Day 51: Miracle Trains and #Dreamteam
Our second day in Amritsar was delightful :) I want to post pictures but I don't have time right now! Anyways, we went to the border of India and Pakistan! And guess what we found there? A huge party. People where dancing and filling stands. There was an MC and a military ceremony.
I couldn't believe how cool it was. I can't describe it so i'll post some pictures soon but it was lovely. While we were there we met two guys from Holland and Britain so we had dinner with them after driving back to Amritsar in our freezing cold rickshaw. Once again the blanket we bought a few days ago is really coming in handy. We look like bums because we just wear them as cape/shawls everywhere but then again, we look like legit backpackers.
Then we slept the night on a train from Amritsar back to Delhi. We weren't sure how comfortable that was going to be but it turns out that AC3 is really, really comfortable. We each had a bed, a heavy blanket and a pillow. If anything, this trip has taught us that when someone offers you a blanket you take it, even if you are in a temple where thousands of people have slept before you, and even if you are on train stuffed to full capacity. Being cold is not fun. And I have a pretty high tolerance for cold!
So we woke up in the morning somewhere in Uttar Pradesh... it was five or six AM and I couldn't fall back asleep because I was worried we would miss our station (BAD). Trains don't really announce what station your at. So you get somewhere and you just have to ask around to see if someone else knows where you are. Thankfully, most of the Indian people seem to innately know where they are at all times.
We were getting ready to get off the train when this lady pushes into are booth with her mountain of luggage and tells us to go. Here we are, five seconds out of bed, with our big backpacks very willing to get out of the train car but completely incapable of doing so because she is very much in the way. I look at her for a second, waiting to see if she will give us some room, but NOPE she is pushing even further into our booth. She's pushing stuff onto Carly's bunk already while Carly's still picking things up. At this point I manage to vault over her stuff and push past her family in the aisle. They don't even budge a bit! So I'm twisting and trying not to hit anyone with my huge pack and finally I make it outside of the train. About half a minute later Israel and Carly join me outside of the train and we just kind of laugh because who the heck was that woman? Rude.
So there we were in Delhi thinking "Yay, only three and a half hours till our next train to Agra!" So we go to get some food. But on our way to get food we have our first big #dreamteamstruggle. Carly stops dead and says this while looking in her purse, "Its not here!! Not even a little bit". Her iPhone. She forgot it on the train. Oh. No.
Sooooooo Monday turned into chases Carly's phone around India day :) We had to talk to lots of people that couldn't understand us, and even more that couldn't understand why how we thought we could get the phone back and we had to take a train to Mathura (where even is that?) and in the end WE DID IT! How many people can say that they lost their phone on a train in India AND got it back all in one day? Because Carly can! Seriously though... prayers were answered and team problem solving skills were build. So all in all it was a really surprisingly good day!
When we got to Agra in the evening our couch surfing friend brought us to this relatively cheap hotel/hostel type place. The room wasn't great but the view was... WOW. I felt like all of a sudden I was Aladdin. I was standing on a rooftop surrounded by the same kind of buildings, with monkeys jumping around on the roofs and RIGHT AHEAD of us was the Taj Mahal. THE Taj Mahal. And that moment was even more wonderful than I hoped it would be.
It was wonderful because I was with the Dream Team! Carly and Israel are everything I could have ever asked for when coming to India. They might be my travel soulmates ;) We have the most interesting conversations and debates. They take awesome pics, so I don't have to worry about being the photographer. They love adventures and saving money and roughing it and meeting new people.
I just feel like we've had so many beautiful moments together that will never be replicated! I ask myself every day what I would have done if they both hadn't decided to come on this study abroad. Well this trip would for sure not be happening. And I wouldn't have people to voice every thought to. I love how we help each other filter through everything that we are learning and experiencing and trying to understand about ourselves and the world.
So Agra! Soon we will be seeing everything in this city :)
Stéfanie
So we woke up in the morning somewhere in Uttar Pradesh... it was five or six AM and I couldn't fall back asleep because I was worried we would miss our station (BAD). Trains don't really announce what station your at. So you get somewhere and you just have to ask around to see if someone else knows where you are. Thankfully, most of the Indian people seem to innately know where they are at all times.
We were getting ready to get off the train when this lady pushes into are booth with her mountain of luggage and tells us to go. Here we are, five seconds out of bed, with our big backpacks very willing to get out of the train car but completely incapable of doing so because she is very much in the way. I look at her for a second, waiting to see if she will give us some room, but NOPE she is pushing even further into our booth. She's pushing stuff onto Carly's bunk already while Carly's still picking things up. At this point I manage to vault over her stuff and push past her family in the aisle. They don't even budge a bit! So I'm twisting and trying not to hit anyone with my huge pack and finally I make it outside of the train. About half a minute later Israel and Carly join me outside of the train and we just kind of laugh because who the heck was that woman? Rude.
So there we were in Delhi thinking "Yay, only three and a half hours till our next train to Agra!" So we go to get some food. But on our way to get food we have our first big #dreamteamstruggle. Carly stops dead and says this while looking in her purse, "Its not here!! Not even a little bit". Her iPhone. She forgot it on the train. Oh. No.
Sooooooo Monday turned into chases Carly's phone around India day :) We had to talk to lots of people that couldn't understand us, and even more that couldn't understand why how we thought we could get the phone back and we had to take a train to Mathura (where even is that?) and in the end WE DID IT! How many people can say that they lost their phone on a train in India AND got it back all in one day? Because Carly can! Seriously though... prayers were answered and team problem solving skills were build. So all in all it was a really surprisingly good day!
When we got to Agra in the evening our couch surfing friend brought us to this relatively cheap hotel/hostel type place. The room wasn't great but the view was... WOW. I felt like all of a sudden I was Aladdin. I was standing on a rooftop surrounded by the same kind of buildings, with monkeys jumping around on the roofs and RIGHT AHEAD of us was the Taj Mahal. THE Taj Mahal. And that moment was even more wonderful than I hoped it would be.
It was wonderful because I was with the Dream Team! Carly and Israel are everything I could have ever asked for when coming to India. They might be my travel soulmates ;) We have the most interesting conversations and debates. They take awesome pics, so I don't have to worry about being the photographer. They love adventures and saving money and roughing it and meeting new people.
I just feel like we've had so many beautiful moments together that will never be replicated! I ask myself every day what I would have done if they both hadn't decided to come on this study abroad. Well this trip would for sure not be happening. And I wouldn't have people to voice every thought to. I love how we help each other filter through everything that we are learning and experiencing and trying to understand about ourselves and the world.
So Agra! Soon we will be seeing everything in this city :)
Stéfanie
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