Pieces of My Soul -India Revisited

Two years ago this month I had the great fortune of visiting India - a place I'd dreamed of visiting for years! Feeling nostalgic, I decided to live vicariously through my travel journal, and welcome you to join me, if you like :) I journaled throughout the trip - both with written words and with thousands of photos. Each day I will post the travels and photos (well, some of them! ) from the corresponding day in 2012 until the end of the trip!

This Journal Belongs to:
Emma Louise, Aaron Michael, and All of India

January 3rd, 2012

Sometime after 8:30 am

…And so it begins – I stare down at the earth from our great metal bird – the first of three to bring us to our destination – INDIA! The sun warms me through the windows, but the frozen, snow-covered ground below negates its warmth. It was an auspicious 27ºF when we departed this morning. The two-tone hills are beautiful – south facing is heated clear of the snow, north side is white covered and frozen. Rivers and roads snake below through the many branching fractal mountain ranges. The beautiful natural chaos interrupted occasionally by the stark geometric designs of humans. The squares of farmland, as well as circles, the grids of roads.

I think now of the twin cosmic birds, circling the universe in their beauty, wings unfurled. Two separate bodies joined at one mind’s eye – a shared sight – a shared vision.
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Around 3 pm, we left the frozen rivers and lakes of Minneapolis for Amsterdam. Three movies, one dinner, and one breakfast later, we descended through the dark, scattered early morning clouds into the Netherlands. The city lights shown bright through the clouds – a beautiful sight – breathtaking. We touched down just before six – local time – time to go to bed back home, but Amsterdam was just waking. We had some coffee to prepare for the next leg of the journey – our flight for Delhi departed at 11 am and arrives just before 11 pm. Onward we go!
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January 4th
The Amsterdam airport was an interesting spot to spend a few hours between flights. Many spots to relax – most decorated with unusually shaped, bright furniture, even a mini museum. We stopped by to look at some painted winter scenes. One restaurant had giant teacup booths to sit in – alas, they were perpetually occupied, so I could not get photos in them – perhaps on the way back, but then it may not seem as important. The same restaurant also had huge tulip tables. I saw some interesting purses for sale – they folded out like tulip petals – beautiful, but far out of my price range. I don’t carry many purses, anyway. We walked around quite a bit, to counteract the long bouts of sitting.
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“If you want to know the road ahead, ask those returning.” – Printed on window at our departure gate at Amsterdam Airport

I asked an orange-turban wearing gentleman about his rather large luggage, and how he managed to convince the airlines it was all carry-on. “Sorry, no English,” he said, and in retrospect, I suppose he answered my question.
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We passed through yet another security check at the gate, and boarded our plane. As soon as the plane began to taxi – the vibrations put me to sleep. A few waking minutes in between five hours, two meals, and fumigating the cabin – according to the National Health Standards (of India), and we are making our descent into Delhi!
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We land, and then taxi for approximately 15 minutes. It’s 11:30 at night, and 55ºF. After getting off the plane we head for the Arrivals hall. We walked a long while – I heard another passenger remark, “Ok, so it’s only another 8 miles from here,” and it almost felt that long. We ended up at the checkpoint to enter the city – huge hand mudra sculptures greeted us.
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