New Orleans - The Big Easy

The Taxi driver takes me to the India House hostel.....Well what can I say about it? Well it's basically a hippy hangout...there are murals of Budha on the wall, people who have stayed there for decades, free condoms in the bathroom and alcohol allowed everywhere.....It only cost me £10 per night so I wasn't expecting too much. The French Quarter is easy to get to as the old trolley stops one block away from the hostel.
New Orleans is contradictory in nature...On one hand the French Quarter has high class antique shops, resturants and a multitude of tourists pouring in. On the other not very far away people live in tents under flyovers and search bins for food. Whether they are displaced people due to Katrina I do not know....they are sufficiently out of the way that 'average' tourists would never see them.
The city is unusual for America, in that people are allowed to drink alcohol on the streets. This makes for a strange atmosphere, as American tourists come here just to get drunk.....it's become the sin city! The bars churn out Margaritas and Hurricanes like they would slush puppies in the UK and people are drinking them at 10:00 in the morning. I walked behind the sweetest old couple (your average gran and grandad) and they were weaving about all over the place...drunk as skunks! The main street to do all your drinking is the infamous Bourbon Street...which by about 5pm resembles a giant bar brawl. The street begins with a number of topless and strip clubs, then leads on to every drinking establishment you can think of.....as you can imagine its best avoided....I find it far too full on at the best of times! What makes me laugh is that if you buy a can of beer here 'to go' , they will wrap it in a brown paper bag - It makes everyone look like wino's.
The heat can be unbearable at times, its not a dry heat and so I end up sweating so badly! I dart into shopping malls as they have the airconditioning on, if only for a short respite. Just before the sun sets is my favourite time here. The French Quarter is bathed in an orange glow which gives character and depth to the buildings. I usually walk down Royal street which is littered with antique and brick-a-brack shops. On the corner of every street, musicians entertain me. Firstly a guy is singing the blues, next a guy is playing the violin and then two guys are jamming on electric guitars. I finally relent and have a Margarita.....New Orleans is getting to me!
I take a couple of tours, the first one is a Cemetary and Voodoo tour which gives an insight into why New Orleans bury their dead in above ground tombs and we visit a voodoo shop and temple. I am shocked to find that up to 80 people can be buried in one tomb (they just push all the bones in a pile) It can get very crowded in there!
Then I take a swamp tour to see the 'gators' as they refer to them down here. Our guide hand fed a couple of gators marshmallows (aparently they have a sweet tooth). He also had a baby gator which everyone was allowed to hold - I opted out beacause i'm a big chicken as I don't like reptiles and I've eaten Aligator and karma dictates that I would end up losing some digits.
Ok I am woken up at 4am to the rocking and rolling of my bunk bed.....yes you guessed it - the girl on the bottom bunk is doing the horizontal shuffle with some guy she's just picked up. To my horror I have to listen to this whilst my bed shakes beneath me. I'm not a prude but there is a time and a place....and this wasn't it!!!!
The next day bleary eyed I visit Mardi Gras World, which is where they make all the props and floats for the Mardi Gras celebrations. The parade is very different to Rio Carnival, in that the floats are all made by the same company and not produced by each 'krewe'. The people in the 'krewe' pay to participate and have to purchase their own beads, coins and cups which they throw to the people in the street.

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