Mexico City, Day 1 (Polanco: Hello Kitty Cafe, Museo Jumex & Museo Soumaya)
After a long day of traveling to Mexico City, Nick and I, along with my cousin Tiffany and her boyfriend Mike, finally made it to our Airbnb at around 9pm. Our first task was to go to the nearby store to buy large jugs of water, however, we completely forgot that not all places here accept US credit cards, so after being rung up at the register, we embarrassingly couldn’t pay for our items. Fortunately, there was an HSBC ATM nearby, so we rushed there, withdrew some pesos, and hurried back to the store with 5 minutes to spare before they closed.
We also needed some food at this point, but it was getting close to 10pm, so we weren’t sure what would be open. However, there was nothing to worry about because apparently restaurants stay open until 11 here, even during the middle of the week. We ended up going to a Lebanese restaurant, where we had a delicious dinner to end our very long travel day:
The next morning, we had an hour before we needed to head to our lunch reservation, so we found a cute cafe near us for coffee, Cayetana Pananderia:
We ended up getting mochas, which were wonderful, and shared one of the sweet pinwheels. The cafe was small, but the large windows definitely made it feel more spacious. While we didn’t try many of the pastries, they all looked good, and the woman making our coffees was super nice.
With coffee and pastry in hand, we decided to take a quick stroll through the nearby Parque Mexico. As I’ve said in previous posts about various cities outside the US, we love wandering around and appreciating aspects of those cities that we don’t usually get in the US, such as multiple parks with groomed landscaping and areas to sit and enjoy nature in the middle of this bustling city:
We couldn’t spend too much time here, but it was enough time to enjoy the large lake with some fountains and swans, the lush greenery, and the Audiorama, which, as far as we could tell, was an area with hanging chairs with music being played, such as Enya.
Next, we grabbed an Uber, which is really cheap here, to head off to the area of Polanco, where we had a lunch reservation at Hello Kitty Cafe! Traffic was bad, so we ended up being late, but fortunately Nick was able to call them up and tell them of our tardiness, and they were graciously understandable.
We were dropped off at the entrance to a mall, and it took us a few minutes to figure out where the cafe was, but we eventually made it there and were immediately hit with 50 shades of pink:
Even their menu and place setting kept with the theme:
Nick ordered the mocha, which came with a cute Hello Kitty cookie:
For food, we ordered various toasts, and NIck had their breakfast sandwich. To be honest, I didn’t have much expectation for the savory food because I figured that you’re really there for the experience, and for the most part that was true. The food wasn’t terrible, but it’s not like we’ll go back again because it was great.
Since we were four people, we decided to get their signature dessert tray, which came with waaaaaay too many cute, sugary items:
The top tier contained a couple of cupcakes and a Hello Kitty sugar cookie, the middle tier contained three Hello Kitty shaped mini-donuts, and the bottom tier had a red velvet cake, a berry roll cake, and a chocolate mousse cake in the shape of Hello Kitty. We tried as best as we could to finish it, but were defeated by the sheer amount of sugar in front of us. We ended up taking the cupcakes and one mini-donut back with us, so we’ll enjoy that at some point during our trip.
Conveniently for us, the Hello Kitty Cafe is located next to two museums that we wanted to see, Museo Jumex and Museo Soumaya. We decided to see Jumex first and were greeted with this large gold and silver sculpture:
Inside are four floors of exhibits, as well as the main floor with a cafe and store. Entry is free, but you’ll need to get a ticket from one of the people at the front door before going in. Once inside, we were greeted by another person who told us to wait until the elevator arrived, which she then told us to get in and were automatically taken to the top floor.
The exhibit on this floor was the works of Lari Pittman, specifically of his works that centered around sexuality. We could easily see how some of the works could create a conversation on this topic:
Unfortunately, one of the floor’s exhibits was under construction, so we went to the next floor down. This floor had a small selection of sculptures that I think were intended to examine the connection between fossil fuels and dinosaurs:
Out on the balcony, we had a great view of Museo Soumaya, which we headed to next:
Like Museo Jumex, admission is also free. Nick read up about the history of Soumaya, and discovered that it started out as a museum of items from Carlos Slim’s personal collection. Carlos Slim is the richest person in Mexico, so I guess he bought and/or received many art pieces and had no where to put them, so he put them in the Soumaya for the public to enjoy. Eventually, more pieces would be acquired by the museum, so I think it’s grown past just his own items.
Currently, after going through security, you’re greeted by a copy of Michelangelo’s David, that was made in the 1800’s. After having seen the original in Florence, we can confirm that this is true to size:
Next to David is a door by Rodin depicting the door to hell, so…welcoming…
We headed up the marble stairs to the first room, which we can only describe as random items that we believe were owned by Carlos Slim and/or his father. There were various musical instruments, dresses, phones from various eras, random art pieces, and models of other buildings. Very eclectic:
We then headed up to the second floor, which showcased pieces relating to mythology.
Then up to the third floor, which is art that I truly don’t care for: religious art of various time periods and portraiture. Like, there was an entire wall of various painters painting Madonna and child. And not a small wall, a very long and tall wall that felt like it would never end.
There were also the many paintings of the crucifixion of Jesus, which I quickly walked past. There was this interesting diorama of the nativity:
And this cabinet with various metal sculptures depicting the sacred heart:
My favorite piece on this entire floor was this painting of monkeys at a barbershop with cats, mainly because it was the only piece that didn’t involve the Bible or a portrait of a random person:
The next floor up was more contemporary works, which I was excited to see. There were works by Dalí, Miró, Picasso, and other well known artists:
We definitely loved this sculpture of a walking man, he definitely looks like he hasn’t skipped leg day:
On the fifth floor, there was art relating to Mexico, including an entire area devoted to Mexican currency:
But the top floor was the highlight, not because the ceiling was cool:
But because it was almost entirely comprised of works by Rodin. Being up close to some of these sculptures showed how skillful he was at depicting movement. There were many pieces on display, but here are a few that we liked:
By now, we had spent a few hours in the museums, so we decided to walk around the Polanco area. Along the way, we walked past this fancy mall with an interesting pyramid like exterior:
Next, we walked through Parque America, which was cute with a fountain and a cool looking church next to it:
After a short stop at a clothing store, we made it to Parque Lincoln, but only had time to walk through one half of it. But we did see statues of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. as well as some sculpture:
We all needed to take a short break, so we headed back home and rested before walking to Blanco Colima for dinner. The outside looked trendy:
I think the food could be described as contemporary Mexican. We ordered a bunch of dishes to share, including ham croquettes, tuna tostada and beef tacos:
We ended our night sharing a dessert called Lemon Surprise. There was no description of it, so Mike really wanted the surprise to be that it would be a literal lemon. This is what showed up:
We thought MIke’s wish came true, but it was really a white chocolate shell in the shape of a lemon with cream and lemon inside. We all enjoyed it, and were subsequently stuffed from all the food we had today.
It was a great first day in CDMX, and we’re excited for tomorrow’s adventure in the city!