he had his own beer house built. Eventually it was opened up for the people and they all sing cheers to him for that action to this day. They place is huge and the beers only come in one size - 1 liter. Brandon got one. We ended up spending more than two hours there because it took so long to get our food. The waiter first brought my food and we shared it. After about an hour and a half of him saying the kitchen is crazy and Brandon's dish is coming, he came back and said Brandon's dish was not coming and he has no idea what happened. Then after about 20 minutes Brandon's dish came. It was all very confusing. Also, it cut into our museum time like crazy and we were never actually able to go to one of the museums that I wanted to go to. 

Prison cells at Dachau.

The next day we went to Dachau. We got there pretty late as well because first we had to go rent our car. We had planned on picking it up at the train station across the street from our hostel but it turned out they had an Italian car at the airport which means that we don't have to pay the international dropoff fee which is 200 bucks. So the whole ordeal took a bit longer than expected. We tried to make it through everything at Dachau but we were just late enough that the crematorium closed before we got there. Brandon is still broken-hearted about that one. Some day we will go back to Germany and see the things we missed out on.

Two cool things about Munich:

1: When Hitler took power it was pretty much set in stone, and everyone knew it, that Germany was going to be going to war. Because of this a lot of people went around town with their personal cameras and took pictures of every detail that they could. After the war, when everything was completely destroyed, the city of Munich had two choices. They could either rebuild the exact same city or they could build a new city. Berlin decided to go the new city route. Munich took advantage of the pictures taken and rebuilt their city exactly how it was before the war - straight down to a cannonball that had been lodged in a church tower since the 30 Years War - see picture on the right.

2: Some cities have monuments and memorials for the people who suffered and/or died because of the Holocaust and Hitler's reign. Munich, again, decided to go a different route. They instead have a lot of small, more subtle memorials placed all around town. Most or all aren't labeled and you wouldn't know what it was unless someone told you. The one I have a picture of is a golden line of bricks in what is called "Dodger's Alley." Hitler had a memorial placed in the plaza across from the Residence Hall and required all who passed it to do the heil salute. If someone didn't do the salute, they would either be shot, beaten, or sent to a concentration camp. Scary, right? So the people who didn't want to do the salute would "dodge" the memorial through that alley to get to where they were going. The police eventually caught on and even going down that alley became dangerous.

Every city and town has its
own crest. This one is
Memmingen's on the
German flag.

After Munich we went to Memmingen which is where I was born. I never knew anything about the town because we left when I was a year old. So I really wanted to go see it. Today we told a couple of Germans that we went to Memmingen and they were incredibly confused. They said, "Why would you go there? There is nothing there." When I said I was born there they laughed and asked me why I didn't speak any German. The initial confusion was pretty funny.

Memmingen is the cutest little town. It was great to get out of tourist town. We went to dinner at a little pub with an old man who didn't speak a word of English. Brandon didn't get what he thought he ordered but we both smiled and he at it anyway. Turned out to be pretty good so everything is great. There happened to be a couple of trails laid out for tourists in the town center so we were able to get some fantastic exploring in. I don't feel like we missed out on anything.

So I think that's pretty much it for Germany. I mean, as always, there's more. When we get home I'll post all the pics with more information and adventures, but I think this blog is probably long enough. And I'm hungry. I want dinner. So, until next time, my friends!

Czech Nature

The amazing astronomical clock on the city's
town hall building.

So here we are completing our tour of Prague, Czech Republic. Loving the land, art, history, and architecture. The people, though... We're not too pleased. Maybe it's because we're in what we've come to call tourist-land? Maybe it's the language barrier? But, really, the people aren't very nice. When we first came into town they didn't stamp our passports so we tried asking around about where we could get that done. Turns out it's not really necessary in the EU. However, whenever we asked someone they would send us to a different person who would send us to a different person and so on. Finally we asked the receptionist at our hotel. Again, he tried sending us somewhere else. We explained to him that whoever we ask, we get sent somewhere else. At that he laughed and said, "That is just Czech nature." I see. I don't think I like Czech nature.

