My First Impressions

Day one in India. The first thing that shocked me, was the amount of smog in the air. As the plane was landing in New Delhi, we flew threw a dark cloud that was covering the whole city.  I was barely able to see the ground as we approached the airport and I had no idea if this was a good or a bad day for Delhi’s air quality. Its hard to understand that people are able to live their lives in such conditions. But majority don't know better, which is even more saddening. 

We jumped straight into a car and drove all the way to Agra (approx. 4 hours), to see the Taj Mahal. On the way from Delhi to Agra, we drove over a highway, called the "express". Surprisingly we were pretty much the only car, maybe with another 2-4 others, that was using this 4-lane highway the whole way to Agra. The driver told me, that due to the toll fees along the way, no one can really afford using this road. I don't get why they would build a street, this long and expensive, if no one is able to use it...

 Driving through the city of Agra, I was actually positively surprised. There were much less cars and people than I expected. I also thought it would be much dirtier. Don't get me wrong... Its still extremely dirty, but I thought that the smell would be worse. 

My first meal was obviously Indian food. I already found my three favourite dishes: Paratha (roti bread layered and sometimes filled), Paneer (a cottage cheese, either grilled or served in a tomato gravy or with spinach) and of course butter chicken :)!!

At the end of the day I was exhausted. After travelling for 7 hours, I was ready to go to bed. I also knew I had an early start, as I planned on seeing the Taj Mahal and the Fort of the Emperor in the morning before heading back to Delhi the same day...