Snow threatened my arrival in the US of A - my first time back in 'the land of the free' for 13 years.
Thankfully my flight was routed through Houston and I missed the worst of the weather that was closing airports further north.
I landed in New Orleans to a cold overcast day which had earlier seen some snow. It was also to be the last of the snow and grey skies for the next week.
This return visit to New Orleans was somewhat overdue. I had first been there in 1997 to visit friends Sam and Jose, loved the place and had been trying to find an excuse to get back for a long time.
New Orleans is a town of freeways, potholes, very large cars, pollution, murder, hurricanes and swamps. It's also a town of, elegance, faded charm,fun, colour, vibrance, booze, friendliness, and vestiges of grandeur. All in all there is something for everyone. I was staying with good friends about an hours drive out of town on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. To get there requires driving across a 23 mile causeway, one of the longest in the world. It's rather a strange experience to be on a concrete freeway in the middle of a huge lake unable to see land. The north shore is higher ground than New Orleans itself and is home to an ever growing population of commuters who prefer to live in a less flood prone area. They take some pride in referring to themselves as Katrina Refugees but there is nothing refugee-ish about the neat new housing estates and refurbished cottages and rural properties scattered along the north shore. One of the reasons the population of New Orleans City has not returned to its previous numbers is areas like this. These people still work in the City but choose to drive there rather than live there. The traffic in New Orleans is therefore horrendous. The city's answer to this, like many cities (including my own dear Brisbane) is to widen and extend the roads. Cars are cheap, fuel is cheap and roads are easy...
I spent a couple of crisp, sunny days on the north shore before heading into New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We were booked into a hotel in the French Quarter for 3 night - the easier to enjoy the parades, festivities, food and drink. The French Quarter has to be one of the worlds great neighbourhoods. It's been around for almost 300 years and has been the home to pirates,
buccaneers, adventurers, the French (obviously), the Spanish, antebellum gentry, slaves, musicians and, more recently, movie-stars and rock-stars. To walk its narrow streets is to stroll under wrought iron balconies, and past faded stucco facades with timber shuttered windows. It's a place of ferns in hang baskets, private walled gardens and buildings leaning at almost crazy angles because of the soft swampy ground beneath. During Mardi Gras its also a place of boisterousness, drunkenness, random parades of people in weird costume, dark bars with a calamity of jazz music leaking out into the brightness of the day, painted body parts, drinks in huge tacky plastic cups and a vivid shimmer of shiny coloured beads around the neck of everyone. The ornate verandas are decked with the flags and bunting in the colours of Mardi Gras, green, gold and purple and with people yelling to the crowds below and tossing beads. In short the French Quarter is a riot of colour and movement.
On Mardi Gras day I found myself wearing a pirate costume (don't ask) and my friends dressed as a bee and bee-keeper. We were not alone in our costumery and the streets were filled with people in a vast array of random attire. We started the day with breakfast in the French Market washed down with daiquiris (it all starts early) and followed up with a steady supply of drinks over the next 8 hours or so. We had intended to be part of a parade, but when we failed to actually find it we collapsed into Pat O'Brien's bar for a Hurricane and to listen to its famous Duelling Pianos(or dooling pianos as the locals call it). The music was great, but 
unfortunately one Hurricane led to another, and eventually a 3rd. For those who have never tried this abomination of a drink it is made with white and dark rum, passionfruit syrup and lime juice all poured over ice. The first one you drink is horrible - it's excruciatingly sweet. From there on they get better and better until you fall down. Thankfully by the time I fell down I was back in the hotel and had a nice comfy bed to break the fall.
A full American breakfast complete with crispy bacon, several cups of coffee and a reasonable amount of water and I was up and at-em the next day. Sam and I were off on a riverboat trip. This was one of the few things I had not done last time I was in town and was adamant I would achieve it this time round. Sam, having lived in New Orleans about 17 years knows her way around, and so suggested the Creole Queen which would take us downriver to the site of the Battle of New Orleans between the British and the Americans in 1815. It was a resounding (though pointless) victory for the Americans as the war was pretty much over already. The battle site
was an open expanse of swampy grass with a large old house, obelisk type monument and a few cannon. The visitor centre was being rebuilt so we spent only 15 minutes wandering about before returning to the upper deck of our paddle-steamer for the return trip up the Mississippi.
