14 hour train ride, 2 hour traffic in rickshaw and Varansi here I am

Rishikesh to Varanasi is a long train ride taking about 14 hours. Spending my time in a sleeper with many Indians, almost feeling like we are animals caged and being transported. . . chai, food and water coming by every so often. But the sleeper was not like in Canada or Europe. One big cabin with isles of beds and 3 on each side, as well as beds along the main hallway, which I "luckily" got. It felt like I was living on a bookshelf for 14 hours. My big bag on there, thankful for my flexibility and I found a weird but comfortable position to sleep for a good 9 hours with the help of graval. Spending the morning dangling my feet out the train cabin door and watching India pass by.
We got to Varansi and wow its is so different from the last 3 weeks spent in the peaceful and polite mountains. Got our rickshaw to take us to our hotel, only to be in traffic for 2 hours. . . there is yet another Shiva festival here. . this one lasting 1 month! Good thing I bought a red Shiva shirt for 40 rupees (1$) in Rishikesh.
Varanasi is defiantly a city to see, being India's second populated city next to Calcutta. Varanasi has also been know as Benares, which I was confused cause many books I have read refer to Benares being the holy city, but then people were saying Varanasi, luckily for Lonely Planet to inform that both names are one in the same. The city has many ghats (stairs) down to the Ganga for cleaning, as well as certain ghats for burning bodies for cremation, as well as sending bodies that cannot be cremated to float down mother Ganga. Walking a bit around the city last night in the dark, provides how much ancient India exist here. Small towering alley ways of no cars, little shops and weird and crooked Indian people. When you get to the Ganga, its breathtaking. (Insanely polluted, although there is a huge effort of a man who has been fight for 50 years to clean, hopefully it will be sewage free in 5 years! SO I won't be going in like in Rishikesh)The Ganga width expands so much from Rishikesh, and so many old buildings and temples and ghats line the western edge that you almost feel like you went back in time.