Brandon's disappointed face
that came with each beer he
ordered here in a town known
for amazing beer.

The restaurants have horrid service. This may go along with "Czech nature" but I feel like I'm causing my server a huge hassle just by asking for some more water. And, along with the bill, they always give a little piece of paper with the math and expected tip scribbled on it. Our first thought? "Don't tell me what to tip! You didn't even check on us once. We had to flag you down. And you want 20%? Yeah, right."

Today we were partially scolded by our waiter because we wanted to share a meal. He said that's just not the Czech way. If we want something small, we should go to McDonald's. We go to a restaurant to eat a full meal.

These were everything I wanted them
to be.

That's alright. The food isn't super exciting anyway. Except for the desserts. There is delicious ice cream everywhere and today I had some sort of sweet pastry baked in a tubular shape (see picture). It was wonderful.

St. Vitus Cathedral. I'm sorry,
the picture does it no justice.

On a lighter note, this city is absolutely rich with history. There's no way I could list it here but I can say some of these buildings date back to the tenth century and was the home of the Good King Wenceslas (you know, that guy in the song). We went and saw the castle and the castle's church and surrounding town. It was all amazing. Like a fairy tale. The castle church - St. Vitus Cathedral - is probably the most massive, most immaculate church I have ever seen. It has so much detail with spires, stained glass, gargoyles, and everything. We can see the church from everywhere we go in town, it is so big.

Prague is a town filled with towers. There are clock towers, guard towers, gate towers, and viewing towers. We bought a pass to gain access to all of them, plus a couple of other sites. All that to say: we have done a lot of climbing in our stay here. I am so ready for our train ride tomorrow to give my legs and feet a bit of a rest. But all of the towers were awesome. It was neat to climb them and learn about what they were used for and why they are there.

There was one tower that gave a lot of history to the bells of the city. I didn't realize how much respect went to the bells but they have a history, a purpose, and some stories to go with them. It's said that every year on the Thursday before Easter all of the bells will make a trip to Rome to receive a blessing from the Pope. Even objects that are made from melted down bells remember their history and make the trip as well. It is said that, because of this, soldiers couldn't find their guns before a battle in World War 1.

A spy setup in the top of a
bell tower.

Another tower is an old bell tower in a church and was used by the communist secret service agents to spy from. They used many towers around town because they provided a good view of the land so they could watch out for "people of interest." Most of these "people of interest" were from the foreign embassies. The tower we went up had a view of about ten different embassies, including the American one.

The carving of 1678 was in a statue at
the top of a gate tower.

Something that I have found incredibly interesting in these towers is all of the graffiti and carvings in the walls. These towers are so incredibly old and people have been carving their names in them since their foundation. The oldest I found was from 1678. We also did an underground tour and a couple of the rooms we went into were used as dungeons. The prisoners carved their names and messages into the walls of their rooms. It was amazing to see and to be able to touch something with such a story.

So that was Prague! There really is a lot more, but too much to be able to write in a blog. We're still having a fantastic time. My gut is healing pretty well. I've taken off two of my bandages. One of the incisions is being slow to heal and my belly button is pretty ugly and bruised. But I'm on my way back to being normal again! I totally climbed all of those towers at what I think was a pretty decent pace.

We carved our initials in a lock to put on one of
the statues on Charles Bridge. It's supposed to
be good luck or something like that.

So until next time my friends! Next stop: Munich, Germany.

Where, oh where, has my appendix gone?

The Freedom Train in Boston is a red line that
the tourist follows to different sites where
cool things happened in our nation's history.

