New Orleans

Its now time to talk about New Orleans. Now before I start, I must dispel the notion that New Orleans is just an outrageously dangerous place. That is not true; like anywhere you go in the world, you can stumble across bad neighborhoods and places you feel a bit uneasy. And while there are dangerous places in New Orleans no doubt, its unfair to characterize the whole city based on this minority. Testament to this, in our 4 nights in New Orleans, we never ever felt unsafe or uneasy.

After our visit though, the only thing we associated with New Orleans was PARTY! Anything goes, you can drink on the streets, smoke in the bars and a constant stream of alcohol running at anytime of the day and night.

Looking past all the partying though, a city actually exists, and what a beautiful one that is.

Typical houses in New Orleans

A typical New Orleans dish, the Crawfish Po (poor) Boy.

One of the best breakfasts ever and only $7.99!

This was a typical building in the French Quarter, just off Bourbon (party) street.  

Being in New Orleans we had to go to watch/listen to some jazz & blues. We went to the Funky Pirate Bar to see Big Al Carson who is very popular in New Orleans. 

A snap shot of inside of the Funky Pirate.

Probably the best and most meat filled omelettes we have ever eaten, they were delicious!

The delicious breakfast we had above was at this little dive bar which had a small restaurant out back. It was recommended to us by our lovely air bnb host Megan not only for the good food but because her partner Brandon was in the band playing at the brunch.

Some of the houses that lie just outside of the French Quarter. 

After 3 nights with our amazing hosts, we spur-of-the-moment booked a cheap single night at the Westin in the French Quarter, and damnnnn was it nice!

And boy were we lucky we booked that room. As it turned out it was one of the luckiest and best things that we ever did. Let me explain. The night before we had decided to have a night out on the town, which involved a few oversized daiquiris and tall lime green drinks that were labelled simply as 'the strongest drink in New Orleans'. Now I know what your thinking, and I think you know where this is going. But your wrong. The next day we were violently ill, but not hungover. There is a distinct difference, I can assure you. I won't go into details because it would get rather graphic but lets just leave it at 'messy'. So back to the room, yes, it was one of the best things to sprawl on a king bed and watch cable for half the day while we recovered (which as it turns out wouldn't be until a lot later that night).

The view of the Mississippi River from our hotel room. 

One of the many steam boats that sailed throughout the night on the Mississippi. 

The view of the French Quarter and River from our room. 

The view of just the French Quarter from our room.

Our 20 pack of McNuggets, they were all we could stomach but they were delicious nonetheless. 

As it turns out it was a very very cloudy day in New Orleans, and it did rain a little later on in the day. But we popped up to the pool area anyway on the 29th floor to check out the views and this is what we got. It was spectacular in a weird way, despite not being able to see a single thing, it was quite a strange feeling. 

The taller building next to us absolutely covered in cloud. 

Just a typical street in the French Quarter, and you can see the clouds in the background. 

Before reading this you need to watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM
Then you will recognise the man above and below.
Anyway we were walking around the French Quarter on our last night in NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) when we decided to go into one of the many gift stores. As we walked in I (Lauren) saw this man sitting outside the store with a couple of people around him. At first I thought it was Grandpa Elliot but ended up shrugging off the idea and continued to shop in the store. After a few minutes a small crowd started to gather outside so ofcourse I had to investigate, and sure enough my suspicions were correct it was Grandpa Elliot and he was singing Stand By Me. So we both stood in the rain and watched this incredible man sing an amazing song. Honestly this was one of the best experiences I have personally had in the whole trip plus only an hour or so earlier I was thinking to myself how amazing it would be to find Grandpa Elliot and sure enough we found him by accident. If anyone is going to New Orleans (Caitlyn!) go to the corner of Royal & Toulouse Streets, apparently he is there most days/nights, seeing Grandpa Elliot is a true NOLA experience.

The incredibly talented and kind Grandpa Elliot.

This as it turns out is a very famous building, all I know was it has been in various movies such as 'Now You See Me'

A glance down the party street, Bourbon. It was quite early and the rain had just stopped so there weren't many people out and about compared to Saturday night, in which you could barely walk. 

Bourbon Street. 

More Bourbon street, just in case you missed it. 

This place was pretty cool. They sold the infamous Hand grenade, or the lethal lime green drink I was talking about before. 

These little daiquiri places littered Bourdon street. You could roll up, get a jumbo and take it out on the street or into bars with you, it was awesome. We had a suspicion though that it was the place that made us sick, because for the whole night it was the only food or beverage we shared. Hmmmm. 

Just another typical French Quarter building. 

On our last night, we decided to eat at one of the Man vs Food recommended restaurants, called simply Mothers restaurant. I had this concoction which involved roast beef, the 'worlds best ham' something called debris, coleslaw, mayo, mustard and a handful of other stuff. I was a bit nervous given the state of my stomach and overall bodily function, because we were still both sick, but I took the plunge anyway. And damn was it worth it. Amazingly delicious. 

And then we move on to Lauren's dinner.  She felt like more of a typical breakfast, eggs and ham with toast, so that it what she ordered. What she received however was something completely different. We don't even know what the white sludge was, but it was nasty. The eggs were like yellow pieces of plastic and the ham, well lets just say it wasn't the 'worlds best ham', it tasted like how cat food smells. The highlight of the meal was the bread, but how hard is it to stuff up bread?

So that did it for New Orleans, and it is time to move onto the lone star state, Texas.
First stop Houston, so look out for an update in the next day or two!

So until then, hope everyone's well and we will talk soon.
Kristian & Lauren.