Let The Good Times Roll

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Would you believe that our bus into New Orleans actually arrived early - this is a definite first for Greyhound buses since we arrived! Our hostel was just one block from one of the main streets into town so good for location but did seem to be home to some people who live there permanently and were slightly weird but quite friendly. Let's not even mention the state of the kitchen though which meant our good intentions to stay in and cook failed. Oh well, more time to go out and enjoy the New Orleans nightlife!

We didn't realise that we would be here on the 2nd anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which meant New Orleans has been all over the news for the past week and the President was in town at the same time we were - that would explain the number of police which was beginning to worry us slightly! Although we didn't see any of the neighbourhoods that are still really suffering, the whole city looks like it needs someone to give it a big hug and take care of it. Despite the roughness around the edges, it's a great city - apart from the thunder and lightning that kept coming while we were here!

During the day we have had fun riding on the historic streetcars which go along the riverfront and up the main street and on the Canal Street Ferry which is a similar idea to the Staten Island Ferry in New York except the views aren't as good! We managed to get caught in one huge thunderstorm which drenched us completely - drowned rats does not describe how we looked; so attractive! So we headed to the Aquarium to surround ourselves with other creatures who were wet. We had great fun with the seahorses, jellyfish, penguins, and funky-coloured fish and we got to stroke stingrays and pet a baby shark in the kid's section. We also went to IMAX theatre to watch a 3D film about a turtle swimming through the coral reef and how humans are so evil for destroying his home.

We ventured to the casino to prepare ourselves for Vegas and I won a whole $2 on the 1c slot machines to go with the $2 we won on the Louisana Lottery scratchcard - all to be spent on jello shots! We also tried to watch some roulette and craps so we can play the tables in Vegas but we still don't know the rules - if you do, let us know before Sept 15!

In the evenings we had much more fun though on the wonderful Bourbon Street. There are pubs and bars (and some strip-joints but we didn't go there!) as far as you can see and all of them have happy hours. Some of them have live music and we saw a comedy covers band and listened to some live jazz. Our favourite was the one where all drinks are 3-for-1 - if you drink vodka this means they just put three shots instead of one in your glass...happy days! It was a karaoke bar too and we met some people who didn't take a lot of persuading to sing any song we felt like listening to - it was like having our very own karaoke jukebox all night long! All thoughts of getting the last bus to our hostel went out of the window so we stayed drinking and singing along with our new buddies.

So, with our hangovers, we boarded the bus for Texas - the biggest country in one state. 13 hours later in the pouring rain we arrived in Cow Country.

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Comments

[anonymous]

"We also went to IMAX theatre to watch a 3D film about a turtle swimming through the coral reef and how humans are so evil for destroying his home." Did it also have a monkey's tree getting cut down? If so they show that video in Seaworld Surfers Paradise too!