New Orleans

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Pronounced 'Nawlins'

When we planned the USA part of our trip, we had no idea that the New Orleans Jazz Festival weekend even existed, let alone that we would arrive on the first day of it and leave on the last! Skill. We also had no idea that the last few Jazz Fests had been washouts.

Not this time!!!

New Orleans was hot and humid, but not unbearably so. We only had one morning of cloud and the rest of the time it was lovely. Our hostel was more like a converted old house and although it didn't have much character it was clean, spacious and secure. It was a fifteen minute ride on the Streetcar into town and they came really often so the location was ok.

Crime is a real problem in New Orleans and we were warned not to wander too far from the main streets, which was fine because there was plenty to do without needing to explore other areas. We saw plenty of shady looking characters, but got no hassle.

If I had to sum up the place then it would be food and women (although not necessarily in that order!). The range of seafood that you can get in town is vast and my biggest regret is not having enough time to try it all! In my time there I did still manage to squeeze in some alligator, turtle, crawfish, redfish and oysters. Yum yum. The Hurricane is the traditional drink of the region although the party drink of the region is the (patented!) hand grenade. Both were lovely and did the job nicely!

Because it was the Jazz Fest weekend there were people from all over America there. Bourbon Street on Friday and Saturday night was basically wall to wall women. Paradise!

I had real trouble understanding the deep south accents and they had even more trouble understanding me. You wouldn't have though that we were speaking the same language at all.

The funniest moment of the three days was when we picked up some empty hand grenade 'glasses' (see picture below) from the street floor because we no longer had ours and the drinks were much cheaper if you returned your glass. We'd been given fresh glasses previously, but this time the barmaid decided to just refill the glasses that we had brought in. You should have seen our faces!

(and yes, we drank them anyway)

So, I'm almost up to date with my traveblogs now. I'm just finishing my fourth and final day in Miami Beach which has been great fun. I'm off to Belize tomorrow morning.

Speak to you all soon.

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Photos

A Streetcar
The main method of public transport in the town centre

The inside of a Streetcar
Rickety old wooden things, but they had plenty of charm

Out on the Mississippi
a view of the(ir) World Trade Center from the boat

Crawfish
The food was amazing

Click on the picture to enlarge
Some of the food available

A Hurricane
A nice refreshing local rum-based drink (if a little feminine!)

A Hand Grenade
They had a serious kick!

Comments

[anonymous]

ta nouvelle coupe de cheveux
tu es très beau et ça te va super bien. nous suivons ta route via internet et c'est très interessant. enfin un peu de géographie!! gros bisous de france (d'allauch surtout). - joëlle "your auntie"!