The river was the most fascinating part of the tour. The waters swirl and churn and appear to flow in several directions at once with immense power and speed. It is infamous for its ability to drown those who venture or fall in. It also carries a huge amount of traffic which is dominated by the huge tankers and freighters which come up from the Gulf of Mexico to the port of New Orleans and the giant cruise ships which visit the city. As you approach the city you see just how low-lying it is. The levees rise high at the rivers edge, higher than the roofs of the houses behind and not a hill in sight.
I returned to the peace and quiet of the north shore for my final few days.
I bought some cheap t-shirts and levis at the local mall.
I took a tour of the local Abita Brewery. - it's a great deal! A free tour,with a good 30 minutes of free 'beer tasting' beforehand. They even encourage you to top-up before you head off on your 10 minute walk around a bunch a very large stainless steel vats. Thankfully Sam was driving.
I went back to Oak Alley Plantation. I have visited Oak Alley last time I was in town. It hadn't changed at all. The avenue of 300 year old Oak trees leading from the Mississippi to the house is a delight. Life for those in the big house must have been a charmed existence. Life for those not in the big house was a different matter entirely.
I think life for those in the big houses of New Orleans is still a charmed existence. There is an elegant culture of socialising, parties and entertainments that I can't match in any city I have seen... it's a very alluring charm of the city and I guess it's primarily what attracts so many tourists. Life in the South may be a little tarnished, but underneath there is still some quality. Life for those not in the big houses remains a different matter. In parts of its society New Orleans is a city violence and murder. Barely a day goes by without reports of violent crime. It was interesting to hear that during the recent Superbowl win by the New Orleans Saints that violent crime was drastically reduced. Maybe it was a distraction, something to look forward to, something to be proud of in a city that has had little to look forward to since Katrina. It was a mood palpable on the street during Mardi Gras. People were happy, excited, proud that they had won. The Saints were a team so accustomed to loss that their fans wore paper bags over their heads when they went to watch a game. Jokes were flying around that the weather was so cold because the Saints had won and hell was freezing over. The Saint's colours of black and gold were everywhere. Cries of 'Who Dat!' could be heard everywhere from anyone ('Who Dat' being part of a team chant being 'Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints').
So things might be on the up. A Superbowl, the biggest Mardi Gras crowds in 10 year, a new Mayor will hopefully give a boost to the city and its gradual recovery from Katrina 4 years ago.
Thankfully my flight was routed through Houston and I missed the worst of the weather that was closing airports further north.
I landed in New Orleans to a cold overcast day which had earlier seen some snow. It was also to be the last of the snow and grey skies for the next week.
This return visit to New Orleans was somewhat overdue. I had first been there in 1997 to visit friends Sam and Jose, loved the place and had been trying to find an excuse to get back for a long time.
New Orleans is a town of freeways, potholes, very large cars, pollution, murder, hurricanes and swamps. It's also a town of, elegance, faded charm,fun, colour, vibrance, booze, friendliness, and vestiges of grandeur. All in all there is something for everyone. I was staying with good friends about an hours drive out of town on the north shore of Lake Ponchatrain. To get there requires driving across a 23 mile causeway, one of the longest in the world. It's rather a strange experience to be on a concrete freeway in the middle of a huge lake unable to see land. The north shore is higher ground than New Orleans itself and is home to an ever growing population of commuters who prefer to live in a less flood prone area. They take some pride in referring to themselves as Katrina Refugees but there is nothing refugee-ish about the neat new housing estates and refurbished cottages and rural properties scattered along the north shore. One of the reasons the population of New Orleans City has not returned to its previous numbers is areas like this. These people still work in the City but choose to drive there rather than live there. The traffic in New Orleans is therefore horrendous. The city's answer to this, like many cities (including my own dear Brisbane) is to widen and extend the roads. Cars are cheap, fuel is cheap and roads are easy...
I spent a couple of crisp, sunny days on the north shore before heading into New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We were booked into a hotel in the French Quarter for 3 night - the easier to enjoy the parades, festivities, food and drink. The French Quarter has to be one of the worlds great neighbourhoods. It's been around for almost 300 years and has been the home to pirates,
buccaneers, adventurers, the French (obviously), the Spanish, antebellum gentry, slaves, musicians and, more recently, movie-stars and rock-stars. To walk its narrow streets is to stroll under wrought iron balconies, and past faded stucco facades with timber shuttered windows. It's a place of ferns in hang baskets, private walled gardens and buildings leaning at almost crazy angles because of the soft swampy ground beneath. During Mardi Gras its also a place of boisterousness, drunkenness, random parades of people in weird costume, dark bars with a calamity of jazz music leaking out into the brightness of the day, painted body parts, drinks in huge tacky plastic cups and a vivid shimmer of shiny coloured beads around the neck of everyone. The ornate verandas are decked with the flags and bunting in the colours of Mardi Gras, green, gold and purple and with people yelling to the crowds below and tossing beads. In short the French Quarter is a riot of colour and movement.
