Good Day First World Travellers and welcome back
I am in Mexico City, more specifically I am in the Coyoacan area in the south of the city.
And this video is all about my first impressions of Mexico City, I've been here for about a
week so I wanted to share with you some of the things I've learnt, some of the things
I have seen and some of the things I've experienced over the last week.
So without further or do, let's go.
So I'm sitting in this lovely, quiet, calm area in the middle of Coyoacan after just
eating some amazing food, you can check that out in my video from Coyoacan which you'll
see soon.
Firstly, I just want to clarify a couple of points, I have been to Mexico before, however
this was a 3 hour day trip to Tijuana from San Diego, therefore I don't really class
that as a trip to Mexico, I class this as my first time in Mexico.
Also, the second thing is that I have been to Guatemala and Belize and 6 countries in
South America so in terms of some aspects of Latin America I'm kind of familiar I guess,
and one thing I thought before I came here was, is it going to be similar to my experiences
I had before in South and Central America.
Sorry about the noise, hopefully he'll shut up in a minute.
I think he's stopped.
There are many aspects of Mexico City that I can kind of remember from the past when
I was in those countries that I mentioned.
Just the general feel of it, what the people are like, the food etc but my first impressions
of Mexico City is that it is different, obviously it's a different country, yes it's a Spanish
speaking country but it's a different country so there are going to be differences.
Let's talk about people first of all, right from the moment I got to the airport I was
blown away by how welcoming and friendly everyone was, yes obviously they're at an airport and
they have to be like that.
As you may know I've spent a lot of time in Japan over the last year and anyone who's
been to Japan will know the level of politeness and friendliness and helpfulness.
So I think I'm a bit of a travel snob in that respect because I expect everyone else to
be like that, I have very high standards.
From my experiences before in Latin American countries, it wasn't to the level of Japan,
I'm not saying that anywhere should be like Japan because Japan is Japan, this is Mexico.
Overall I find everyone people wise absolutely awesome The lady that I'm staying with at
my Airbnb is brilliant, top notch, she's wicked, I love her!
Other people that I've met have been brilliant.
The second thing is about language.
This is a strange one actually because having spent a lot of time in Japan and other Asian
countries, to be honest I never really had a major issue with language, but here it's
strange because I do have some level of basic Spanish, I'm not going to lie I can't have
a conversation in Spanish, I know the basics, hello, goodbye, thankyou, good afternoon and
all the different types of food.
In terms of forming a conversation with someone at the moment I really struggle with it.
Things are coming back to me so when I hear people saying words as I'm walking past I'm
like "aaah!"
I remember what that means, so hopefully one day I'll be able to build a sentence.
I feel a bit guilty actually that I don't know as much Spanish as I should.
It's strange because in countries in Asia, naturally you would think you wouldn't have
a clue and you'd really struggle, but I think the difference is, in those countries to the
locals it was obvious I wasn't Japanese it was obvious I wasn't Thai etc, and I'm not
saying I'm Mexican because clearly I don't look Mexican, but I do get people talking
Spanish to me because I look European, potentially I am from Spain or somewhere in Europe and
would have some knowledge of Spanish.
Oh look at the wind!
So just on language, I'm sure I will feel a lot better going forward as I am here for
like three months and I guess what it is, I've said it before and I'll say it again,
language is a really important thing when it comes to feeling comfortable in a country.
I guess the first few days I felt a bit "Oh god where am i?" because I was really struggling
to converse with people.
I'm getting a bit better at it now, it comes in time as your confidence grows.
It sounds stupid after all the countries I've been to but I still get like that.
And the next thing is about variety.
I guess me and probably everyone has preconceived ideas about somewhere like Mexico City but
I've been pleasantly surprised in terms of the level of variety in terms of the different
areas.
It is a very large city obviously, many places like Coyoacan where I am now were originally
a town in their own right but they've been swallowed up by Mexico City as it's grown.
This is different from Condesa, Roma, the central area and it's different from all the
other areas, I could go on forever.
So I guess it just keeps it interesting.
The problem I have with a lot of places I go to and you might be the same is that you
lose that amazingness when you go to places but here I honestly feel like....
Right I keep having to stop because of the dancing, there's a girl banging a stick thing
and dancing to it, not sure what that's about.
But overall the variety thing is brilliant.
When I compare it to cities like Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore which are very tasteless
in a lot of ways in that everywhere is the same, at least in my opinion.
Mexico City is very different, there's lots of different areas and it's very interesting
to explore.
The last thing I want to talk about, are preconceived ideas.
A lot of people have preconceived ideas about Mexico.
I guess particularly in some countries like America, you know, Donald Trump, the wall....
And in general Latin America countries, that they're poor countries, they're third world
countries, they don't earn a lot of money, not good economy that sort of thing, but I
would say if you're going to come to Mexico, forget all that, make up your own mind, make
up your own opinion, yes there are problems, but I think it's often, the way Mexico is
portrayed in western media, is incorrect.
So far I've not had any issues, I've never had any issues in Latin American countries,
South American countries.
Don't listen to what people say, make up your own mind.
That's the really important thing about travel life, I think.
And lastly, just two things I just want to mention together which I absolutely love which
I will be doing videos about coming up.
Number one - the food.
F**k wow, oh my god, it's f**king amazing, I've never been to country where I could literally
eat everything, If you've been watching my channel for a while you'll know that I'm ridiculously
fussy with food and I often vomit, which I did once, but here, absolutely amazing, I've
always loved Mexican food, similarly with Italian, lots of meat, lots of vegetables,
I hate vegetables but in Mexican food I like vegetables, and a lot of spice and bread!
It's literally heaven.
And the second thing is the Subway, I got the subway for the first time today, that's
another thing that people have preconceived ideas about, that it's unsafe, that you'll
get pickpocketed, yes, there is that element of it, you do have to be streetwise and careful,
that sort of thing, but I think the fact that it's modern, it's efficient, on time, inexpensive,
it's brilliant, if you're worried about pickpocketing and things like that, I don't think Mexico
City is a place to come to for a first time traveller, I think you need to have experience
with being streetwise and being a bit wary and knowing what to look out for.
All in all, that is my first impressions of Mexico City after a week, very positive, I'm
really glad that I came here.
I was originally going to go the other way to China and Kazakhstan but screw that.
So before I completely get blown away by the hurricane, I'm really hoping there isn't too
much wind effect on this video, otherwise I will jump off a cliff.
I hope you have found this useful if you're coming to Mexico for the first time.
If you've been to Mexico or maybe you're from Mexico, it would be great if you could tell
me your opinion down below, do you agree with what I'm saying, particularly about things
like the media and that sort of stuff, as a Mexican citizen what do you think about
tourists from the USA particularly, Britain, Australia, places like that.
I'd love to know in the comments.
Thanks for watching, don't forget to leave a comment, like this video, or dislike and
subscribe because there's literally a million Mexico videos coming up, I'm here for three
months, it's going to be epic.
Thanks for watching I'll catch you later