The bells of Mannheim.

..Epic title, eh? :) I thought so. Anna and I were making breakfast yesterday morning, and the bells of a nearby church started tolling. It was beautiful. I though, "The bells of Mannheim. Hm. That would make an epic title for something." ..So, here we are. :)

Yes, we arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday evening, around 6:00 pm, Febuary 4th. But let me back up a bit and give you some background on the things that happened in the past week. :) We left Goa on Friday, January 28th, and flew in to Dehli. We stayed one night there, and on the Saturday morning, we hired a taxi for the day and went to the TAJ MAHAL! :)

It was.. indescribable. You will just have to see it. So.. epic. :) We were back in New Dehli by 6:00 pm, and our train to Varanasi left at 6:55. So, we took the train to Varanasi, and that was a whole adventure in and of itself.. :) Very.. awesome. :) We arrived in Varanasi at about 9:00 the next morning. and.. WOW. What a stark contrast to Goa. Goa is very westernized, and tropical, lots of forest area, and relaxed, and just so beautiful. Varanasi is.. well, dirty, and not as pretty, people EVERYWHERE, and quite fast paced. It has its own beauty, but very different from Goa. We stayed there for 4 ish days, until Wednesday afternoon.

The ghats on the Ganges River.

On the last morning we were there, I woke up at 6:00. Not really sure why.. But I decided that since I was awake, I would walk down to the Ganges River, which is a 1 minute walk from the Guesthouse where Anna and I were staying, in time for the sunrise. It was beautiful. The sun rise itself was nothing much to speak of, it is so foggy and smokey, that the sun just kind of looks like a dim ball of orange coming up over a hazy city.. Not all that spectacular. But the River Ganges in the morning.. That was very worth getting out of bed that early. As I sat from my vantage point about a hundred feet away from the river itself, I observed many things. Boys playing cricket wherever there was a flat enough place to play, men and women doing their cleansing-of-sins rituals in the river, people doing their laundry, dogs and monkeys and cows and goats roaming freely wherever they like, men and young boys asking me if I wanted a boat ride.. (i did not..) It was very interesting. Varanasi is the 'spiritual hub' of India, and a tourist place for very different reasons than Goa. People come here to find religion, peace and to find.. themselves, I suppose. It was very interesting to see the different kinds of people in the city. And hanging out by the river was defiantely my favorite place to be. You saw many an interesting thing there.

The dirt road that leads down to the river, where you would put a boat in, is called a "ghat". The main ghat is called Assi Ghat, and its the main tourist place in Varanasi. I'm not entirely sure why.. :) But there are many different ghats along the river as well. 

Watching some people doing laundry by the river.

When we walked from our guesthouse to the river,  we emerge right in between the Assi Ghat, and the Burning Ghat. ..Yes, you can probably imagine what goes on here.. This is the place where they cremate the bodies before throwing the ashes into the river. Its very.. different from what we do in Canada, but it is a lot more practical than burying the bodies, because there are a LOT more people, and a LOT less space. So, this is just more efficient. ..However gross it might seem to us. Also, they believe that it purifies the bodies. There are only a few bodies that they don't burn, all because they are already purified. People who die by snake bite (because they have a snake god), pregnant women (because the baby inside is holy), animals (they are considered holy), holy men (they are already purified) and lepers (because thats unsanitary..). :) So, on our last day, Anna and I walked down to the Burning Ghat. It was very.. interesting. (I feel like I am using that word a lot.. probably because it very accurately describes life in Varanasi..) A very hard-hitting sight. If you are ever in India, I do reccomend going to Varanasi. It is so.. ..interesting. ;)

Anyways, we left that afternoon for New Dehli. It was hard to leave our friends, Vanessa and Corissa, behind!! But its exciting to finally be starting this journey on our own. :) We spent that evening, and the next evening in New Dehli, and then flew out on Friday at 1:35 pm, to Frankfurt, Germany! And here we are. 

And now for a completely different river.. The Rhine River in Mannheim, Germany! And an Anna very excited to be here. :)

.. Us. .. :)

The night of our arrival in Germany, the people we are staying with, (Ralph and Ruth, who are my sister's in-laws) took us to a German birthday party! It was quite an introduction to the German life. A very posh apartment, great food and beer, :) LOTS of people.. people who were very tall and very educated. The John Deere factory is very near to here, and lots of the people we met were engineers for John Deere.. crazy. It was a VERY huge contrast to India, which we had just come from a couple hours before. :) The next day was Saturday, and Anna and I slept in, then spent the afternoon down by the Rhine River, walking and taking pictures. It was beautiful. That evening, we met a guy named Jonathon, who is interning in Poland, and vacationing in Germany for the next couple of days, and also staying with Ralph and Ruth. Germany has made a very good impression on us so far, it gets a huge thumbs up in our books, no doubt about that. :) We love it. Also, we love the people we have met so far. Today is Sunday, and we went to church with Ralph and Ruth, and Jonathon, and it was so good! I love seeing how churches work in other coutries. Its maybe my favorite thing. :) I just love seeing the body of Christ in different cultures, and it reminds me that it is so much bigger than just me, just my church, just North America. Jesus is WORLD WIDE. And I love seeing that. :) After church, we went for a walk, once again, down by the Rhine River, this time adding the rest of our little family to the picture. We also had Ralph and Ruth's son, Stephen and his wife Uli with us. (So, that would be my brother-in-law's brother. And sorry, Uli, if thats not how you spell your name..) :)

We are already finding things that are just a little bit different from in Canada. :) But we're loving it!

("WC" stands for "Water Closet", which is what they call the toilet here in Germany. :) )

So, all in all, Germany is wonderful!! Tomorrow, we are going to a town called Heidelberg, near Mannheim. Apparently it is a beautiful city, and so I am quite excited.. I love beautiful places!! :)

We will write more later. :) Love you all!! God Bless,

Demara and Anna