Fifth continent, longest flight

A friend of mine texted me while I was at SFO to ask how I was doing. My response was, "We're all down here, and then we're going to be up there." I am always somewhat incredulous that I am going to get in a big metal tube with a bunch of other people, like it's the thing to do. Everyone seems so calm, like it's normal. I freaked out a bit when they started looking for people to voluntarily take a later flight because the plane was too heavy (um... excuse me?) I popped some Ativan and boarded. It was one of the smoothest flights I have been on in years, which is great, because it was almost 16 hours long. 

I thought getting out of the airport was going to involve more human interaction. I was instructed to a kiosk to scan my passport and take my picture. Then I was instructed to leave, not wait on the long line that other people were waiting on, to talk to an airport official in a glass booth. Again, I was incredulous. I asked, "Don't I need to talk to someone, to ensure I'm not a criminal?" Apparently not. So I tried unsuccessfully to use the ATM, and then got a cab ride from a very friendly and informative cab driver named Bobby. 

I'm in Melbourne. Australia. Fifth continent.

My check-in time was 3pm. I got to the hotel before 10am so I was pleasantly surprised when I was informed they could get me in my room early. I am at the Hotel Windsor and it's exactly.... 

(I just got interrupted by a lovely woman who gave me a complimentary bottle of wine. )

... what it sounds like. It's old. It's pretty. It was not the most practical choice, nor was it too expensive.

I was excited by the high tea they have here everyday until I found out it's $89 Australian (almost $64 USD.) 

Well I had time to kill, I was hungry, and under-caffeinated. I got my first flat white at a cafe, along with a BLTA on focaccia. I walked around Fitzroy gardens.

I wandered into St. Patrick's Cathedral. They were having mass (go figure, it is Monday here.) I thought showing up in my adult self, I would relate to the content of the gospel more than I did when I was a child. NOPE! 

The church was pretty though.

I feel like I should not be in my hotel room right now. It's beautiful out- 70 and sunny. (I probably could have packed better.) I was kind of given an extra day because I got checked in so early, but I am also pretty tired. I didn't sleep on the flight so much as hallucinate through it (I don't know if benzodiazepine-induced hypnogogia is a thing, but I'm going to say it is.) I have been using this time in my hotel room to review the places I want to go, and write this blog. I am meeting up with a friend of a friend tomorrow, which will be lovely. At some point I will have to find dinner. I should NOT crack open that wine tonight. 

Big ass museum part deux

Ok, not as big as the one I went to yesterday, but big enough that I spent a couple of hours there. The Museo Nacional de Arte contains Mexican art from the 16th to 20th century. The building is as impressive. It's neoclassical (apparently) and people go nuts taking pictures. There was a couple on the stairs with a photographer lying on the steps taking a picture of their hands so they had the ceiling as the backdrop.

I had not realized that Sunday was their free day, so when I got there ten minutes after opening, there was a long line outside. It was crowded at first but thinned out after the first exhibit. I would been happy to pay the 95 Mexican pesos for more breathing room. Just as a point of reference, that is $5 and change. I just looked it up; admission to the De Young Museum is $20 and to the SF MOMA is $30. The most I have paid for any museum admission has been 100 Mexica Pesos. The tour to Teotihuacan was $44. 

They did ask you to pay 5 Mexican Pesos for permission to take pictures. They give you this stylish ring as proof.

The exhibition on the ground floor went from death, to the tarot, to astrology, to mediums. It got decidedly more churchy later.

Some of my favorite work here was by Adolfo Mexiac:

They had a room of sculpture, many with mythical themes:

And then things got super churchy. We know Delia is not churchy.

In that last one, Jesus seems super chill. 

There was an exhibition on German List Arzubide. He was Mexican, not German. I am saying these names like I've heard of them before; I haven't.

Just when I thought I had got to all of it, I noticed an exhibition on the telegraph.

