First of all, everything is fine. I have been laughing at my stupidity the past 16 hours. Everything was so simple and I managed to screw it up. Here's what happened.
Yesterday I got to the Mathura train station over two hours before the departure of my train to Delhi. While waiting, I noticed that my train name isn't listed in the departures and I went to ask the friendly tourist police on the station. He explained to me that my train it's one part of another train and it will be separated at the next station. He even told me that my wagon will be in the very end of the train. Well, everything was clear, right? The departure time on my ticket was 5.10pm and I had already forgotten the name of my train. But I saw a train arriving at 5.10 and everything was clear for me.
I boarded the train, even when a young man was telling me that the train doesn't go to Delhi. I was so sure of myself. When I asked the ticket inspector, he told me that I was in the wrong train, one coming from Delhi and that I need to get off at the next station, Kota. That's the moment when I saw the board announcing arriving and departing trains before my eyes. There was one train arriving at 5.10 and one departing at 5.10 and my mistake was revealed. I asked the inspector how long is it to Kota and he smiled and said three hours. And that, my friends was the moment when I realized, I would not be able to catch my connecting train in Delhi. There was a crazy thought of jumping off the train when the train slowed down twenty minutes after leaving Mathura, but there still was too much speed and my reason told me to abandon that idea. Instead I smiled and thought, I'm going to enjoy the ride. I messaged the owner of the farm, telling him that I wasn't going to make it like planned to his farm.
When I finally got to Kota, I bought a general ticket to Delhi for 140 rupees (less than 2 euros). The problem with general tickets is that they are for the second class and there's no guarantee of getting a seat. Just before the train arrived, I met a young Indian man, who once again proved the helpfulness and friendliness of the locals. He told me to follow him and after two hours of standing, we both were sitting, uncomfortably, but sitting at least. There were four people sitting over my seat, I could see their feet hanging in front of my face, four next to me and dozens of people sitting on the floor, lying on the luggage shelf and standing around, looking for a possibility to sit. Quite an experience, believe me. I felt like I was a piece in a game of Human-Tetris.
We arrived in Delhi at six o'clock in the morning, the same time I should have arrived in Kathgodam. My new friend and I had been planning for the best means for me to get from Delhi to the farm for the last hour of our trip. I told him that I'm not very keen on doing another six hours of Indian rail second class. He laughed and told me that a bus might be a good option. We pondered about getting a taxi as well while having a breakfast of coffee and two samosas, but he said the price would be at least ten times that of the bus. We continued to his friends' apartment and a friend of him found a sleeper bus connection to the farm (or very close to it) after less than 15 minutes of searching. The bus leaves at 10pm and arrives at 6am tomorrow morning. After playing some guitar with my new friends and taking a bath, I'm now going to sleep a little. I'm so grateful for meeting these guys, just like I'm grateful of my two Indian friends in Vrindavan. Amazing people!
And please mom and other people who are worried, even when all this sounds very strange, I promise you there's no need to be worried. These guys really just want to help.
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