First stop - Dublin! Our Europe dream vacation has begun and it's expected to be amazing. We took a red-eye flight to Boston, getting little to no sleep, and then another red-eye to Dublin. Boston was pretty cool. We went along the Freedom Trail and saw some cool sights. Before we even left I was feeling pretty sick. Sunday night I had a massive migraine and felt very feverish. Thank you to those of you who joined us for frozen yogurt, by the way. You guys made our short stay home quite refreshing. Anyhow - Through Boston I started getting stomach cramps and (the secret D word). The migraine and fever remained. I was taking medications to try to calm things down but nothing seemed to work. I felt as though Montezuma had a little more revenge in store for me.

Here's my gut. It looks big, huh? Sorry.

When we landed in Dublin we went straight to a pharmacy to see if I could get a different medication. The pharmacy sent us across the street to the doctor, the doctor sent us up the street to the hospital for some tests, and the hospital sent me into surgery and proceeded to remove my precious appendix. So that was Dublin. The whole time we had set aside for it was spent in the hospital. The staff was very nice and took good care of me. Brandon is frustrated because we both know that the swelling was from (the secret D word) and what I really needed was antibiotics. But when the doctors went in to check on my appendix, they said that the swelling was way too close for comfort and they took it out for safety's sake. I don't need an exploded appendix. I suppose I don't need an appendix in general. I don't even miss it.

So now here I am with three holes in my gut. After I was released from the hospital we had enough time to do a bus tour, which was a bit more bumpy than expected. Luckily, we have our last two days in Dublin, so we can go back and check on what we want. We still need to do the Newgrange tour and there are some pretty famous author locations we saw on our bus tour that I would like to revisit.

Look at those cool cats! This is us
with Marc and Rimalda way
back at Crater Lake.

Next stop after Dublin was Amsterdam. We took a wheelchair through the airports and it was awesome. No line waiting for us! I think a lot of people doubted my need for one... But walking hurt! First thing in Amsterdam, we met up with our good friends, Marc and Rimalda. We met them when they were doing a world tour a few years ago. They asked to share our campsite at Crater Lake and we've been buddies ever since! Marc said, "Call us up if  you're ever in Holland!" I bet he didn't realize we would actually follow through on that one!

So the four of us went to a concert that night at the Paradiso Concert Hall. It was a man named Donavon Frankenreiter. His band is pretty rockin' on stage. His CD is a bit more mellow. At the end of his show he did a song with his little boy on the drums. It was super cute.

Red light windows in the
Red Light District.

I'm still working on recovering from surgery so we didn't do as much as we would have liked to, but we saw quite a bit. We hit up the Van Gogh museum, the Rijksmuseum, and a sex museum. Van Gogh had a lot of art and it was cool. The Rijkmuseum had a lot of history of the country, which Brandon really enjoyed. And the sex museum... well, that was interesting. Amsterdam has what is called The Red Light District and they are pretty well known for this one part of town. It used to be where the sailors would come to port and seek out some lady friends during their short stay on land. There are doorways down the streets that have red lights over them. In each doorway sits a lady. We went in the daytime so as to say that we went, but to avoid as much seedy activity as possible. The women were really just hanging out, waiting for their next customer. Some would call out to the single men walking down the street. It was definitely an experience.

Current day! Totally love these guys

We had the chance to take a train out to Marc's parent's house where he and Rimalda are housesitting. It was great to see some countryside, relax with some friends, and have great food.

One thing we are enjoying on this trip is seeing all of the different architecture. It's all amazing. Amsterdam has such old buildings all lined up. A lot of the apartment buildings used to be docking warehouses. They have hooks up top that were used to load things in. The hooks have remained, and now people use them to move large furniture into their houses. A lot of the building faces also look like they're about to fall forward. I noticed many crooked buildings. I tried to get a good shot, but I don't know if a picture can truly portray the experience of seeing it.

So now here we are in Prague. That will be my next blog. I know I haven't been as vigilant as I would like to be. Hang with me. I'll get a schedule down by the time I get home. So, good night, my friends. Until next time. If you're the praying type, prayers for fast healing for me would be fantastic. I would love to get to exploring without cringing in pain so often. And I've got some towers to climb tomorrow!

