Buenas Dias! It is currently 5:21 am and I have not slept yet. I think that tells you about how my day went…
This morning, I woke up naturally at 6:30 am. I debated going back to sleep, but I’m in Mexico…
I decided to just get up and go for a stroll to find some breakfast and coffee. I saw on Reddit that Cumbre is a really great place, so I decided to walk there. It was about a 25-minute walk from the hotel, and the walk was so beautiful! I walked down Avenida Amsterdam, which has a lot of trees, flowers, and other foliage. I saw a lot of runners there, so I’m hoping to squeeze in a short run sometime this week.
When I arrived at Cumbre, I ordered a latte and a pastry (in Spanish!). All of a sudden, I heard someone speaking to me in English:
“OH MY GOSH, DID YOU GO TO THE CERCLE CONCERT LAST NIGHT?!”
I was still wearing my bracelet, and the man sitting behind me noticed.
We started talking about how amazing the Ben Böhmer concert was last night. After about an hour of chatting with Bastian, another guy, Jai, came and sat down with us. Bastian is from Germany but has lived in Mexico City for two years. Jai is from Vancouver and is just traveling for a couple of weeks. We called our little group the “foreigners’ club”. In this moment, I was reminded of why I love solo traveling so much. You never know who you will meet! I had totally expected to spend the day walking around by myself, and instead I made two new friends.
After coffee, I took a stroll through Chapultepec Park. I had initially wanted to go to the castle, but by the time I walked 30 minutes there in the hot sun, I didn’t have the energy to climb the hill!
Next, I walked to Cafebrería el Péndulo, which is a two-story bookstore with a café. Knowing it would be a long night, I ordered a double espresso. After that, Jai and I met up for lunch. First, we went to Churrería el Moro for some churros, and then Frëims for some tacos. It was delicious, and the atmosphere was very nice.
By the time I got back to the hotel, it was time for the welcome party! It was hosted on the hotel terrace, and the DJ playing was Notre Dame. It was a great opportunity to meet the other Momenters who arrived today. I met CJ who is from Chicago, and we went around introducing ourselves to new people together. It’s a lot less intimidating with another person!
I ended up dancing for the entire 3.5 hours of this event, which is pretty crazy considering it was only the start to a very long, fun night. In the last half hour of the event, Marcelo (Cercle team member) became the DJ. He was incredible! I wanted to run upstairs to my room before leaving for the concert, but his music was so good that I couldn’t pull myself away.
At 7:30, we all piled into vans and headed back to the venue for another Cercle Odyssey concert: Monolink. It was a spectacular performance, and I danced my heart out for another three hours! I spent most of my time next to David, CJ, and Vlad. David is literally one of the most hilarious people I have ever met in my life. To sum up his personality, he told me tonight “people have offered me drugs before because they think I do them… but I’m just like this”. He doesn’t even drink alcohol! We have a great time dancing, making jokes, and being chaotic while being the only non-drinkers in the group.
After the concert, we all piled into vans again and drove to a different hotel (I’m not sure what the name is at the moment) for a rooftop party with WhoMadeWho. The van ride was more fun than usual because Jerry (Texas) was bringing the energy! He was hardcore bopping to the music, so our bus ride became a whole party! The bus driver even made makeshift strobe lights by manually turning the lights on and off.
When we arrived at the rooftop of the new hotel, I was astonished by how amazing the view was. We could see the cathedral —the biggest one in Mexico— as well as the National Palace, which is where the president lives. WhoMadeWho started playing right away, and WOW they were incredible. I had a lot of fun dancing with CJ and JJ. I love when I hear “Claritaaaaaaaaa”, and I turn around to find JJ standing there with open arms, ready to dance! He’s my pal. And I’m not sure if I mentioned this in my last post, but he only speaks Spanish, so I have been getting some practice with speaking español. Believe it or not, I danced until the party ended at 2 am, taking only a short break to eat a couple of tacos.
When I got back to the hotel, I decided I was too tired to keep partying and went to bed instead.
JUST KIDDING.
I went to the after-after party on JJ’s terrace until almost 5 am. WhoMadeWho was there to hang out, which was fun! I talked for a while with their sound manager, who’s from Denmark. I also chatted with Lily, James, Mark, and Ross again. Ross was so funny because she went into her “gremlin mode” and started demanding people drink vodka straight from the bottle. I got a free pass of course 😉 But she’s called Ross the boss for a reason!
Whew. What a day.
Until tomorrow,
Clara