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  • Day 7

    Varanasi, Shiva city

    December 18, 2019 in India ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Sleeping on the train wasn't that bad. Not much room but somehow I gor enough sleep. After 12 hours and an hour late we arrived to Varanasi. Not to the station tho, we stopped around 500m before station and train didn't move for almost an hour. People started going out of train and walking towards the station. So did we. Why not 😃 Got some tuktuk, where I had to guide the driver with satnav... fun 🤘Meeting Mateja and Matjaž again for breakfast and then going around.
    Varanasi... this is India. This is Shiva's city - the creator, preserver and destroyer. This city has some different energy... It's a 3800 old city, holiest in India, where people come to bury the dead (they burn them near the Ganges river - Mother Ganga), also prople come here to die. You have tons of characters here, from monks to babas and palm readers,... People actually swim and wash in the river, but highly unadvisable for foreigners 🙂
    We walked up from ghat to ghat, got to upper burning ghat, where wealthier burn their deceased. No photos allowed as it is believed this prevents the soul from reaching the other side. This really is.... not hard but... different.
    In the evening we went to see Aarti Ceremony, it's being performed every day for Shiva and Mother Ganga. This... is so powerful I get goosebumps just writing this. Bells, dancing, singing,... I was speechless, without words, emotional,... Just wow.
    Day ended in some Korean restaurant with amazing food and tea 😊 I love Varanasi!
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