New Orleans

New Orleans was great, not so sure if that’s down to the town itself; which was somewhat seedy in some places and in others still suffering the effects of Hurricane Katrina, or if it was down to the great friends I made there. Plus the sun shone the whole time!

The hostel was located at the northern end of Canal Street, which allowed easy access by the street car into the centre, but I walked the street the first day, just to see what was around.
To be honest there wasn’t much until I got into the main part of the town and the closer to the French Quarter the busier it got. First stop was buying a new pair of sunglasses to replace the pair I left on a Greyhound bus in Savannah. Then it was a wander around the French Quarter including St Louis Cathedral, the Quarter has been renovated after Katrina, much more than the rest of the city, I guess to pull in the tourist dollars and it seems to be doing the trick. It is very pretty with lots of wrought iron balconies and funky houses. Plus there was a jazz band playing in front of the cathedral so it felt like New Orleans should in my imagination. Lunch was a shrimp po’boy from Johnny’s - the place to have po’boys - unfortunately the po’boy wasn’t as good as the one I had in Portland, Maine, it was dry and not very tasty. As New Orleans is on the Mississippi river, I had to cross the water, so I took the free pedestrian ferry across the river, so I could say I’ve been on the Mississippi.

Back at the hostel I met a cool bunch of people and we headed back into town and the French Quarter to experience it by night. Bourbon Street is the main party street of the district and at night it was rather seedy. During Mardi Gras I believe it is traditional to throw strings of beads down to women from the balconies. Out of Mardi Gras people still throw beads, but it’s older men on the balconies throwing the beads for favours, which seem to be getting women to expose their boobs, some women did, all rather seedy. Most of the bars were offering highly alcoholic cocktails with the aim of getting people as drunk as quickly as possible. Apart from bars there were strip joints too, I guess it appeals to some people and I’m glad I went in a group as it felt a bit dodgy. In fact none of us were that impressed, even with the collage of men’s privates in one restaurant’s ladies loos, so we headed back to the hostel and partied there instead.

The next day I’d booked a Swamp Tour as I wanted to see an alligator and a swamp. I’ve learnt that a swamp is a flooded forest and a marsh is flooded but trees don’t grow there. Swamps have canals, rivers, bayous, creeks and probably lots of other names for bits of water that we weren’t told. It was late in the season and all the alligators were hibernating deep in the mud, but we did get to meet Oliver, an alligator who was found in someone’s back yard and given to the tour people to care for until he could be released again when he was old enough. I even held Oliver which was rather peculiar, he was cold and soft and hardly seemed dangerous, he was quite sweet really.

The tour it self was fun, we raced along the river, saw ospreys, coipo, egrets, ibis, turtles and a snake that slithered away. We also saw evidence of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, with houses ruined, boats sunk, rubbish strewn about, even though the area had been cleared up, there’s only so much that could be done and it’s still in progress.

The Lonely Planet has a walking tour of the French Quarter in it, with the main points of interest listed, so this is what I did. It’s much more informative than just walking the area, mainly because it named the buildings I’d already walked past on previous strolls. Lunch was in the French Market with, Clare, a friend from the hostel. We tried po’boys again, this time an oyster one and a beef one which we shared, half and half. The beef was the best, it had sliced beef, gravy and ‘debris‘, the meat was tasty and the gravy ensured it wasn’t dry, plus the beef had a slightly spicy hint to it. We then walked along the Mississippi to the Natchez paddle boat, because it has a steam carillion, where a woman on the top of the ship plays tunes on the ship’s steam whistles, not that we recognised any of the tunes but it was fun. 

Then it was onto a New Orleans delicacy, something which any trip to New Orleans can’t be without and that’s beignets. Beignets are basically doughnuts, but without the hole and a bit heavier. Apparently tourists try and remove as much of the icing sugar as possible and locals just dig in, so we attempted to be locals and we just went for it. Icing sugar ended up everywhere, on my camera, back of my trousers, my bag, face, everywhere, it had the magical ability to just escape and mine were much worse than Clare’s. Even with the totally incompetent waitress, the beignets were great, maybe next time we shouldn’t go to the tourist trap café with the dodgy waitresses.

We then walked to Lafayette Square which was recommended to Clare as a place to see, well we saw it and weren’t that impressed. It wasn’t just the homeless people hanging around, it just didn’t seem that special. It had numerous pieces of art and pretty smart buildings, but it wasn’t somewhere I would recommend as a not to be missed place, oh well.

That night we went for dinner in the French Quarter and had the local fish sample platter, of catfish, oysters, shrimp and a stuffed crab shell - all of these were battered and fried. It was good but why are no local specialities healthy? We then walked Bourbon street again, with our wine in the glass cups provided by the restaurant to the street car stop. Once at the hostel we were taken aside and asked if we wanted to go on a secret adventure, well, couldn’t say no to that. Basically a guy who had been staying in the hostel for a while knew how to show us a hospital that had been damaged by Hurricane Katrina and now ‘gone’. Gone in local parlance, means it is still there, but no longer in use and will never be used again, although from the outside looks perfectly normal.

So we went on the not quite so legal visit to this hospital. I can understand now why they refer to the buildings as gone. They do look fine from the outside, but inside they are a wreck, there was water still in the basement and so much damage inside. In the hospital there were records strewn about, expensive equipment just left there, beds still in place, though there was window glass and ceiling tiles strewn about. Certainly they couldn’t be used in the condition they are in and are probably unsafe structurally, it just seems such a shame.

Visiting the hospital was a weird experience, New Orleans is desperate for nurses, only 50% of the old population has returned to the city so they need more workers. Entire blocks have disappeared, people are squatting in their old homes as they can’t avoid to pay the new high land rents (which have doubled), it’s a disaster area still and nothing seems to be being done, except get the tourist areas looking good in the hope of pulling in more money. And a lot of those locals that have left are in other towns, in Texas or elsewhere and the locals of those places there are not happy. It seems a lot still needs to be done to get the city back on it’s feet, though most tourists wouldn’t see beyond the façade. It’s sad that things look good on the outside, but so much needs to be done to sort the city out and money seems to be the main problem, there just isn’t enough to sort things out and maybe there never will be.

My next stop was Austin, Texas, but this time instead of getting the train there directly, I went on a roadtrip, I didn’t call shotgun, there was no need as I was the only passenger. But I was getting a lift to Dallas, in return for driving and company for a friend who’d been driving around the States on his own for the last two months. I had a great time, Tim was good company, driving was fun (good practise for when I’m driving around the canyons) and we got to be really silly, though drove safely at all times, of course!

Next Stop: Austin, Texas