Perhaps my number one recommendation for a visit to Mexico City is to see one or more markets. There are major markets all over the city where people go to buy everything from fruit and veggies to clothes and toiletries.

Most markets also have an amazing butcher section. Don't seek that out if you are a squeamish vegetarian, but it is worth a look if you won't get sicked out. Huge cuts of meat, whole, skinned heads, whole bodies of large and small and generally unidentifiable animals. On hot days, flies everywhere.

Other than the general markets that are everywhere, almost always right near a metro stop, I especially recommend two:

1. Mercado Merced/Sonora (Metro Merced)

The Vines of Mendoza is a truly amazing gathering place for wine lovers. It's hard to describe the business because it is many things.

Tasting Room, Wine Bar, Education Center in Mendoza, Argentina

What do you get for the person who has everything? Penicilin.

Ha!

But what do you get for the person who has all the material possessions that they could desire, but who has a whole in their heart from the poverty and hunger around the world? This holiday season, you can fiill that hole in their heart and purchase a little slice of prosperity for impoverished individuals with Heifer International.

Through a variety of programs, Heifer focuses on sustainable, entrepreneurial, small-scale projects which improve the lives of the poor in a variety of countries. You can purchase a gift of almost any size and they will provide you with a gift card suitable to give to your friends. Not only do their gifts immediately help the lives of the recipient, they also help the recipient's family and village by improving the wealth of the community.

I was living in the Netherlands and wanted to go to the grocery store. This is harder than you might imagine.

I went to the Albert Heijn in Den Hague right by the H&M in the shopping district. It's closed almost all the time that I could reasonably go there. On the following weekend, I bought some fruit and other stuff and went to the checkout line. First, the person spoke passable English, thanks to the big guy for that one. Once we got beyond her saying something in Dutch, me giving her the "deer in the headlights" and her trying English which served for a few weeks until I learned "sprek u Engels?" So, she asked why we didn't weigh the vegetables. Uh...why would I? Apparently this is standard to weigh your own vegetables in other places which cracks me up because you could just weigh less than your total produce and lower the price of your good without having to look like you are stealing...