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Published: December 7th 2006
Leafy Streets Of New Orleans
Saint Charles - one of the main streets in New Orleans. The street cars (trams) used to run in the centre, but since the storm they\'re all but missing.Mainly Fine 22c
Apologies in advance for the wordy blog entry. Just blame the Hollywood celebs for making it into MY blog.
I was 2metres away from the “it” couple Brad & Angelina Pitt!
You know when you look at someone and they look familiar but you can’t quite place it? Well.. that’s what happened to me. I was getting a haircut in Uptown New Orleans when Brad & Angelina just strolled past. Ten seconds later when everyone in salon was going “Ohh MY GOD” it finally clicked. Damn!! If I was in LA I would have been on guard, but not here in a quiet unassuming street in New Orleans. Apparently Brad was watching footy in a bar across the street and was chatting to the locals. So yeah.. if I had my priorities right and was having a beer instead of a haircut than maybe I could have got my photo with someone famous! By the time I went outside the black BMW with tinted windows was pulling away. D’oh!! Angelina still looked pretty hot (even if I wasn’t fully paying attention).
Apart from ignoring a-grade celebrities I’ve explored a great deal of ‘dangerous and deadly’ New Orleans.
Garden District Houses
Awesome big ol' houses in New Orleans that stood the hurricane In fact, my fears about safety turned out to be unfounded and it was nothing compared with walking down the main street of Suva in Fiji at 1am (which I had feared it might be like… or worse). What made me even more paranoid was being by myself on a Saturday night but it was really pretty tame and comparable to Kings Cross or Hindley Street with a lot less people. The normally crowded street was almost empty and businesses were practically begging for customers on the street - there hawkers everywhere on the street. Pictures inside bars were adorned with famous celebrities drinking in packed saloons, but the crowds were nowhere to be seen. This was the busiest night of the week and you could tell everyone was hurting - the visitors who wanted to party and businesses who desperately need a cash flow. Not surprisingly there were bargains aplenty, from ‘3 for 1’ beers to free ‘ReNew Orleans’ t-shirts if you stayed in the bar long enough. I went straight for a $5 ‘Hand Grenade’, a drink you can only get in New Orleans and one I thought would be pretty weak for the price. Wrong! I dunno
Acadian Village
Original Acadian house in Lafayette what the hell they put in them but they are STRONG!! There were no ‘3 for 1’ beers after that, just a few strolls up and down the street savoring the clubs and bars. Most of the action was centered around the mechanical bull riding machine - it was fun to watch would be ‘cowboys / cowgirls’ fall from grace after one buck. I’d almost had enough to drink to give it a go… but not quite.
I left the hand grenades behind and walked four blocks back to the hostel feeling a little sad that New Orleans has such a bad rap. If tourists returned they’d find unbelievable hospitality and locals grateful for the support. I never felt unsafe or concerned and most people in the hostel said they regularly walked around at night with no problems. Rule no. 1: locals ALWAYS overstate rather than understate crime or violence in the town they live in (no one will EVER say it’s completely safe to walk around at night). 98% of crimes in New Orleans are drug related and that says it all.
I know I’m going on about Hurricane Katrina but you just can’t escape the impact it had
Acadian Lake & more houses!
Most were built in the early 1800's.. pretty amazing! They are all decorated in xmas lights for the nightly display. on the city. It inflicted a deep scar that for some people will never heal. I hung out with Earl and Jack at the local bar, they told me about how Katrina had affected them. Earl was a real estate entrepreneur who bought 6 houses three days before Katrina hit. Insurance won’t cover the losses and now he’s down almost $500,000. Every day he heads to the local insurance office to check on his claim, but returns by midday dejected. He still wears an Armani suit every day even though he has no job to go to and explained that he “knew nothing else apart from professional attire” even though he’s now unemployed. This is sadly a common situation in New Orleans. Almost half the houses in every street are boarded up and big hotels like the Mariott stand empty and abandoned. Apart from major intersections, traffic lights don’t work or blink on and off, branches hang from power lines and power lines themselves still hang on the street (gotta watch out for that!). From my eyes it looked like the storm hit yesterday, but this happened well over a year ago. I can’t imagine what it would have been
New Orleans Skyline Panorama
From a distance... no hills to be seen. You can understand why it flooded so easily. like experiencing ‘The’ hurricane. Still.. the city survives and that’s due to the amazing people that have propped it up. Including the bar man who insisted ‘you’re a visitor in our town, the rest are on the house’ after I bought one beer. At first I thought there must have been a big catch that I was missing.. but no, the locals are very hospitable and just happy to have visitors back in town.
