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Driving into New Orleans was a bit of scenery change…on every level. Leaving Memphis there is a lot of forest and greenery but as you get closer and further south, it slowly starts to turn into wetlands and before your know it, you are driving on a bridge over the wetlands and have been for the last 50kms.
I'm not sure if it was just our part of town but it was a really low socioeconomic area. So it was doors locked and windows up as we drove to our hostel, which was smack bang in the middle of the dodgy area. We pulled up outside an old rundown mansion with hippies sitting out on the stairs. This was our accommodation apparently. Not feeling safe enough to exit the car just yet, Georgia and Sav volunteered to scope out the place and see if it was safe for humans. Once we got the all clear from them, we casually left our 2014 Ford Explorer in the street and checked in.
There's nothing like the musky smell of old furniture and zombie - like backpackers scattered around this old house to make you want kick back. The actual room itself wasn't too bad. 4 bunk beds in a large room with our own air con unit. I guess you could say the graffiti on the walls gave it character.
Once we were settled in we decided to head out for dinner in the main part of New Orleans, most famously Bourbon St - where the Mardi Gras is held each year. To get there from our hostel we had to catch a tram - or trolley as they are referred to which cost us $2.50. Although it isn't a busy time of year, the area surrounding Bourbon Street was still pretty busy. While getting lost in the surrounding streets we bumped into the actor Jessie Eisenberg (Now you see me). He looked just as lost and confused. We found a restaurant that served all the local dish's from New Orleans such as Gumbo and Jambalaya and filled our bellies to the top with it. After dinner we ventured into a few of the drinking establishments then walked further out to a cocktail bar where we continued to drink and chat to the locals.
The next day we took our car and headed out of town a bit, but first we had to use the amenities of the alleged former mansion. The water pressure on my showerhead was so bad that my legs didn't even get wet! but it's all about the experience right? However the place we drove out to had it much worse than me, well the slaves did. We went out to Plantation country (think Django Unchained). This was cotton pickin' and sugar cane land where the white man ruled and the only records of black people were kept through records of purchase. We toured a former Plantation called Oak Alley. Even though most of the buildings had been restored because they were so run down, there still was an eerie atmosphere around the place. Walking through their huts and learning about their lives was sad and a bit morbid. Speaking of morbid, we took a guided tour of the Big House (where the white folk lived) and it was incredible how sympathetic they were to how hard life was for the white family. Not a thought given to the 90 slaves working all day in the fields.
After our Plantation visit, we took the scenic route back to town and stopped off at a few nature walks along the Mississippi. I should also mention that during our road trippin, we've been making an effort to stop and try all the different types of fast food so our late lunch stop was a place called Phoboys. This mob is apparently famous for their rolls filled with different meats and such. What they served me though, I wouldn't give to my dog.
Before dinner we went to the Louis Armstrong park where they were having a free Jazz festival, so we did some people watching and listen to the music under the Louis Armstrong statue.
Because we had a late lunch, dinner was a light meal in Bourbon St. I stopped off at an oyster bar and had some of the best oysters I've ever had. After that we ordered these potent cocktails called grenades that were in a plastic Yard cup. $16 for the drink and cup then $8 for the refill. So we sat on them for the rest of the night walking up and down Bourbon St and being molested into buying shots from the promo women. The night had to finish early as we were up at 4:30am the following morning for our last leg of driving. A 9hr drive to the middle of Texas.
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