Death by bus ride

This post has been sitting in my edit box for a week now. It's behind the times. So I sped through it. check my facebook for pictures if you want. --

I think I've re-edited this new post, like, five times now because I just haven't been able to finish it. Now, here we are back at home getting ready to take off for our next adventure tonight. I haven't blogged near as much as I wanted to. For that, I apologize. But, we had an amazing time in Mexico and hope to return some time in the future.
I've been thinking about this topic since our first day of school and simply haven't had time to write get it down. So here it is:

The Queretaro bus system is much different than our own back home. In Eugene the bus system is owned by the county - Lane Transit District. Buses are clean and big, accommodating all who want to ride. In Querétaro, there are four or five different bus companies who are all competing for business.
I'll start by saying, the roads there are already terrifying. Our first experience was in a taxi, swerving in and out of traffic, honking to let other drivers know we were there. I figured that that was just how taxi drivers drive. We've all seen the tv shows portraying the madness of of the taxi business. Then we rode with our host mom. Lanes and stop signs are more for the sake of image there. Drivers simply slow down at stop signs to make sure no one else is coming. We'll often see cars straddling the lanes while driving. Many will just stop in the road and hang out for a while or make a right turn from three lanes over.
Imagine this kind of traffic in a bus. They aren't all that careful, either. Since they've got competition, they need to make sure they get to the bus stop first. So the buses are all passing each other in whatever opening they can find in traffic. If there isn't an opening, they will make one. They cut pretty close to each other, too. At one point our mirror slid along the side of another bus as we were trying to squeeze by. Sometimes riding the bus feels as though we're in a racing game. The purpose is to go as fast as possible to be in first place, but then at the same time we have to stop where people are waving us down. So we're slowing down, speeding up, swerving to the left, swerving to the right, slamming on the breaks, and so on. At one point we went to pass another bus and our driver just slammed the gas. As we passed the first bus at full speed I noted the drivers making some sort of signal at each other. Our driver smiled because we won the race.
Grabbing a bus is interesting. I'm pretty sure the buses don't have any sort of time schedule. They simply have their route that they're supposed to follow. So we just knew that one would come eventually, if we stood in a certain area. There weren't real bus stops, except for little stations here and there, so we would just stand on a corner where other people stood, watch for our number, and wave it down. Sometimes it will stop, sometimes it won't.
Since they are different companies, the pricing is sometimes iffy as well. Since we were students, we should recieve a student discount with our ID cards. A half price discount. There were many bus drivers who simply wouldn't have it. We never took the S bus because the driver actually accused us of having fake cards. Normally, though, as long as we took the bus to and from school, we would get the discount.
end.

A list of shorts

So I am over my illness and have a few minutes to post something new! Here's my list of shorts. These are all short statements that don't really need a full blog or anything.

This is one of the many plazas here. The shoeshine stands are
all lined up and usually seem pretty active. Also, the cleaning
ladies all have what look like handmade brooms with sticks
tied to the bottom of a pole.

>There are people dressed in orange pushing carts around town cleaning up the ground. They seem to be primarily older ladies.

>There are a ton of shoeshine stands. All lined up.

>Comida (lunch) is the biggest meal of the day. It's a lot of food. We always eat with our señora at three. We normally aren't given any food between breakfast and comida. In fact, Paty got mad at me one day because I ate too close to comida time and so I wasn't hungry.

>We've learned that we must always request our check from our server. They won't bring it unless we do. We did a lot of waiting around before we realized this custom.

This was in Mexico City but
we see the same thing here
in Querétaro.

>There are cops everywhere and they always seem ready for a riot. Also, they've always got the light on. I wonder how people know when they're being pulled over.

>There are clowns in the plazas! I guess that's probably a big city thing. I mean, we wouldn't see that in Eugene.

>Our family members have never heard of A Christmas Carol. I don't know if that's a Mexico thing or just our family. But it was surprising.