Four days in New Orleans and I had tickets for my date in Lafayette - Staind playing the Cajundome. The three hour drive to Lafayette took me thru ‘Cajun Country’, mostly swamplands with alligator tours and Cajun food stalls on the side of the road. I stopped at Acadia Village when I arrived in Lafayette and learnt all about Cajun history. Stuff like they were originally from Acadia in Canada (part of French Quebec) before they were relocated to the new French territory of Louisiana. They are known as ‘Cajuns’ because the Indians misunderstood ‘Acadian’ for ‘Cajun’. There are lots of similarities to Australia’s early settlers (apart from the convicts and killing Aboriginals bit). Acadia Village had original homes and displays from the late 1700’s to
I'm Not Always Crazy
Not when I drive anyway... maybe it's the new Brad & Angelina inspired haircut?!?! who knows 1900’s, I’m not a massive history buff but it was awesome.
Lafayette was my home for the next 3 days and I gotta say that I didn’t do much. Just relaxed, enjoyed Cajun food and stayed in the one spot before beginning the 2500 mile road trip. The hostel was awesome, just like a big home and not surprisingly empty like everywhere I’d been in the US. Seriously, I have not met one backpacker yet!! I’ve got nothing against mixing it with locals but I’d occasionally like to compare notes.
My raison d’etre of being in non-descript Lafayette was seeing Staind in concert (like that ha?? French influence and a French term.. smart ha?). Imagine my surprise when I find out Staind are being supported by Three Days Grace (another huge US band right up my alley). The concert was at the massive Cajun Dome, plastered with ‘Go Rajin Cajun!’ signs all over the walls and US flags. Some bands you see live and go ‘yeah.. cool’, but I gotta say I have a whole new respect for Staind and Aaron Lewis. They were awesome, the crowd was very lively and not rough at all. In fact, this ‘meat
Yep.. they're here
Staind, Three Days Grace & Hinder at the Cajundome.. ROCK!! head’ Australian (that’s me) managed to watch the bands 2m away from the stage, something I haven’t attempted at home. The support acts were cool too.. ‘Hinder’ - remember that band name. They have an awesome song which I reckon will be a MASSIVE hit. At the risk of sounding like Kyle Sandilands or Molly Meldrum I’ll move on………
I’m leaving Cajun Country and have now officially started my ‘Destination Marg (AKA San Diego) Road Trip’. This is a biggie - 2500 miles in under a week. It’ll go something like this: Lafayette, Louisiana - Galveston, Texas (beach town) - Austin, Texas - Stockton, Texas - Roswell, New Mexico (Aliens.. yeah!!!) - Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico (hippy town) - Tucson, Arizona - Phoenix, Arizona - San Diego, California. Seeing Marg at the end of that makes it all worthwhile. It’ll be a long week and I hope I don’t sleep for days on end after Marg arrives! Cannot wait!!
Before I go - congrats on your wedding Benny & Helen!! Sorry I couldn’t be there, but you’re more than welcome to get married again in Vegas when we’re there. Good to see Princess Mary was in town for your
Three Days Grace
Nice and close... very friendly crowd too. I'm a newly covered Three Days Grace fan now! big day (almost).
Till next time… and a familiar face appearing in the next blog entry.. adios amigos (sorry.. getting closer to the El Border El Mexican El Texas).
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Morbid Mary
non-member comment
May have to revoke my friendship
Very disappointed in you Matt...How could you not have chased Brad down the street and handed him my phone number!!! This is the saddest story I've ever heard in my life and now christen you Morbid Matt! BOLLOCKS!!! I can't believe you didn't even get a photo!! As for the new haircut, are you sure you didn't lie down on the grass in a park and let a mower roll over your head!!!??????? MUAHAHAHAHAHA. You miss the abuse from me don't you!?