Blogs from New Orleans, Louisiana, United States, North America - page 50

Today we both woke up with extremely sore heads and what can only be described as a serious mother of a hangover….and the Kerry was to blame….. When we set off neither of us guessed the evening would turn out the way it did, you never do. Olivier’s was closed unfortunately so we went to Bacco an Louisiana Italian style restaurant. I had lump crab & avocado salad and Andy had spicy fried calamari to start, then we both had shrimp for our mains, washed down with a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon. Our waitress was surly, service poor, but the food was good. We tipped less than the usual 15% which made our waitress even more churlish, which is when I guess she put the voodoo hangover curse on us both… The Kerry beckoned and we ... read more

Jambalaya, crawfish pie, filet-gumbo…just a few things that will be adding to my waistline this week! As an aside I guess Karen Carpenter only sang about such delights…:-) Arrived in New Orleans this afternoon and after dropping off the car we headed for the St James hotel a typical French Colonial style boutique hotel which is right on the edge of the French Quarter - a perfect location opposite Decatur Street just 2 blocks from the (albeit touristy) hubbub of Bourbon Street. Went for our usual new town pre-amble along the French colonial streets and discovered low and behold a great Irish bar called the Kerry with a genuine Irish barperson (being politically correct) called Lynn, and over a few pints of the black stuff discovered all the best non tourist bars and restaurants in town! ... read more

I'm sitting in the common area of 'Jo & Flo's candlelit hostel', a run down hostel in a poor part of New Orleans. There are only 3 people staying in the hostel - myself, my roommate Bryan and an Irish guy who's in another room. Now it just so happens that Bryan is crazy. And I don't just mean 'a bit wacky'. He spends all day scribbling words (what looks like Arabic) on sheets of paper, and swings from being perfectly normal one moment to babbling incoherently, non-stop, about absolutely nothing the next moment. Adding to this interesting situation, the hostel is a dive, and the electricity's temperamental. Nice. Anyway, it's cool to be in New Orleans - home of Jazz, blues, drinking, and poverty. I arrived here with J, a German guy I met in ... read more

After leaving Texas we drove to New Orleans to spend a couple nights on Bourbon Street. Our original plan was to stay Sunday night but we made better time than we expected. After talking with the hotel and Travelocity (who lied to us) we decided to book a room for Saturday night as well. We were glad we did because there were a lot more people out on Saturday than were out on Sunday. Bourbon Street is what you would expect. A lot of people, a lot of bars, and a lot of food. We grabbed our frozen drinks and walked around for a bit trying to find a place for dinner. We ended up at a great restaurant (I can’t remember the name) where we ate 2 dozen oysters and BBQ shrimp. It was really ... read more

This place is totally mad! I was in heaven. So I arrived in New Orleans with my contiki tour group and stayed with them for the two days they were here and then they headed off on their way to L.A whilst I stayed for a little while longer and I am so glad I did because New Orleans was just amazing. Our first night in N.O we did a riverboat cruise on the mississippi river, it was run by engines but had the big wheel at the back so was pretty cool (think proud mary - big wheel keeps on turning). We had dinner which was really yummy soul food style cooking - got to love the mashed potatoes here apparently they put mayonaise in it sounds weird but really yummy. The view of the ... read more