Hello India

As you can see, we have arrived safely, albeit with a 2-hour delay, but we still managed to catch the train. The train was our biggest concern, but after testing all the different classes until we found our seats, everything was relaxed. In contrast, the ride with the rickshaw from Mathura to (small) Vrindavan turned out to be much bigger than we expected, with over 5,000 temples. In addition to a large number of people, rickshaws, taxis, trucks, animal carts, and cyclists, there are also a lot of free cows, dogs, pigs, goats, monkeys, and chipmunks on the road and in the city. They are standing in the piles of garbage and sewage channels, looking for food. Our accommodation is very basic. This means manual toilet with bucket flush and for showering, we have to fetch well water from outside. The house is full of other travelers from all over the world (Brazil, India, Israel, USA, France, and the Philippines). Some of them immediately took us to the city for the Holi Festival and to explore the temple culture of Vrindavan. So, no chance to recover from the journey. But the efforts that brought us here were quickly forgotten. What we experienced on our first day here was overwhelming and unbelievable for us. You board a plane with below freezing temperatures and arrive in a country with a completely different culture, food, and air at 30 degrees Celsius. These thousands of impressions have to be processed first, and we have to settle into our new way of life.

But we are doing very well!