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Published: November 8th 2011
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After an 8 hour train from Memphis, we arrived in New Orleans (or N'awlins as the locals pronounce) around 3pm where it was very warm and muggy as we had expected! We got a taxi to our hostel, India House, which was about 20 minutes away from the French Quarter. We had had many recommendations for this hostel and it didn't disappoint - in a beautiful big house, with an awesome outside patio bar and swimming pool! The walls were decorated with lots of photos, murals, mardi gras beads and stickers and the hostel even had its own pet cat. We dumped our bags in our room and then walked around the hostel. We felt a nice social vibe from all the people and staff.
We bought dinner from the hostel ($6 meal made the day before and frozen) and tasted some delicious Southern cooking - chicken creole, shrimp étouffée and bbq chicken. As we were pretty exhausted from the 8 hour train journey - we just spent the evening chilling out in the hostel - talking to some fellow travellers and playing dominoes with an early bedtime.
We woke up the next day ready to explore New Orleans!
We bought breakfast at the hostel (outside cooking area where chef makes and sells cheap breakfasts!). We then got on the nearby streetcar for the 10 minute ride to the French Quarter. The French Quarter is vibrant, beautiful with lovely continental architecture the odd street jazz band. Bourbon Street is obviously partial to the odd tacky gentleman's club or bar though. I say "odd" when really most of Bourbon Street is quite tacky! We wandered around for a few hours soaking up the atmosphere, had a look around the elegant St Louis Cathedral and then had lunch at a little dive bar where we managed to find some $1 tacos. We spent most of the day just walking around and then relaxing on the grass in front of the cathedral. We popped into the tourist information centre where we booked ourselves on a Louisiana Swamp tour for the following day. We then headed back to the hostel for the evening, picking up some beers on the way back. We bought some food from the hostel again for dinner - the chef cooks every other night and freezes the leftover. This time it was bbq pulled pork, mash with corn salsa
and it was absolutely delicious! We spent most of the evening chilling on the hostel patio chatting to new people. We also saw a couple of English girls who had been in the same hostel as us in Nashville and Memphis - this happens a lot as many people are doing the same routes!
The next morning we were picked up around 10am for the swamp tour after grabbing a quick breakfast from the hostel. Two Australian people from the hostel were also on our tour. After the driver had picked up a few other tourists from their hotels, we headed out to the swamp, which was a 45 minute drive from the centre of New Orleans. On the way, we drove past a lot of residential, including the lower ninth ward, which was the area most affected by Hurricane Katrina, and also saw some houses that were in ruins and had not been touched since the storm as families had not returned to them. It made for a pretty sombre journey and really showed the sad side to New Orleans lost to poverty and a hurricane. It was quite odd when the driver was pointing out all the
devastated houses, plots of land where schools used to be or now empty supermarkets - almost felt a bit like a tourist attraction but the stark reality hit home that it actually still looked like this 6 years on.
When we arrived at the swamp tour company, "Cajun Encounters", we registered and then were given a coloured wristband to indicate which group we were in. We were then called and loaded onto our small riverboat. Luckily it was one of the boats with a roof, which gave some much needed shade in the 35°c. The tour was very enjoyable and was half zooming up the river an half slowly going through deep swampy forest. We saw some awesome wildlife including lots of alligators (which the tour guide tried to get to jump up at the side of the boat by feeding them marshmallows), racoons, snakes, spiders and herons. The tour also included views of a Cajun settlement only accessible by water.
That evening we all went for a proper night out! Started with drinks at the hostel with lots of different people and then we headed out to Bourbon street later on. Bourbon Street is full of drunk
tourists most evenings and even though it is very tacky, it is still quite fun. It was a really good night apart from the fact that somehow Aled was very worse for wear and had to be taken home by James at about midnight. We then therefore spent the whole of the next day very being hungover in our room, watching films and only venturing out for food. It reminded us of uni! So our last day in New Orleans, we didn't see anything in New Orleans.
The next morning we got a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car for the drive to Austin!
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