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Published: March 1st 2008
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Now we don't want to sound ignorant here, and perhaps we should have known what a place New Orleans is. This city has been through so much and it has something magical about it and it's fighting spirit to survive.
It was a guy we got chatting to in a bar just outside of LA that recommended we go and seeing as it is near enough to Houston to get a the Greyhound Bus, it would have been daft not to. 8 hours on the bus and we arrive. Now as you all know katrina hit in 2005 and getting off the bus and walking to our hostel, you genuinely wouldn't notice any damage. That night we head out to Bourbon Street and were suprised at how European it all was. It really did remind us of Soho, people everywhere, music coming out of every bar. This place is buzzing to say the least.
Well we managed to arrive on a night that they are filming a movie so every now and then you get told you can't stand somewhere as they are about to film there and we watched in amazement as these things just don't happen in
Maidstone! So we strategically placed ourselves in a bar behind one of the scenes. We will have to wait a while to see if it worked. Extremely unlikely but you never know. The film is called 12 rounds so look out for it guys!!!! It is probably a low budget film that will never make it big but hey it was fascinating to see how these things happen! And yeah the guys sat playing chess on the side of the street were part of the film. Before we knew what was happening we just thought that they were there for real! Big shame we didn't have our cameras on us that night.
Now still we aren't seeing anything to show us that the storm hit this city. We are on a budget and tours aren't really something we would pay to do, but there is a Katrina tour which we felt compelled to go on. In some ways it felt bad that we were taking a tour to look at the devastation that had occured but it is something that we felt we must do, to at least understand more about what this city has gone through.
The
bus tour was guided by a man who lives in New Orleans and was here when the storm hit back in August 05. We are all picked up in the city near the French Quarter which is one of the few areas that didn't get damaged by the flooding that occured. There was massive wind damage but it was when we drove further away from the high ground that we start to understand the extent of devastation. The guy points out sky rise buildings, hospitals that we as tourists had walked past and unbenown to us, blissfully unaware that many of these buildings remain unoccupied and need to be knocked down due to the extent of the damage.
As the trip went on, we were shown many broken levees where the water just gushed through on to surrounding parishes and housing estates as we would call it. We saw derelect house after house after house. We saw holes in roofs where people have knocked through to sit and wait for help to come in many cases days and days, unable to go into their homes as the water was up in the attic. In all this it is still
Va va voom
Great music hard to imagine how it must have been like for all these people that couldn't get out of the city before the storm hit. The extent of the damage caused by the flooding just goes on for miles and miles. It was absolutely heart breaking to see that a city with so much to offer has suffered so much. The population is now only 30,000 when it used to be 1.5 million.
They are now trying to get some sort of infastructure back but with many schools, hospitals, police stations, shopping centres shut down and damaged houses it is hard to imagine things recovering for a very long time. Many people have moved away now but they need tourists and money in the city to build it up again. I could talk for a very long time about all this. The only way to believe it is to see it.
We got talking to a bar owner who now has 14 cats that she has rescued along with numerous dogs. Even talking to us now she welled up about what happened.
Many of you probably knew more than we did about the storm. I mean I saw
the news but never really appreciated what these people have had to deal with and are still trying to sort out. One of the most famous people that helps out with the rebuilding of the city is Brad Pitt. Apparantly he gets stuck in with building work etc. That is something i would have like to have seen but not this time! We did however see the house that Brad and Angelina live in at times in New Orleans. Very modest from the front but well, you can only imagine what it is like inside.
The tour ended and woah we felt just overwhelmed by it all. It made us see the city in a different way. A city with such spirit but with so much loss. We unfortunately missed Mardi Gras but you can kind of imagine what it would be like. It was nice to see the city when there isn't too much mayhem going on but the spirit of the festival is always there. People threw bead necklaces to us from balconies and well the beauty of being able to drink in the street! Beers 1 dollar a go, (yes i am up to 5 pints
now!) and you can take your drink from one bar into another!
But something we have got to mention is the live music scene in New Orleans. We enjoyed Bourbon Street which is really something for tourists but the locals told us to try Frenchman Street, as that is what it is all about. We arrive at 7.30pm in a quaint little bar, suprised that we were pretty much on our own. The bar man said that no-where really gets started until 10pm. O.K. so we knew we had a long night ahead of us!!! Luckily for us an amazing artist called Sista Otis was doing a live acoustic set in the bar and it felt like we had our own private show. She is exceptionally talented, and we felt so lucky to be able to enjoy her music for a good couple of hours. That night we go to another couple of bars, have a little boogie with Dr Love! He used to be an American Footballer apparantly! Listen to more music and roll back to our hostel at 4am. Great night and great city.
We stayed for 3 days in New Orleans and got back yesterday.
I can't stop talking about the place and we are so pleased that we went there. So there you have it, you must go to New Orleans sometime!!!
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rich
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wot no hair
so hows the no hair feeling then ross?? i'm about to join you!! wind blowing across the scalp, unexpected sunburn etc etc, it'll be like living in daniels shoes. Sounds look n.orleans is pretty knackered, shame! will book the flights soon, just contemplating some last bits!