Varanasi, the city of life and death. A city thousands of years old, with traditions and rituals to match. Teaming with life and energy, while at the same time offering a stark reminder that death awaits us all.

This was my first trip outside of Pune. I had been in India for a month at this point, and thought I was prepared for all that Varanasi had to offer....and I was wrong.

Day 1:

It's said that the galaxy flows through the river Ganges, the most holy river in India, and one that passes directly through Varanasi. Lord Shiva took the galaxy into his head, and out flowed the river Ganges; a river that breathes life into India.

Varanasi also holds a special significance when it comes to death. Dying in Varanasi is said to allow one's soul to finally rest, to break the cycle of reincarnation. Being cremated in Varanasi is the next best thing.

I tend to follow the adage "A picture's worth a 1000 words" and hope that I take enough pictures that I don't have to write, but maybe a few more words wouldn't hurt. As the title alludes, this will be about me moving 13,000km away. Currently living in Pune, India and I arrived on June 3rd, 2018. For those that don't know; I grew up in a small town in Ohio.

My goal for this blog is to make the world feel a little smaller, and maybe encourage a few people to go out there and see more of it. If there’s one thing I learned it all my travels it’s that the similarities between people are far greater than the differences.

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I arrived at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. It was the tail end of summer in India at that point, and it certainly felt like it. As soon as you walked out of the airport you were hit with a wave of heat.

The drive to work early the next morning was different from anything I've seen. Rickshaws driving around, organized chaos on the road... sometimes not organized, and so much color. I knew quickly that this would be a very different from my past travels.