Agra

I've been sitting in my room for the past week and half, contemplating sickness, final exams being over and my inability to leave campus because I'm am, in fact, 70 years old. I've been telling myself "I really should travel." But, being the curmudgeonly malcontent that I am, I was always able to rationalize with "ummm...but I don't wanna" Still, my plan was to do SOMETHING in the last week and because the Taj Mahal is so close to Delhi, that was kind of it.

So when a couple of friends let me know that they happened to have an extra ticket going to Agra, I took it as a sign.

The trip there was a more or less pleasant journey on the train at 7 in the morning. Waking up early is kinda my thing here so it wasn't too much of a problem getting to the train station. 

Our first destination in Agra was the "Baby Taj", a smaller monument similar to (yet older than) the Taj Mahal. The day itself was short but sweet. We managed to see a fair amount of stuff in the six hours we were there. 

We bought our tickets to the Taj Mahal at the baby Taj to avoid waiting in line. Despite the assurance of many people that I could possibly get a 20 Rupee Indian ticket as opposed to  the 750 Foreigner ticket  (because I "look" Indian), I ended up getting what the called the "High value" ticket which meant separate and admittedly faster lines. 

The Taj mahal was beautiful and HUGE. I hadn't really thought that it would be so big. When standing here, you actually think it's a lot closer but the size plays tricks with your perception

I keep my selfie game strong. 

We also managed to get to the Agra fort, which was cool because it gave us a nice view of the Taj Mahal from afar. 

After a minor snag with our train being an hour late, we managed to get home around 10 or 11 (I can't remember because my brain was not functioning properly) I was so tired that I didn't even eat!