N'awlins...The Big Easy!

WHAT an eventful few days! You might have missed our posts but believe us, it's now us that will feel the repercussions of this because this will now be taking out a big chunk of our afternoon!

So where did we leave you, Alabama? On the road to New Orleans, fantastic drive. For any of you out there that do not know Mama Elliott that well, she is TERRIFIED of driving over big bridges. She has been known to navigate the entire family on a four hour detour on certain trips in the states (regardless that certain flights needed to be caught) in order to navigate AROUND large bridges. Well Mama you would have HATED this drive! Down South water and swampland is rapidly consuming vast areas of dry land. A helpful tour-guide explained this by detailing that some 200 thousand square miles of land have been consumed by swamp-land, a size the equivalent of the state of Delaware!


Here are some feats that Calum and I accomplished on the road:

 On the road we have come up with some games to entertain us! Spot the McDonald's has become very competitive and the celebrations both crazy and perhaps slightly vulgar. We have to be careful not to do them in public. We were playing spot the church, but we gave up on that game after Atlanta because there were churches EVERYWHERE! Instead of the mini car game or yellow car we have been playing 'Spot the Prius' in Grant's honour. There are not so many down south but my arms are blue from where Jen has hit me. Jen says it's because I suck but I reckon it's because I've not been hitting hard enough.

For all of you that thought perhaps we might not make it back from this trip still together...you were VERY nearly right the more South we got. Calum decided that seeing as we were in the South he should be acting like a 'Southern Gentleman'. This consisted of him telling me to 'shutup' at least once every five minutes. make all the big decision, attempting to touch my butt in public and punch me harder than necessary when playing prius. What. A. Douche. Thankfully now we are a little more East he has relaxed on this a little. Believe me, the South has changed that boy...the deep, deep South.

Passed through Mississippi en route. Calum took this picture and now maintains that he is a better photographer because his is better than mine. His ONE photo. Which I slowed down to about twenty miles an hour for. He says his 100% record is better than my 50%. Things are tense.

We didn't stop for anything in Mississippi so cruised on through to Louisiana:

I took that one, apparently it's not good enough because it's 'too far away'. I hate him. ANYWAY

Ok so we arrived in New Orleans, a lot less devastation than we thought after Katrina. A massive cleanup effort has obviously occurred over the past six years so only little examples of the occurrence such as some houses whose roofs have collapsed and have obviously just been written off and abandoned. We were both surprised about how Spanish-influenced New Orleans is! The houses are verrry European, colourful and fairly pretty overall. At first I thought it was a bit run-down but the more time you spend in New Orleans you begin to appreciate the antique-feel of it.

We decided to stay in St Peter's House in honour of my wee grampa. Was right in the French Quarter and turned out to be great find:

So the two things that spring to mind when New Orleans is mentioned:
- Food
- Music
We were fortunate enough to throughly sample both!!

Day One; We ventured through the French Quarter admiring the elegant and pretty buildings. We went to the second oldest building in New Orleans which was conveniently a bar! It was called the Absinth House and was on the famous Bourbon street which was already jumping mid day with busy bars, loud music and semi nude women. Following this we went down to Jackson Square and the mouth of the Mississippi River. We stopped at Cafe du Monde for freshly baked doughnut (beignets) and coffee while listening to a jazz band. The leading man kept getting the crowd clapping and shouting in a racist manner 'white people too.' Following this we back to the Hotel briefly before heading out for dinner and a Haunted Tour of the French Quarter.

Before the Tour began we both bought a pint as drinking on the streets is allowed. Jen asked for a dash of lemonade and received this;

A beer with a chunk of lemon!

The Haunted tour was very informative and gave us both a good feel for the city, but was not very scary and Matt the tour guide was a full on 'Artiste'. Jen Kept taking photo's of him to make him very uncomfortable;

and this guy!!!! Who was in all white, jesus sandalls and bum bag, Hilarious entertainment for Jen and I throughout the tour.

On the Tour we met a young English couple, who we hit Bourbon Street with after the tour. 

We had a few drinks and listened to some Jazz, however we learnt a lesson about the 'gateway to hell' as Matt the 'Artiste' described Bourbon Street. It wasn't that great! It was kinda of like a American Zante or Malaga......... However we did have a really great day and we both stumbled back to St Peter's Hotel.

Day 2: Waking with a fair headache we went out for Breakfast at a small cafe, and then drove out of town to visit the Laura Plantation. There were a few plantations surrounding New Orleans, but the Laura Plantation was still a working plantation (minus the slaves) and a Creole household. We had initially only chosen this particular plantation because of the name however it turned out to be the most culture-based plantation tour that still held its original slave-quarters.

THe house was absolutely beautiful and it turned out to be a really educational yet fun day. Look how old and lovely these oak trees are!

After the Laura Plantation we went to the Voodoo museum which was pretty special. We both made Voodoo wishes and learned a bit more about a religion that the Hollywood movie industry has DEFINITELY exaggerated!

On our final day in New Orleans we decided to go on a bus tour around the city. Initially we were pretty reluctant to do this, we just kind of felt like we HAD to. However the tour was absolutely brilliant! Our tour guide was funny and informative. We also saw huge sections of New Orleans that we would never have discovered on our own, such as the Garden District, the New Orleans Park and the old tram line along St Charles Street.

We made a little stop at the cemetery on this trip. New Orleans have a really strange way of dealing with their dead...! Due to the swampy nature of the land there, and how it used to constantly flood, the locals began burying their dead ABOVE ground (as if they didn't. they would see them again very soon with the water pushing the coffins up!).

I took a ridiculous amount of photos of the mansions on St Charles Street, here are a couple:

Crazy money! There are such extremes in New Orleans, some so SO rich and a lot so SO poor.

On our last night we went to Frenchman Street. The local's equivalent of the garish Bourbon street. We accidentally strolled into the gig of John Boute which was ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. A sensational mixture of jazz and old African-American folk songs. Simply stunning!

Thats the wee man himself! It turned out to be a really special evening that we will both remember from the trip.

Ok up til this point we have semi-avoided food. Only because every single thing we ate was mentionable!!

Here is a brief (!) list of the New Orlean's local delicacies we sampled:

Seafood Gumbo:

Alligator Po'Boys:

Cajun Chicken, Jambalaya, Shrimp Creole and Red Beans and Rice:

I think that was all the local stuff!!

New Orleans was such a magical place and literally every street you turned you could write a whole blog about! So many interesting little nooks and crannies, and definitely some notable characters!

So hopefully we will one day have both a mansion in the Garden District and a and a town house in the French Quarter. Was sad to say good bye to the 'Big Easy' but hopefully we will return one day.

Peace out!

Calum and Jenni