Thursday morning we woke up feeling much better after having a full night of rest. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast included with our room and then off to the bus we ran, anxious for what the day had in store for us. Our first stop of the day was going to be the Taj Mahal! I have dreamed of seeing the Taj Mahal for YEARS! The thought that I was actually going to see it blew my mind and felt so surreal. So surreal in fact that I refused to believe it was actually happening until I was standing right in front of it. I kept waiting for something bad to happen that would prevent us from going. But luckily for me the worst thing that happened was the my camera quit working and even that problem was solved before we got there. When we arrived at the gate they gave us little booties to cover our shoes for when we went into the mosque area and then made us go through security. The massive gate at the east entrance, which is the most popular entrance, was an architectural wonder in and of itself. On top of the gate there were two rows off eleven white marble domes. Each one representing one year that it took to build the Taj Mahal.... 22 years!! Walking through the gate into the courtyard of the Taj Mahal felt like the best dream ever. It was absolutely liberating to be standing in front of one of my lifelong dreams! It is an absolutely gorgeous building that no words can adequately describe. It's massive figure towers over the entire city and the sparkling white marble shines so purely to contrast the muggy air. The Taj Mahal leaves nothing to the imagination and surpasses every expectation with its perfect symmetry, white splendor and intricacies. Inside the mosque the walls are lined with the most intricate stone inlay work. It was breathtaking because of its beauty and intricacy but also because I was living a dream. Words cannot describe what I felt when the Taj first came into sight. It was something like a mixture of awe, wonder, gratitude and inspiration. I had dreamed of seeing this world wonder for so many years, and there it was right in front of me. Its structure and color were magical and stood so tall on the flat terrain that it seemed to float in sky. We spent a lot of time listening to history from Ramesh, enjoying the beauty and getting some amazing pictures to document the memory. Again, like at the zoo and other tourist spots, we were more of an attraction than the actual attraction. People loved seeing a group of "beautiful white people"and continued to beg each of us for pictures and occasionally an autograph. One group of men even tried putting there arms around some of our group which resulted in so many furious Indians and our tour guides yelling at them and then guiding us safely back to the courtyard and eventually back to the bus. Thankfully we had already spend a significant amount of time there. To us, putting an arm around someone's shoulder really isn't a big deal, but in India that is a serious offense to the culture and although we were innocent, we were apparently lucky that we didn't get in trouble. After living the dream of seeing the Taj Mahal we were taken to a little shop where we were shown how to the marble stone artwork is created. We were taught be descendants of men who worked on the construction crew. Throughout the day we also visited Agra fort and received history lessons of it as well as visited various shops and learned how they weave their intricate rugs and eventually had a 5-star Indian meal. There was so much done in that day that just seemed like such a beautiful dream and I feel as if I cannot adequately cover or describe the details of the day. But was an experience that I am forever grateful for and it is my hope that everyone has an experience such as this one.
