Watching the Pyres

So Varanasi has been interesting, leaving tonight I can look back on the past few days and see the differences between north and south india, and boy do i miss south india hahaha. Its just so much more calm there, ppl are still bugging you asking to buy stuff, but in the north they harass, and the begging is soo much worse here...
Anyways, i got here in the morning after my crazy long train ride, which wasnt horrible, but its was 36hrs on the train, its not going to be good. I had breakfast after checking in and then went down to the ghats, the stairs that lead down into the ganges river. Now if you've been following along, I saw the Ganges river when i first arrived in India 2mths ago, it was in Rishikesh, and the difference is vast. There the water was pure and fresh and clean, but here its black and yellow and green, yet people carry on to use the river as their life souce, washing, drinking and learning to swim in it too! there were swimming lessons going on while i did my boat tour.
So within my first hour of being around the ghat, I saw 3 cremations, these pyres are lit to release the soul from the body and hopefully into nirvana creating the act of moksha and escaping the wheel of samsara (sorry, now im just showing off haha), but a side note, people love travelling with me here cuz im like a tour guide for all the temples and religion! its kinda cool!
Anyways, wondered the dirty streets, found some internet, wanted to put up my pictures but Varanasi hates facebook, so ce la vie.
I met an american who was kinda cool, but he wasnt jiving with india at all, so it kinda bugged me and there was something else about him that i just couldnt pin point...and it turned out that he was a nickelback fan. Really that just explained it all, no wonder he bugged me hahaha. But really, he was so against india, all the honking, and the litter, and i even tried telling him, you just need to let india take you where it wants, dont fight india, you cant win, and he just copntinued to want india to be america, not happening.
So i did a sunrise boat tour of the ghat, i got on this little boat at like 5:30 (although the sun was already up, lame for them not telling me to be there sooner). But being on the boat and seeing all the activity even that early in the morning, its no wonder theres no night life, they were all at the ganges at 5am! But it was neat, i saw the muslim men bathing area, i saw where they were prepareing more fires, i saw the swimming lessons, the kids playing in the bateria infest water, i saw the laundry, i saw the yoga (it was a bunch of kids and one western guy in his mid to late 20s all indianed out, kinda funny), and i saw the prayers.
It was very apparent that the Ganges was the life of the city and a very holy place, i sent a few lotus flower candles down the river in memory of the people I've lost and a few for the ones i love. Varanasi has been good, got me back into north india and the crazy shuffle it is. Off to Agra tonight, so the Taj Mahal is on my list of things to do tomorrow. You can finally stop complaining Kelly. Then one night in agra, bus to Vrindivan to become a HareKrishna, one night there then to delhi for the afternoon before catching my flight! I'll be home in a flash! see ya then!!