>There are more fans of fútbol americano than previously expected. Even our señora likes it more than soccer. But most people are fans of southern teams like Dallas, San Francisco, and Oakland, which makes sense.

>Most bathrooms cost money to get in (like 4 pesos) and they hand out toilet paper at the door. Also, we don't flush our tp here. There's always a little trash bin next to the toilet. This can often lead to bathrooms smelling less than pleasant.

This couple was actually taking a picture of themselves
making out. Ahhh youth.

>Young couples make out everywhere. Mostly they park themselves in the plazas where there are benches and pretty fountains. But really... they don't care who's around.

>When it rains here it freakin' pours. Like, for serious.

>Our señora says not to give money to beggars because they are immigrants from South America going through Mexico to the States. She says that they aren't wanted here and if they don't get any money then they would be forced to go to the church for help. The church will feed them and clothe them but also will send them back home. I suppose we all have our own immigration issues.

>Speaking of which, I talked to my new Mexican friend about how we have a lot of immigrants back home who refuse to learn or speak English. She was flabbergasted and talked about how incredibly important it is to learn the language of the place you're living. That made me feel good.

>There's a really weird Nazi presence here. I don't quite understand it yet, but I see paraphernalia everywhere.

>Busses are terrifying. I'm going to write a separate blog on that.

Side note - I had some sort of infection. The doctor wasn't specific about it. It could have been a sinus infection. Anyway, I was pretty darned sick. Had a high fever, sore throat, and just felt all around gross. I had to take an exam at the hight of my illness. Surprisingly, I got a B on it! So anyway, I went to the médico. Most of the pharmacies here have a little doctor's office on the side or in the back. The one I went to was just a little room on the side of the building. It's pretty weird, but it got the job done. The doc simply took my name, age, temp, asked if I had any allergies or chronic diseases, and then prescribed me 4 different medications, one of them being a shot that I had to have in mis pompis two days in a row. I'm over it. I just have some congestion and an ugly cough left over (very common for me considering my asthma). The worst part, I think, was being so sick during our trip to Mexico City. Hopefully I'm done for the rest of the summer!

So there's all that. Keep track of our Twitter accounts for periodic updates or pictures. Brandon's is @the_ferg_says and mine is @JessicaPestika. A new update will be coming as soon as we have time. So until then, my friends!

De Efe

Hey! It's a special guest episode of the Ferguson blog, written by that other guy! Jessica has a ton of homework and I have been blessed with a slightly lighter workload. I always give Jess a hard time for writing such long blogs, but I am finding out first hand how difficult it is to summarize these kinds of experiences.

This was our view of
Mexico City from the plane 

Bueno, this weekend we went to Mexico DF, which is around a 3 hour drive to the city, then another 3 hours to the other side. It's the world's second most populated city next to Tokyo, but the world's most dense city. Jess and I got a pretty good glimpse of the immensity of the city when we flew in a few weeks ago; buildings as far as the eye could see, including two separate strips of skyscrapers.

There's a lot to see and do in DF, as it's basically Mexico's Washington DC and New York all in one, only with more history and people. The city was built over the top of Tenochtitlan, the Aztecan capital from the 14th century until the Spanish conquered it in the 16th century. Tenochtitlan was built on an island in a lake. As it's population increased the Aztecs built little floating islands, primarily intended for gardens and small houses. The Spanish went ahead and built the whole city (skyscrapers, castles, and all) over the entire lake, and it sinks about three inches every year.

