What a cool city this is! Not literally cool because it's like 35 degrees and 85% humidity at the moment but cool, like totally awesome dudes!
First stop on our trip to the Big Easy was a walk up and down the famed Bourbon Street, in the French Quarter. It's, I dunno, a mile and a bit long probably, all full of bars that serve icy daiquiris (yes, you can drink on the street here too), tacky souvenior joints and restaurants. It's getting a bit neon and wacky with some of the shops (think red light district) but I guess that happens wherever tourists congregate.
After a good long stroll in the sweltering heat it was time for a bevie and some traditional southern style food (I did mention this trip was going to involve a lot of eating)! Southern is red beans and rice, gumbo, crawfish etouffee (it's french for something) and jambalaya and we had it all on a lovely tasting plate. Can't say the food was all that lovely but the plate sure did look pretty.
Let me side-step here and say for as much as we love(d) the atmosphere in Memphis and New Orleans the food is, well, shite. Ok, so it's nice to try things like ribs, fried catfish, gumbo and jambalaya but how the heck can you eat that stuff all the time? What they think is good I don't think is so good and those of you who know me will know it must be bloody awful as I have resulted to eating numerous Greek Salads in recent weeks. ME, eating LEAVES...you heard it first on the blog.
Another step, to the other side this time, to say that we don't have many photos of this place although we like it so much. There just isn't much to photograph...hardly seems worthwhile to take pictures of a random street!
Anyway, after we had adequately melted into our chairs at the restaurant we started the journey back to our hotel. Think 1800's chic. I don't know how we picked this place but we seriously look like we belong at the Homeward Suites next door, not here! The foyer is somewhat grand, massive crystal chandliers and old school lounges/tables/chairs (think the Ritz or something). It's flash. Very flash. That was us pretty much done for that day.
On Sunday we took a city tour and that was just what we needed because a) we didn't have to fight the rising heat and humidity and b) we got to see where everything is! We went past Jackson Square and the Farmer's Market, through the Garden District (saw where Sandra Bullock lives, nice!) and down into a local cemetary. I know it seems creepy but they do cemetary tours here. Burials in New Orleans are different; each family has like their own personal little tomb, above ground. When you cark it, they take off the "door" of bricks on the front, slide your coffin in and brick it back up. They don't open that door for at least one year and one day, or until the next person in your family dies. When that happens, they take out the first coffin, sweep your bones and whatever is left to the bottom of the tomb's pit (good reason to get on with your family from now me thinks), throw away the box and put the next one inside. Ewwwwww hey! It's grose but makes sense, there were family tombs there dating back to the mid-1700's which I think is cool. The only way they get rid of your tomb is if it is in disrepair and no one has been burried in it for 50 years. The way to prevant that, you can pay the cemetary to have "perpetual care" of your tomb which means that they can never, ever, ever, ever take it down and they always have to fix it if something goes wrong, I like that idea too.
Ok, off that and onto a happier note. Who has some spare green to throw around? This is going to be our ONE AND ONLY chance ever to say we live next door to Brad, Ange and the Von Trapp kids. Yes, an apartment right next door to the mansion the Jolie-Pitts live in is up for sale and it's under a-mill. We can do it people, a few of us chip in together and wholah, we're living the high life with the Jolie Pitts! Who's in?
On a sader note, we also saw much of the devastation that Hurricane Katrina left behind. I can't believe it's been six years and this country, the one that always boasts about having everything and being the best in the world, still has so much to do down here. There are still streets full of houses that require repairs or that have been abandoned or that just need to be completely demolished and rebuilt. You can still see the water/mould line on some of the houses we went by and it's crazy to be driving around in a bus and having the tour guide tell you that the water here was 5, 6, 8, 10ft high...that's impossible to imagine and it went on for miles and miles.
There are houses with "check" marks still on them, marked with a cross which told the state what date the house was inspected, who by and how many fatalities were found there. It was so sad and yet, do you believe, there were idiots on the bus taking photos. Seriously, who does that? What's worse is that the floods that we just missed in Memphis are heading this way and they expect the place to flood again mid-next week. These people haven't even recovered from the last lot, how are they going to cope with this? Hmmmm.
So that was that for Sunday, we got dropped back at the Farmer's Market a took a couple o'mile walk back to the hotel to end our day.
Yesterday, God what possessed me, we took a swamp tour. Yes, swamp...with all the lovely bugs you can imagine thrown in for good measure! I do have to say though, that once we passed the point of no more flying, sticky things around us, it was beautiful. Shrek was right, swamps can be beautiful! Huge cedar trees and hanging moss, clear water as far as the eye could see and a few alligators thrown in for good measure. It was something I had never seen before and it was really pretty and, don't worry about the 'gators, they were happy eating the marshmallows and sausages the Captain had for them. Our tour guide yesterday was great, funny guy that Cap'ten Ted! He told us all these stories about the swamp, restoration, preservation, all that kind of stuff and he was the best at it. He was born and raised there and still lives there to this day.
He also had his own story about Hurricane Katrina, said that just the day before the storm hit he was cursing the fact he had to go out on a boat again with a bunch of tourists because he just wanted to sit at home and read a book. Little did he know that 22 hours and 10 minutes later he would have no house, no job, and he'd be standing on the street with one sneaker on. It broke your heart to hear it. It took them (his community) 9 months to clear the area around their houses and to start getting the swamp tour company back up and running. It was almost two years before they had all rebuilt and the tours were ready to go too but, there were no tourists at that time. He said that only really now, in the last 12-18 months, have people started to go back and he realises now what a wonderful life he had before the devastation hit. To copy the phrase, he said it's really very true that none of us realise what we've got until it's gone. I reckon I can just imagine it after hearing the stories he had to tell.
So, on the way home yesterday we decided to walk Magazine Street, 6 miles of shopping and we went into NOT ONE shop! It wasn't exactly our type of shopping but hey, who doesn't like a stroll in 35 degree heat with about 95% humidity yesterday haha!
Today we're heading down the street to stalk Nicholas Cage! He is filming his latest movie about two blocks from our hotel, who knew! After that we're going to WalMart...why? Because we can!
So, this is our last night in the very cool big easy and yeah, we like it. Tomorrow we're heading to the bright lights of Las Vegas. It's our second last stop on this amazing trip of ours and we're determined to enjoy every minute we have left because this time next week we'll be home!
Look forward to writing again from Las Vegas.
Px
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