Last night in Houston......hello New Orleans

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DAY 19
Got up around 8ish and after brekky went and helped out at the “cat house” with Shona. The cat house is exactly as it sounds - a house run by cats. Shona’s neighbour set up the house to try and adopt out stray/homeless cats, so she rents out the house and there would be about 25 cats living there. Shona helps out a few times a week for a few hours, so i went with her. I didn’t do any cleaning, as someone had already been in the morning, but i did get to play with them all and they were so cute if i could have adopted them all i would have!! After that we went down to the cinemas to catch a movie - we saw Its Kind of a Funny Story and it was really good. Would recommend you check it out. We grabbed lunch at Barnaby’s cafe, where i got a salad - well actually a half salad and it was massive!! Cant imagine how anyone finishes a full one. Did a few errands before heading back home.
We went out to the Red Lion for dinner, which is a local English pub. Met up with David again and his wife (who runs the cat house). Food was lovely and the beers were going down nicely. It was a great night, just laid back and relaxed with good food and company. Headed home watched southpark and headed to bed.

DAY 20
Got up, showered and packed ready to head to New Orleans. We left Houston at around 10.30am. The drive was interesting, as gambling is illegal in Texas so the closer we got to Louisana the more signs there were advertising gambling, casinos etc. Also, we saw a lot of police cars with people pulled over when we crossed into Louisiana. The scenery got nicer the further in we got, lots of swamps, lakes, rivers and marshs. Interesting to me that the whole state sits on swamp land pretty much!
We arrived at our hotel just after 3.30pm, got our room and headed out for a wander. We walked past Jackson’s Square, Cafe Du Monte and lots of really cool buildings and architecture. Settled in at Molly’s bar, where we ordered the local beer Abita and some snacks - onion rings and chips and salsa. It was a really cool little bar with lots of character. It had a lot of signs and newspaper clippings and number plates all over the wall. After a few beers there, we headed back to try and find the Voodoo shop where the ghost tour left from. After getting a little lost, we found our way and went via hotel to drop some stuff off. We booked our Ghost tour for 8pm and had dinner at Pat O’Reillys across the road.
It took us awhile to be seated for dinner, but once we were we ordered the city’s signature drink - The Hurricane. It was a fairly big drink, but quite nice. We ordered dinner thinking we would have plenty of time to eat before our tour started. Whilst the food came out really quick, it took awhile for our plates to be cleared and for us to get the bill. We sent Scott across the road to tell them that we were coming. Even once we paid the bill, they were trying to give us a refund on the deposit we paid for the glasses, which we didn’t even realize we paid and we tried to leave but they insisted. Then whilst walking out, we crossed over into the bar area and we got asked for ID even though we were leaving. So frustrating!!! Eventually we caught up to the tour and joined up with the others!
James our tour guide was really informative and seemed to have passion for the tales he was telling. First stop was in front of the church opposite jackson’s square, where people used to duel at 5am in the morning before the priest was up. They fought there as it was holy ground and anyone who dies on holy ground goes to heaven. Apparently ghosts are seen dueling in the gardens. He also told us the story of the fires that went through the French quarter that destroyed most of the houses. We walked past Andrew Jackson’s hotel which when the first fires went through, all of the orphans were moved to this location. Unfortunately, a second lot of fires went through the French quarter killing all of the orphans. The hotel is haunted with the ghosts of the orphans. Most of the reports are of keys being put in strange places and sounds of kids running down the halls (which is interesting as no kids are actually allowed to stay at the hotel). The creepiest story was of a couple staying there who just got married and were on their honeymoon. It was when there was only film for camera’s - no digital cameras. When they got their photos developed when they were back home they found a photo of them taken from above the bed. The husband said to his wife great photo when did you take it and the wife said i couldn’t have taken it - i’m in it!!! So the guy rings the hotel thinking a staff member did it, and the hotel gets a photographer to look at it to see if there are any clues and supposedly the photographer said there is no way a person took this photo due to the fact that the angle the photo is taken there would have to have been some shadow or a ladder or something....spooky!!
Also went past a building that is now vacant on Royal Street that is meant to be the most haunted building in New Orleans. There have been various things in it over the years, but no-one manages to stay in it for longer than a few months. Nicholas Cage owned it for a time and supposedly now Johnny Depp has bought it. It was owned by a socialite by the name of Delphine La Laurie. Delphine LaLaurie has attained a reputation in folklore as a torturess and serial killer of black slaves. According to tradition, in 1833, after several neighbors allegedly saw her "cowhiding" (viciously whipping) a young servant girl in the mansion's courtyard, rumors began to spread around town that LaLaurie treated her servants viciously. According to one tale, a young slave girl was brushing LaLaurie's hair in the upstairs bedroom when the comb hit a snag in her mistress's hair, enraging LaLaurie. LaLaurie whipped the 8-year-old slave girl, who tried to escape but fell to her death from a balcony overlooking the courtyard. The girl was quickly brought into the LaLaurie Mansion, but not before being observed by neighbors, who filed a complaint. The neighbors later asserted that the young girl was buried under a tree in the yard.
The legalities of the situation were handled by Judge Jean Francois Canonge, a friend of the LaLauries, who had visited the house on a previous occasion concerning the welfare of the LaLaurie servants. The LaLaurie slaves were confiscated and put up for auction, and the LaLauries were fined $300. Some of the LaLaurie relatives arranged to buy the slaves back and quickly returned them to her.
On April 10, 1834, during another party, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the mansion. The kitchen — as was the norm in Spanish mansions — was separate from the home and located over the carriageway building across the courtyard. The firemen entered the building through the courtyard. To their surprise, there were two slaves chained to the stove in the kitchen. It appeared as though the slaves had set the fire themselves in order to attract attention. The fire itself was soon subdued.
LaLaurie escaped by horse and carriage to Bayou St. John, where she allegedly paid the captain of a schooner to carry her across to Manderville or Covington. Many claimed they escaped to Paris. Others say they remained on the outskirts of New Orleans. Nonetheless, it is known that Madame Delphine died in Paris.
Also we stopped off at a bar that was the blacksmith shop owned by Jean Lafitte, who was a renowned pirate. The blacksmith shop was a front for his operation and is said to be haunted. We took a few pics and no ghosts in our photos! We stopped at this bar for a little while and had a drink and toilet stop.
After the tour ended, we headed down to Bourbon Street, which was very busy and has like a thousand bars down there. It is a little sleazy with a few strip clubs and cabaret bars, but if you ignore those its pretty good. There is a strange tradition where people stand out on the balconies and throw beads at people who flash - and before you ask...no we didn’t! We did however score some free beads that people were throwing.
We ended up at a small bar that had one guy playing the guitar and singing. He was quite entertaining so we walked in to have a drink. They had quite a large selection of beers on tap and gave you samples if you wanted to try before you buy. We ended up staying at this bar drinking until Colin arrived later in the evening. Needless to say we were all quite drunk by the time Colin rang to say he way almost here. The bar had a good atmosphere and the bartender even gave us a hug on the way out! The funniest thing happened on the way back to the hotel, Shona spotted Colin’s car on Royal Street waiting to turn into our hotel, so we scared the living shit out of him while he waited! Classic. After Colin parked, he was knackered after driving for 6 hours after work so we all headed upstairs to bed.

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