Our Last Hyderabadi Adventure

Rita and Me at Warangal

The final full day of our trip in Hyderabad consisted of us taking another three and a half hour bus ride to an area called Warangal where we looked at the ruins of a walled city and palace. On our way there we stopped at a Jain temple where the boys had to wait outside again because they were wearing shorts and the rest of us had to leave our belongings on the bus in order to get in. The Jain temple was beautiful and carved similar to many South Indian temples in the area. It was a 2000 year old temple that had been restored by Jains from Rajasthan. The idols were made out of jade and covered in silver (all but the head) and the carvings on the pillars were so extravagant that I wish I could have been able to take pictures of the temple (it was not allowed). I really enjoyed visiting the temple but the guards were rather irritating so a little of my pleasure was lost but besides that and some of our group having to stand outside (or in Rita's case she switched her shorts with Brenna's pants) it was a great experience.

Warangal was also really cool because the ruins were also intricately carved. We had fun climbing around and getting our pictures taken next to the stone structures. After many snaps were taken, we walked across the street to another area of the walled city and climbed up some steep stairs to look out over what was left of the ruins. After hopping back on the bus, we stopped again at a Hindu temple to look around and be blessed by the Brahmin priests. This temple was carved out of stone with the base in the shape of a star. The stone was black so you can imagine how badly we all hurt our feet having to walk from the sun to the shade of the temple. I actually amazed a few people by casually walking across the surface while they had to hop around and run to avoid burning their feet. Later on we left the temple, went to go eat, and then drove back on the bus to reach the hotel in time for dinner however, since it was Easter, some of the girls decided to have an Easter egg hunt and Brenna and I found the grand prize (the people who actually found hard boiled eggs got cookies and a snickers, which was good for us seeing as we were roommates during the trip and just split our prize). Some students had gone to mass the day before and had said it was like going to see Jesus Christ Superstar with flashing lights and crowds of people (Indians really do things flamboyantly sometimes) but I stayed behind and got some homework done. Our night ended with Brenna and me watching "Remember the Titans" and falling asleep before we had to get up the next morning and fly back to Kolkata. All in all it was a trip that was packed with things to see and even though we were tired for much of it, we still had fun getting to hang out with each other!

Rita either trying to catch me off guard or trying to take a picture of the Muslim women with burkas in Hyderabad