On Mardi Gras day I found myself wearing a pirate costume (don't ask) and my friends dressed as a bee and bee-keeper. We were not alone in our costumery and the streets were filled with people in a vast array of random attire. We started the day with breakfast in the French Market washed down with daiquiris (it all starts early) and followed up with a steady supply of drinks over the next 8 hours or so. We had intended to be part of a parade, but when we failed to actually find it we collapsed into Pat O'Brien's bar for a Hurricane and to listen to its famous Duelling Pianos(or dooling pianos as the locals call it). The music was great, but 
unfortunately one Hurricane led to another, and eventually a 3rd. For those who have never tried this abomination of a drink it is made with white and dark rum, passionfruit syrup and lime juice all poured over ice. The first one you drink is horrible - it's excruciatingly sweet. From there on they get better and better until you fall down. Thankfully by the time I fell down I was back in the hotel and had a nice comfy bed to break the fall.A full American breakfast complete with crispy bacon, several cups of coffee and a reasonable amount of water and I was up and at-em the next day. Sam and I were off on a riverboat trip. This was one of the few things I had not done last time I was in town and was adamant I would achieve it this time round. Sam, having lived in New Orleans about 17 years knows her way around, and so suggested the Creole Queen which would take us downriver to the site of the Battle of New Orleans between the British and the Americans in 1815. It was a resounding (though pointless) victory for the Americans as the war was pretty much over already. The battle site
was an open expanse of swampy grass with a large old house, obelisk type monument and a few cannon. The visitor centre was being rebuilt so we spent only 15 minutes wandering about before returning to the upper deck of our paddle-steamer for the return trip up the Mississippi.The river was the most fascinating part of the tour. The waters swirl and churn and appear to flow in several directions at once with immense power and speed. It is infamous for its ability to drown those who venture or fall in. It also carries a huge amount of traffic which is dominated by the huge tankers and freighters which come up from the Gulf of Mexico to the port of New Orleans and the giant cruise ships which visit the city. As you approach the city you see just how low-lying it is. The levees rise high at the rivers edge, higher than the roofs of the houses behind and not a hill in sight.
I returned to the peace and quiet of the north shore for my final few days.
I bought some cheap t-shirts and levis at the local mall.
I took a tour of the local Abita Brewery. - it's a great deal! A free tour,with a good 30 minutes of free 'beer tasting' beforehand. They even encourage you to top-up before you head off on your 10 minute walk around a bunch a very large stainless steel vats. Thankfully Sam was driving.
I went back to Oak Alley Plantation. I have visited Oak Alley last time I was in town. It hadn't changed at all. The avenue of 300 year old Oak trees leading from the Mississippi to the house is a delight. Life for those in the big house must have been a charmed existence. Life for those not in the big house was a different matter entirely.I think life for those in the big houses of New Orleans is still a charmed existence. There is an elegant culture of socialising, parties and entertainments that I can't match in any city I have seen... it's a very alluring charm of the city and I guess it's primarily what attracts so many tourists. Life in the South may be a little tarnished, but underneath there is still some quality. Life for those not in the big houses remains a different matter. In parts of its society New Orleans is a city violence and murder. Barely a day goes by without reports of violent crime. It was interesting to hear that during the recent Superbowl win by the New Orleans Saints that violent crime was drastically reduced. Maybe it was a distraction, something to look forward to, something to be proud of in a city that has had little to look forward to since Katrina. It was a mood palpable on the street during Mardi Gras. People were happy, excited, proud that they had won. The Saints were a team so accustomed to loss that their fans wore paper bags over their heads when they went to watch a game. Jokes were flying around that the weather was so cold because the Saints had won and hell was freezing over. The Saint's colours of black and gold were everywhere. Cries of 'Who Dat!' could be heard everywhere from anyone ('Who Dat' being part of a team chant being 'Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints').
So things might be on the up. A Superbowl, the biggest Mardi Gras crowds in 10 year, a new Mayor will hopefully give a boost to the city and its gradual recovery from Katrina 4 years ago.
