New Orleans: September 26th to September 30th, 2016

After a long and arduous Greyhound bus ride from Miami, Florida, we had finally made it to New Orleans. The heat of the city immediately smacked us in the face, as we stepped out of the bus station and hailed a cab to our Airbnb. On our way there, it was still obvious from our surrounds, that ‘The Big Easy’, was still feeling the effects of Hurricane Katrina. None the less, the place was intriguing and after checking in, we couldn’t wait to see what the city had in store.

After a little down time and a night in, the next day we made our way to the local markets near the French Quarter, and caught the Hop On - Hop Off bus tour. We decided to catch the bus around the city on the first day, just to see what we would like to revisit and what we would have to skip. Immediately the old cemeteries peaked our interest, as did the French and Garden districts, the harbour area and the Mardi Gras Museum.

However, we decided to first get off and explore the one and only Bourbon Street. For those unfamiliar with New Orleans, Bourbon Street is the fun, if not slightly seedy bar area of New Orleans. It is quite literally teaming with cocktail bars, strip clubs, pubs and any bar that might tickle your fancy. It is also ultra famous for it’s involvement each year in Mardi Gras. For lunch we opted for just a regular old bar, serving creole food and local beers. I had the Jambalaya (delicious) and Adrian had a sampler dish of all different kinds of New Orleans traditional fair (also delicious).
Once we had finished up there, we made our way back to our accommodation. We walked via the Mississippi River and the French Quarter. Still a hub of activity, even later into the evening.

The next day, after a little sleep in, we made our way back to the bus stop and caught the first bus to the visitor information centre, which was the stop for the infamous cemetery tours. In particular the Saint Louis Cemetery Number 1. It is famous for a number of reasons.

One – it has famous New Orleans people buried there such as Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen, Etienne de Bore, pioneer in sugar development, Daniel Clark, financial supporter of the American revolution, Homer Plessy, the plaintiff from the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court decision on Civil Rights, and Paul Morphy, an apparent world famous chess champion.

Two – actor Nicholas Cage has purchased a plot, or three, and has built a monstrosity of a pyramid tomb for when he dies.

Three – it is in the traditional style of the Spanish who once ruled over New Orleans, so it is all grandiose tombs, built for not just one person in the family, but pretty much all the family.

Lastly, it is famous due to the fact that it is sinking. See, New Orleans is built quite literally, on a swamp. So things such as buildings, pavements, roads and cemeteries tend to sink. The infamous Donald Trump had previously made up his mind that he wished to build a 50 story Trump Tower in the midst of the city, only to be informed by his no doubt frustrated architects that this would require a concrete foundation 50 stories deep, in order to counterbalance the sinking! Needless to say, Trump moved his focus elsewhere! It really was a very interesting place, much like our guide who hailed from Detroit, but had written many best selling books on New Orleans. So, he knew a lot.

Once we had fished our cemetery tour and had sweated buckets, we made our way back around the city to a restaurant by the name of Mulate’s Cajun Restaurant. Here they sold all manner of traditional New Orleans Cajun food. We decided to follow the advice of a local and chose to share a dozen Cajun style, Mississippi oysters and a platter of traditional Cajun seafood. The delights  on the platter included, frog legs, alligator, fried crawfish, catfish, garlic balls, and stuffed mushrooms. Let me tell ya, we were like stuffed mushrooms when we left. I’ve never seen so much food, not to mention the gigantic bottomless soda cups which were always refilled before you were even halfway through the cup. Anyway, it was scrumptious! Especially the oysters!

We then decided to walk off lunch, by strolling along the Mississippi River boardwalk. There were multiple steam boats and cargo ships cruising up and down the river. It was a cool sight to see. We then eventually made it back to our place and crashed for the evening in a food coma.

For our last day in New Orleans, we decided to start the day with a walking tour through the French Quarter. New Orleans has a rich history, in that it was settled not only by the Spanish, but also the French and the Americans from the North.

However, it was the French who left quite a distinct mark on the city, with their architecture and some distinct customs. So a walk through the French Quarter was quite fascinating. Especially the old churches and the architecture of the buildings. Also quite interesting was the inhabitants of the area.

Many years ago, a very rich doctor and his wife lived in an exquisite French style mansion called the LaLaurie Masion. All seemed well, however, Mrs LaLaurie was doing the most horrendous experiments on the slaves of the house. One day when there was nobody home, one of the slaves, rumoured to be the cook who was chained to the stove, set fire to the house in the hopes of rescue from the monstrous acts being carried out on them. It worked. When the fire fighters arrived they discovered a secret experiment room where there were slaves who had undergone various levels of torture. Such shame was brought on ‘the good doctor’ and his wife, that they fled and were never seen again.

