(Post 11 of 189. Thanks again to those who participated in the Fundrazr!)
I walked over 11KM my first day in Oaxaca, but unfortunately, I did not sleep well my first night, a combination of a horrible typical Mexican mattress and my not having slept in a bed in a full year. The awful bed was a shame because, otherwise, the room was quite dark and quiet.
I had coffee and breakfast at the apartment and put in several hours of work before heading out for a ramble. I made the decision to keep Thursday and Friday very unstructured, with no museums or organized activities as I had quite a bit of work (proofreading) to do and I didn’t want to go into “vacation mode” just yet.
My first stop Thursday morning was the Alcalá, Oaxaca’s pedestrian street.
I thought a raspado (shaved iced) with pineapple and chamoy would be lovely, but it was sadly too sweet for my new tastebuds and I was unable to finish it (I call them new, but I’ve had them six years now…).
Temple de Santo Domingo
Oaxaca is really interesting from an architectural point of view in that sometimes, I feel like I’m in Europe and other times, I feel like I’m in Arizona.
These remind me of something I saw in Europe, maybe Veliko Tărnovo, Bulgaria?
Lots of stray dogs around time, but they mostly look well kept.
This is the famous Boulenc bakery, at which I bought my first real croissant in years.
My apartment is close enough to everything that I can go in and out. I headed home to put away the baked goods and to do more work.
Then, I set off in search of lunch by the Zócalo. On the way there, I cut across a courtyard with a lovely stone pattern.
The gate was lovely as well.
The plan had been to have my first comida corrida/menu del dia at a more upscale restaurant on the Zocalo… but the special of the day was… Yucatecan cochinita. You can’t make this stuff up! I ended up wandering around and found a more average meal, which is the subject of the next post!
