Calcutta day 3 - WEDDING-WEDDING - the ACTUAL thing ;)

So.. in the morning went with Baja 2 c all the funny constructions made especially with lots of effort for the Durga Puja festival - its taking place in many places (also in Varanasi), but its biggest in Kolkata
They made these big temples for the godess Durga (the one with lots of arms). They were all ''fake'' - as in: some were made of paper (!), some of bottles from some drink, some from cardboard

FUNNY

Wedding party in the evening: AGAIN in Indian outfits of course. It was so funny. Started at Apoorvs - he and Ekta were riding in a silver shiny bling-bling carriage pulled by horses to the location where the bride's family was

Guests dancing all the way there

funny VERY loud Indian music (hired orchestra) - I guess the whole point was to make lots of noise, it was not necessarily about the quality of music itself

It was such an experience 4 us

Everything absolutely different from what we know

the ceremony itself started at round 23.00

Apoorv had said they negotiated with their parents - who wanted the ceremony to last 7h (YES SEVEN) hours. But they got it down to 45mins. Turns out: they were ''cheated'' = the ceremony ended up being over 1.5h anyway guess the parents won anyway

Apoorv and Anamika were sitting on thrones

She was wearing this VERY heavy dress with all the embroidery. The whole gear was supposedly 30kg! - together with the jewellery!

all done with reading of the Sanskrit by a holy man. He was putting some pears on the ground, sprinkling them over with some seeds (?). Not the kind of wedding you get to see in Europe. Apoorv and Anamika had to walk around the fire he set in the middle of the room (!). After they walked around it for the 7th time they were MARRIED.

Again, we had a blast, and got pampered with great food!!!! Amazing actually

Actually,,, we got pampered there all the time… private drivers of Apoorv, all the food we wanted. Everything served to you… I already said that before, but I could really get used to that

We didn't sleep at all that night

straight from the party went 2 get our stuff from the apartment and were driven 2 the airport

flight 2 Delhi at 5.50 am

them train 2 Agra
no sleep 4 us !

2h flight

Actually a VERY nice plane, nicer than many I flew in in Europe

Not that I could see much as I was very sleepy.
But Menno instead, changed into a n energizer bunny and was talking all the time. We saw the Himalayas form the window