Why I Never Made it to the Taj Mahal and Other Adventures

Hello from Udaipur! This place is beautiful, one of the most beautiful I have visited. The city surrounds a lake, and in the center of the lake is a huge white palace, where they filmed part of Octopussy (the James Bond movie). Our hotel room overlooks part of the lake and the city, which just seems like buildings stacked on top of each other, clamoring for the best lake view. Udaipur is a city of rooftop restaurants...and therefore a city of stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. I basically get winded on my way to lunch everyday, but its okay. Walking and climbing stairs is about the only form of exercise I'm getting at the moment, so I'll take it. Anyway, let's rewind.
After another night bus ride (ugh) from Mcleod Ganj, my friend Megan and I made our way over to the Delhi Domestic Airport to meet up with our friend, Anne, who was flying in from Mumbai. Our hostel guranteed free airport pick-up, so we called the hostel and eventually got picked up by Francesco, an enthusiastic Italian who started the hostel with his Indian friend. As we waited for Anne, he explained that he had moved to Delhi to start a restaurant with his friend, but had such an awful time find a decent place to stay, they put the restaurant on hold and created a place where international travelers could stay and feel comfortable. They had only opened three weeks before we got there, so some kinks were still being ironed out, but it was WONDERFUL. It was clean, they served free breakfast and free pasta and beer in the evenings, HOT SHOWERS, flush toilet, free access to the kitchen, free filtered water, free tea and coffee...we kind of never wanted to leave. It kind of reminded me of a Real World house, in terms of decor, and everyone we met was so happy to be there after such difficulty everywhere else, that we all just wanted to sit around a relax. I met a lot of cool people, some in India for a few weeks, some for months, like us, others who were traveling the world for an entire year. It was interesting to hear everyone else's experiences.
Anyway, we did get out of the hostel a little bit, and into Delhi. The day we got there, we were planning on a day trip to the Taj Mahal for the next day, so we went a purchased train tickets for 6:15am. When we got back to the hostel, we asked Francesco to call us a cab, telling him about our plans. He replied, "But didn't you know? The Taj is closed on Fridays." WHAT??!? Very frustrated. Everyone reassured us that we could make our way to the train station to get some of our money back and get a new ticket, but we decided we would just be losing money either way because of the taxi ride there and back. So on Friday, instead, we planned to go to the Delhi zoo, which we realized, once we got there, is also closed on Fridays. Okay, Plan C. We visited this old fort, Purana Qila, which was interesting, but is really just treated as a make-out park for young Indian couples escaping their parents' watchful eyes.
Afterwards, we walked to an ALL AMERICAN DINER for lunch. Lame, I know, but I must confess, I almost cried when I my peanut butter malt hit my tastebuds. It was so satisfying. We ended up sitting there for hours, because they never brought us the bill, and discussed our Taj Mahal options. We could go the next day, but we could only stay for a couple of hours once we got there or risk missing our night train to Udaipur. (Trains around the Delhi area are notoriously late.) A guy from the hostel suggested to cancel our night train and Udaipur hotel, and go stay in Agra for a day and night, and buy a new ticket to Udaipur. This also risked losing quite a bit of money and risking not being able to make it to Udaipur because most trains are full far in advance. It just seemed to be a lot of trouble and stress, and we all decided it would be best not to go. It may be lame, and a lot of people from the hostel tried to make us feel bad, ("It's a wonder of the world! It is worth all the trouble! I can't believe you are not even going to try!") but I really don't feel bad at all. Hopefully, I'll see it before I die, but until then, I am confident that I have seen some other incredible things here in India, things I've enjoyed immensely because I wasn't worried about leaving the whole time I was there.
Well, it is time for me to go. I'm about to go hop on a horse for a ride in the countryside. Wish me luck!