Lazy Days by the Ganges

I've spent the past couple of days exploring and eating with my new friend Anna from Norway. It's been pretty great just hanging out by the river and taking long walks through old Varanasi. She left today, which was a bit sad, but she's headed to Vietnam in late March/early April so there is definitely a possibility that we will see each other again. So for the next 4 days, it's back to flying solo. But Varanasi, unlike Delhi, is not too awful of a place to be alone. I actually am really loving my days here. 

This is a pretty good example of how narrow the streets are.  You're walking along being jostled by everyone and boom there's a cow, or a motorcycle behind you, or even worse a funeral procession and a dead body. All three have happened to me in a day.

These are some of the shops that are along the roads. AHHHHHHH!! And every time I walk through, I always leave wanting a saree so badly.

Varanasi at sunset.

This is one of the burning ghats. Varanasi is the city where Hindus come to die and have their ashes spread in the Ganges.  It's very cool, I think, to live next to death. It's like people here have really normalized death rather than sort of try and bury it away.

A short rant on cows. I now think of them as spoiled children. They just sit in the middle of the road, eating whatever they find, and pooping wherever they want. No one makes them do anything, and they just walk around like they own the place. And no one can eat them!! That means no burgers, which I am definitely craving!!!

New friends.

These two kids were SO cute. We met them on our walk to dinner, and they begged us to take a picture of them climbing around!