Atop the Pirámide del Sol
looking towards the Pirámide 

de la Luna 

View of the Pirámide del Sol and
the center of the city

First, we went just north of the city to Teotihuacan, the religious and cultural capital of the parent culture of the Aztecs and Mayans. The city's peak era corresponds with that of Rome's, and it was one of the biggest cities on Earth at the time. It was one of the only major sites of antiquity not destroyed by the Spanish when they arrived because it had already been deserted and was covered by dirt, so much that until 100 years ago people thought the massive pyramids there were just hills. There are several different kinds of temples and buildings: one temple to Quetzalcoatl adorned with amazing sculptures, and two pyramids that are much older; el Pirámide de la Luna (moon) y el Pirámide del Sol (sun). I climbed them both, but Jess was dealing with a sickness that messed up her ability to breathe (Mexico city is much higher in altitude than Querétaro, which in turn is much higher than Eugene). It was a neat experience that I'm glad I took part in, but the multitudes of tourists and people trying to (successfully) sell me trinkets stole a little of the ambiance. The vendors had some pretty humorous tricks to catch the gringo's attention. They would shout “One dollar!” or “Great prices! Almost free!” switching between English and Spanish as they liked.


There were multiple museums throughout the trip, and I don't think I could successfully differentiate between them well enough to be worth the effort. There is one at Teotihuacan that is stuffed full of artifacts found there on site (check out our pictures for more details). The next spot is out of chronological order, but it fits well here. Just about 3-4 blocks away from where we were staying, around the corner from the city's main square and gigantic church, is el Templo Mayor. In fact, the church was partially built using stones from the temple. This was the most holy site in all of Tenochtitlan before the Spanish arrived. There was an enormous two-pronged temple there in honor of two different gods. Here, we saw many of the same things we saw at Teotihuacan, but because this site was still in use when the Spanish arrived and was purposefully covered up, there are parts that were more preserved than the dust-covered Teotihuacan. There is a pretty great museum there as well.

We also went to the Castillo which sits on a hill overlooking a beautiful park that leads the eyes further to the city's skyline. When the French emperor Maximiliano was living there in the 1860s the skyline would have been dominated by towering churches. Today it's dominated by skyscrapers, but I suspect it's equally as beautiful. The Castillo is surrounded by castle walls that were built into the hill and covered by trees. Other than those walls it is far more like a mansion than a castle. Most of the main halls and staircases are covered but also open to the outside, it was hard to differentiate when we were inside or out. There are ridiculously magnificent gardens out front and one on the roof near the emperor's habitación. The halls and great rooms have been converted into museums dedicated to Mexico's immense and complex history of colonization, independence, and revolution.

One of Diego Rivera's Murals in the Palacio. They are so 
left-leaning that the conservative politicians of the current 
party have to walk by with their heads turned the other 
direction.

One of the most famous muralists of all time, Diego Rivera, lived and painted in Mexico DF. He was married to the artist Frida Kahlo, whose famous blue house we were able to tour as well. Rivera's murals are in some of the most important places in the whole city, including the Presidential Palace where he painted murals depicting the history of Mexico and the direction he wanted it to take in the future. Frida and Diego founded the Mexican Socialist Party so there are a lot of anti-capitalist, pro-proletariate themes with appearances by Lenin and Marx throughout. His murals are also a permanent fixture in the Palacio de Bellas Artes, an amazing building built in the 20s that screams of the prosperity the nation saw at the time.

The trip overall was great, but there were times we were on the bus for hours just driving through the city. It's huge and apparently doesn't have sufficient freeways. At one point the bus got stuck taking a corner too tight and we had to ask someone to move his parked truck. We blocked traffic at that intersection for a solid 5 minutes at least. On the way home we hit a big traffic cone and had to pull over to get it out from under the bus. I could go on and on about the frustrating parts of the trip, but I'd rather not because overall it was amazing.

One of the infinite moments
we spent on the bus

Catedral de México DF

Part of the ruins of the Templo Mayor

PS: We're halfway done. 3 weeks until we come back then another day until we leave for Europe.

Oh also, there was an indigenous lady selling guajalotes in the major plaza of the city. We wanted to take her picture but she wouldn't let us.

Keep track of our Twitter accounts for periodic updates or pictures. Mine is @the_ferg_says and Jessica's is @JessicaPestika. A new update will be coming as soon as we have time. So until then, my friends!

On a party boat in the river with beer and mariachis