Check out Old Delhi!! (Back in time part 3)

This weekend was pretty relaxed. Although I had initially planned to go to Amritsar, I decided that a weekend of sleeping, eating (soooo sooo much food that I'll have to run insane amounts next week to work it all off), and tv/movie watching would do me some good. Especially since this week, I'm going back to Mayapuri!! Yaaay!

Today was a lovely day though. Dr. Dick, the doctor who is also volunteering with Asha, and I spent a lot of the day with the Associate Director of Asha, who invited us to his home for an incredibly delicious home-cooked meal and some Bollywood movie watching (Wake Up Sid, really good!). But since that is really all I did this weekend, back in time we shall go again, to the end of my second week here in India...

Hustle and Bustle

Holy smokes. Old Delhi is...insanity. Now I feel like I got a taste of the real India. Sam had just left the day before to go on other adventures around India, and Dr. Dick, who had recently arrived in India to volunteer with Asha, was off on some adventures of his own. So that left Jake and I at the flat, trying to figure out what we would be doing for the weekend. We decided that we would go to Old Delhi since Jake would be leaving soon and needed to experience both parts of Delhi. After planning where we would go in Old Delhi, Jake and I got on the bus around noon and made our way to the metro station. Now, this was my first experience with the Delhi metro, and may I just say, swaaaanky! The metro was   lovely; extremely clean and very well airconditioned, with a very fancy voice announcing the stops.

We got off the metro at a stop near the Red Fort and people immediately began surrounding us, asking us to buy clothes, and food, and jewelry. This was definitely more like the way I expected India to be. The streets were packed with people and auto and cycler rickshaws, and there was just so much noise. A little bit overwhelming, yes, but definitely exhilarating, finding oneself in such a new environment.

Outside Red Fort

When we finally got inside Red Fort, the hustle and bustle died down, but as foreigners, attention was not exactly diverted away from us. Whenever Jake and I stopped to take a picture of one of the many magnificent structures within the fort, a group of people would come up to us, asking us to take pictures with their children and what not. I still thought it was so hilarious, so Jake and I were just like, "Eh, why not?" 

Taken quickly inside the fort, before anyone could ask to take pictures with us :P

After spending a few hours just walking around the fort and the nearby museum, marveling at what was undoubtedly a significant part of India's history, Jake and I decided that it was time to see what else Old Delhi had to offer. We walked outside the Red Fort and got a cycler rickshaw, the first one I had ever taken. It moved surprisingly fast for a man pedaling a bicycle that was pulling a cart carrying two passengers.

View from the Cycler Rickshaw: Hot day and pedaling slightly uphill...this guy was literally awesome

The cycler rickshaw took us to Raj Ghat, a quiet park and the site of Mahatma Gandhi's memorial. As Jake and I sat in the grass, enjoying what was definitely the most silent place we had been all day, an Indian family came up to us and asked us about our adventures and why we were in India. Then, they asked us to take a picture with them. Of course. But I didn't mind. I even asked if they could take one with my camera too. :)

Family photo!

Jake and I left Raj Ghat and took the same cycler rickshaw to Jama Masjid, a famous mosque in Old Delhi. Before going into the mosque, we decided to stop at Karim's to eat, which was such a good idea, but also such a bad idea. By the time Jake and I finished our naan and pranthas and curries, we were both too full and too late to go see Jama Masjid, which was closed for prayer. :( But no worries! As we headed home, tired and full from the yummy eats, I knew that I would somehow make my way back to Old Delhi to see Jama Masjid. Whether it will be on this trip or the next, I do not know, but definitely someday.