That was about it. I promised myself no more running and looking at stuff. I came back to my hotel room, got a cappuccino and a pretzel shaped pastry. I went to dinner down the block. I ordered a sandwich and got this:

I felt a lot of pressure. If I wasn't leaving tomorrow I would have saved one. So instead I massacred it:

That's it. I fly to NY, via Atlanta tomorrow. Hopefully my luggage also arrives. I'm considering putting cloths in my backpack just in case. 

Thanks for reading.

Big-ass museum

This would be a good time to mention that, second only to Paris, Mexico City has the most museums of any other city.

Yesterday I went to the Museo Nacional de Antropología. I lean towards modern art museums myself, but this is a place everyone says to go in Mexico City. Manuel (our tour guide on Friday) mentioned it several times. I have also heard you can spend a day there. I was not going to do that. I got there shortly after opening. I would have gotten there earlier but I could not find the entrance. I just walked around the entire perimeter until I found an opening. (facepalm emoji would be fitting here.)

I spent three solid hours, and towards the end, I was reading the placards more than looking at the artifacts. It is MASSIVE. I think I saw all of it. You enter into an enormous courtyard. The building is shaped in a kind of U. 

I entered on the left, because that seemed like the thing to do. After that, I can't tell you what happened. The rooms connect to other rooms endlessly. Basically you just keep walking until it seems you can't go any further. And then you find some stairs and hope that takes you in the right direction. 

They had artifacts from hundreds of years BC (I am not sure if that sentence is grammatically correct, but you know what I mean.) Some of what I saw were replicas, like this:

They had whole sections on textiles

There was an enormous section on Teotihuacan.

Up until this point, the museum seemed pretty empty. This area was crowded; it was the first time I saw any tour groups.

At this point, there was still a whole other side of the museum I had not seen yet.

I did not have any separate info on the museum layout. I think it was by area. Needless to say, there is a very rich history here, many indigenous groups, languages, different rituals and architecture. I can't say I remember much in detail. I had considered joining a tour but just never got around to it. I generally don't do that when I travel, but after the Teotihuacan, I see the benefit of having someone explain things (especially for me, who tends to be a more verbal learner.)

I thought I was going to skip the Saturday Bazar. It's in the area I was on Wednesday, which is a little bit of a distance. But here I was, back in my hotel room by 2pm, and museum'ed out. So I went. 

I only stayed for about an hour. I was not that big. There were a lot of more high-end merchants. I bought, among other things, a journal. When I first got here, I passed a journal store close to my hotel. I went back and found it the next day, to discover, to my HORROR, that all the journal pages were either blank, or dotted (what fresh hell is this!?!?!?) Yesterday, I found a journal with lines. The seller had only two journals of dozens with lines. It's very pretty though. 

I also had a woman stop me to tell me she admired my posture. I told her it was because of my mother. She said she did not have such luck with her own child. She asked if I do yoga (I actually get asked this quite a bit.) She told me to tell my mother she noticed, which I did.

I went to a Japanese place for dinner. This was probably the most awkward dinner I've had. The food was very good. But I ordered sake before looking at the menu (which was HUGE and had to be accessed through their QR code which I couldn't get to work, because I had to connect to their wi-fi, but needed the waiter to enter the password for me yada yada yada.) The sake cost almost as much as my entree. I got vanilla pudding to go. 

So a note about the weather: I was bummed that I had come during the rainy season. When I looked at the weather, it appeared it was going to start raining Wednesday and not stop. In reality, it has rained 2-3 times since I have been here, and only for a short time. I can't complain. It has been high 70s pretty much everyday. The only annoying part is I have sunblock on all my clothes.

However, the sky opened while I was eating Japanese food. Luckily the restaurant is a three-minute walk and I had an umbrella. But I was stepping in puddles that covered my feet. My sandals were soaked by time I got back. 

I just put them in the shower and ate my pudding. 

Today, my last day, I will be going to the other huge museum. I'm going on a Sunday, which is probably stupid. I plan to get there when it opens,