New Orleans

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Chuffed with my decision to take the Amtrak train to New Orleans instead of the Grey hound. The train was very comfortable, with its own restaurant car and I didn't encounter a single jailbird - lol. Seems that everyone has their own protable laptop or tablet these days and folks (I'm becoming Americanized!) were watching TV shows and movies on their own devices. Something like that would be good for my next trip (oh yeah and a phone that actually works overseas!).

When we neared New Orleans it looked like they must've had some flooding as the river had jumped its banks and was going crazy. Everyone was taking photos. "Holy Catfish!', said the lady behind me. In this part of the world I guess catfish and crawfish really are holier than cows!

New Orleans was pretty amazing. The downtown area was buzzing all day with tourists, live music in the street, shops, cafes etc. There was a real melting pot of cultures with creole and cajun dishes on offer. I tried some of the signature dishes of the region such as gumbo, jambalaya and pralines. Think the gumbo has shrimp in it but couldn't taste it due to all the spices so was ok for a fish phobic like me.

The French Quarter is the nicest place to go in downtown with very picturesque Caribbean-colonial architecture, projusions of flowers and wrought-iron accents. This is where most of the tourists hange out. It also has Bourbon St which is a live music strip mainly populated by tourists. The street was pretty dodgy and even had some strippers on it. Every morning it gets washed down in an attempt to get rid of the smell of urine, vomit, alchol etc. Nuff said!

After the Bouron St experience the next night I went to the Maple Leaf Bar which had a brass band called 'Rebirth'. They are a bit of an institution in New Orleans and they were very good so worth the treck to get there (and the wait to see them come on at 11pm).

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