Jazz + Blues in New Orleans

---

---

We arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana at around 4.45am and decided that it was not worth getting a hotel room for a few hours. We slept in the car until about 9am. Then we walked into the visitor centre, which had very nice toilets, to brush teeth and clean up.
The first thing we did in New Orleans was visit a cemetery. Ace noted that New Orleans was famous for their cemeteries, and since we were nearby one we should visit it.
The cemetery was far different from anything I'd seen, each person had their own stone hut built which was apparently to help the body decompose faster with the humidity New Orleans experiences.
After walking through one of the world's most scenic cemeteries and beginning the day with a depressing start, we walked to a pancake breakfast restaurant and cheered ourselves up with all you can eat pancakes for $4.99. The restaurant was packed and there was only one or two tables vacant. It was nice to sit down somewhere outside of the car, and we were all still really tired.

We strolled down the main street of New Orleans in order to see what the city had to offer. The weather was dreary and I was very unimpressed with the city. It wasn't that clean and I was very tired.
The city looked grey and dull until we approached a street which is apparently “World Infamous” called Bourbon Street.
I could see immediately why it was infamous as the first shop on the street was a sex shop. As we continued to walk down the street we noticed many tourist shops, bars, voodoo shops, strip joints and food places.
We walked further down Bourbon Street, the streets looked very old and European compared to the other cities we had visited and most of the shops sold random “spiritual” rocks, stones and even palm readings. Some of them even amounted to up to $3,000. I found it interesting how people actually bought the stuff they sold – including “success dolls” and “mood rings.”
We saw a guy playing jazz guitar playing a harmonica by his motorcycle on the street. He was really good but didn't stand out to the people walking passed as much as I'd have expected.
My expectations of New Orleans were completely changed by one street. We came to a square called “Jacksons Square” which was a nice little square, but the museum in it urging tourists to learn about the effects of Hurricane Katrina brought a more depressing tone to the city. It was definitely something I didn't want to visit as I didn't want my experience hampered by visiting something which would bring negativity to my day.
There was a nice Tobasco sauce shop in the square, Louisiana is where Tobasco sauce is from, and is also famous for their Cajun food.
We walked around the French Quarter as it began to get duller and duller and looked like it was going to rain. The city looked very old and very different from anything we had seen in the cities so far. I walked into one of the art shops in the French Quarter to ask about why the buildings looked so nice.
She told me that the city were strict about how the state were about granting permission to paint or build anything in the French Quarter. She also said fires were common and most of the French Quarter had been burned down twice, with few remaining intact buildings.
The buildings were colourful, with each door having a different colour on it, the colours represented the religions of the original tenants of the houses.

We decided to spend the night in a hotel as we were all tired and so started considering hotels to book. The light rain picked up so we headed back to the visitor centre where the car was parked. Before we got near the car, the rain was torrential and we all got soaked. It was a relief to get back to the car before we were drenched. We sat in the car for around an hour calling round hotels to try and find a place that was a reasonable price and nearby. We settled on a hotel and managed to get a free room upgrade which was nice. We ordered pizza from Papa Johns and enjoyed a nice warm room with pizza.

We decided to experience the nightlife in New Orleans despite the fact we were so tired as it was one of the last cities we'd visit with a reputable nightlife.
At around 9pm we walked down Bourbon Street to find a Jazz bar in New Orleans recommended to us by a magazine and a local psychic. I was amazed at how loud and alive the city and particularly that street became at night. There were flashing lights, all the alleyways were transformed into small bars and the music was so loud that you could hear it a street away. Most bars had live music and many had Jazz or Blues – as jazz is typically associated with New Orleans (New Orleans is said to be the birth place of Jazz).
The Jazz Bar we went to was called Fritzel's European Jazz Bar and was free entry. Upon entering we realised that there was a one drink minimum purchase per person. Two of us were under 21 and of not of drinking age, we entered sat down anyway and ordered drinks. I couldn't decided between drinks so asked the waitress to recommend one of two cocktails, she recommended a rum cocktail called “Jazz Daquiri” which was a citrus cocktail.
We asked for the bill which came to $50 for the ten of us! It was amazing that the drinks bill came to more than the price of our previous restaurant food bills. We paid the price reluctantly but did feel the price was worth it when we considered that the price included a tip and the music we were listening. The five-piece jazz band were good. There was a banjo, trombone, trumpet, double bass and drum player. They played a lot of jazz covers including a song from the jungle book.
The waitress brought me another cocktail and told me the bar tender had accidentally made an extra drink, so it was complimentary – it was the other drink I considered ordering. I was quite happy as it was the third time in 4 days that I had been given free drinks of some sort.
It was a really good end to the long day. I left as soon as the band finished their second set to find a hotel with a piano in it, to sit and play for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, every hotel I looked in didn't have a piano, so I returned to the hotel and fell asleep.

---