The Door of the LaLaurie Mansion

Of course, the sad and creepy history of the house attracted the attention of a number of famous buyers. In recent times, one of those buyers was goofy ‘ol’ Nicholas Cage. He had it and another house in New Orleans, that is until he lost them both by not paying his taxes. Also, it is a common place to be taken on the night time ghost tours, where the tourists are fed the story of how even Cage was too frightened to ever sleep there. That is until one night when the ghost tour was taking place and Nic Cage popped his head out and stated that he was actually trying to sleep there right at that moment. Totally debunking the myth.

Then there was a bidding war between Johnny Depp and a rich Lawyer. Depp wanted to buy it and open it up as a museum in order to honour the victims of the house, however, he was out bid. Now the rich childless and his wife, live in the 12 bedroom mansion.

During our walking tour, we also learned of another famous family who until very recently, due to divorce, resided in the area. The once famous Jolie-Pitt clan. Naturally I lived in desperate hope that I would bump into Mr Pitt (my all time celebrity crush), but alas it was not to be. We did however learn that Pitt loves New Orleans, choosing to make most of his movies there and donating a lot of money and effort to rebuilding New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Also, that a poor unsuspecting plumber once made a visit to the Jolie-Pitt home. He didn’t recognise Pitt, as Brad had full beard and long hair for a movie and the plumber figured all the various children playing there must have been part of a day-care. The plumber did however notice all the pics of Angie and proceeded to say to Pitt, ‘jeez someone here sure has a thing for Angelina Jolie’, to which Pitt replied with a simple, ‘yep, I certainly do!’

Once the tour was complete, we made our way through the French Market, where we stopped to have a Po Boy sandwich. The Po Boy garnered it’s name from when it was one of the only thing poor boys could afford to buy and eat. They were delicious, filling and cheap. The sandwich makers would see the poor boys coming and yell out ‘here comes another po boy for a sandwich’, thus it stuck and is how the sandwich got it’s name. Anyway, we opted not for the traditional shrimp Po Boy, but instead for a soft shell crab Po Boy. Well, what a grave error this was. It was vile!! No amount of hot sauce, or ketchup could hid the muddy fresh water fish taste of the crab! Yuck!

Once we had washed down the taste of the Po Boy with a Coke, we jumped back on the bus and made our way to the Mardi Gras Museum. This place was unreal. Not only did we learn about the history and tradition of the New Orleans Mardi Gras, the beads and it’s spectacular floats, we also got to see the artists preparing for the parade next year. Preparing the floats is a full time, year round job, so you can just imagine how big the floats are! Harry Connick Jr. even has a float in the parade each year. Also, each year there is a theme for the floats, next years looked like Disney Villains. We also sampled Mardi Gras cake , also known as King cake. It was delicious.

Once the tour was over, we once again ventured to our new favourite restaurant, Mulate’s, where we devoured some more delicious local delicacies. We then ventured on over to the Garden District. This was a beautiful mixed style area where only the wealthy and often famous tend to reside. We joined another walking tour and once again learned quite a lot about the local inhabitants.

First on the list of famous residents was John Goodman. He bought his beautiful mansion in New Orleans off none other than Trent Reznor from 9 Inch Nails fame. See, Reznor realised that a quiet suburban upper class mansion, probably wasn’t the best fit for a rock and roll lifestyle. So, Goodman purchased it after making his fortune in the movie game.

John Goodman's house

A funny story relating to Goodman and his house was also shared to us by our guide. When Goodman is away shooting a film or as it were at the moment, performing on Broadway, his mother in law would often stay at the house. One day when the guides friend was doing the tour, he was giving his spiel about what a great bloke Goodman is, how he’d come to purchase the house, how much he had paid, and why Goodman liked New Orleans so much. The guide also noticed at that point that there was an elderly lady standing and listening in to the tour. He didn’t mind as this often happens, so once the guide had finished, the lady piped in and said ‘you need to get your facts straight! He actually paid such and such for the house and I know this, because I am his mother in law. She then proceeded to walk into the house.

Sandra Bullock's house 

We also saw where Sandra Bullock sometimes lives and also apparently plans to reside full time once her children, whom she adopted from New Orleans, begin school. Nic Cage also used to own a home in the area, until he had to give that house up also due to not paying his taxes. Now Anne Coulter resides there. All in all, it was an interesting and gorgeous area.

Hurricane Katrina memorial 

We eventually made our way back to accommodation, feeling that we had seen most of what New Orleans had to offer. It really is like no other place in the USA. The people have their own endearing kookiness about them, the food is excellent and the scenery and the history of the place is just a world of it’s own. We just adored New Orleans.

Holly.