"Beautiful Mexico City!" Mexico City by chizz

I first visited Mexico City in April/May 1990 as part of my British degree course in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Portsmouth (Portsmouth Polytechnic back then). During the second year of our course, we had to do a period of residence in Spain and Mexico as our degree combined both countries!
In theory, this was a chance to improve our Spanish language skills, but most definitely improved our drinking and socialising skills more!!
After living in Madrid for 6 months, I moved on to Mexico City for the next six months. Originally, we were supposed to enrol on some courses at the UNAM university but as they were about to break up for the summer, this idea was abandoned.
At first, there was just a course colleague and myself sharing a house with some other British students, but then two other colleagues joined us in Mexico City and we all moved into another flat together - and so the fun started.....
Many nights out at the famous "Ladies Night" venues with new Mexican friends and later time spent with our new Mexican boyfriends. We also did quite a few trips around Mexico to Acapulco, Taxco and Manzanillo, Oaxaca and Puerto escondido as well as seeing the usual tourist sights in and around Mexico City.
After completing my degree, I decided to return to Mexico with a British friend as I had applied to work for Berlitz in one of their language schools. But before starting work, we decided to travel around for a while to Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.
I worked with Berlitz for 4 years as an English Teacher, before moving on to another language school and I also did more travelling around the country in my time off to Leon, Guanjuato, Guadalajara, Colima, Monterrey, Ixtapan de la Sal, Toluca, Valle de Bravo, Puebla, San Miguel de Allende and many other places.
After around a year back in the UK, I was again offered the chance to return to Mexico when I got a job as a Holiday Representative with a British company. This time I was based in Cancun and worked there for around 2 years starting with this job and then moving on to work as a restaurant promoter in a Mexican restaurant. This again gave me a chance to travel around the Yucatan Peninsula seeing Merida, Isla Mujeres, Cozumel and Playa Del Carmen amongst other places.
My aim is to return many more times to Mexico in the future and visit the places that I've not seen so far and to catch up with my old pals Flora, Tocaya, Javier and my new VT friend Laura.
My friends tell me that the city has changed so much since I last saw it and also that is more dangerous too!

Me with Alex Lora from Mexican band "El Tri"

1. The friendly people
2. The atmosphere
3. The range of places to visit
4. The food - especially tacos al pastor, tacos arabes, mole poblano and tamales!
5. The ease of transport around the city

OH - and Luis Miguel!

Things I dislike about Mexico City!

1. The pollution!!!!!!
2. The crowds - especially on the metro
3. The bad traffic
4. The corruption and beaurocracy
5. The over-amorous men

My friends Katia and Tocaya and myself

1. Visit the Zocalo
2. National Palace
3. Teotihuacan
4. Zona Rosa
5. Chapultepec Park and Castle
6. Coyoacan
7. City tour on the "Turibus"
8. Torre Latinoamericana
9. Anthropological Museum
10. Bellas Artes Palace
11. Frida Kahlo Museum
12. Templo Mayor
13. Eat some authentic Mexican food!
14. Practice your Spanish with the locals!!!!