Amritsar: Part I

Over the last weekend, I had the opportunity to take a weekend excursion to Amritsar, a northern city near Pakistan. I was invited to the home of Yashika and Nitika, the nieces of my host, Preeta. The two girls live in Delhi with Preeta during the school year and so when they were planning their trip home to Amritsar for their holiday, they extended the invitation to Magdalena and I. A friend of the girls, Anjani, also travelled with us. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to new part of the country, spend some time with some new friends, and to stay with another Indian family.

We travelled overnight by sleeper train. It was my first time travelling long distance by train and I quickly decided this was NOT my favorite means of traveling. It was uncomfortable, bright, and noisy, and I spent the whole next day feeling like I was in constant motion. However, I was VERY excited to arrive in Amristar around 6:00 AM, were greeted by our hosts, and then took a nap. We had been hoping that it would be a bit cooler in Amritsar than in Delhi, that that certainly wasn't the case. During the last few days, the temperature has ranged from a balmy 110 to 115 degrees! Once we were feeling a bit more rested, we enjoyed a very large Indian breakfast before heading out to some western-style malls and then a local temple.

The temple was incredible and was replicated from a larger temple that is in the mountains. In some ways, it seemed like an amusement part since the builders had essentially recreated the experience of being in the mountains. We had to travel up "hills," walk through streams, and crawl through tunnells.It was very exciting!

After our visit to the temple, we enjoyed some more local foods, which were called Indian "hotdogs." It was no Chicago-style dog (it was vegetarian, in fact) but it was quite delicious! Magdalena and I assumed this was our dinner, and our hosts found it hilarious a few hours later when they saw the surprise on our faces when they served actual dinner. We were later informed that the hotdogs were just "snacks" and they had prepared another large meal for us. We certainly were not underfed during our time in Amritsar.

For dinner brain curd was served--the brain of a lamb! I was thankful to have Magdalena as my vegetarian companion, so I didn't feel quite as rude passing on the brain and sticking with the vegan dishes! We had some major food babies after eating so much delicious food!

After dinner was the most exciting part of the weekend when we travelled to the Golden Temple, a Sikh temple built in the 1500s made completely out of gold. It was among the most beautiful sites I had ever seen. The pictures don't do it much justice, but it was truly breathtaking.

Amritsar: Part II coming soon!