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New Orleans, or N'Awlins as the locals pronounce it, is amazing.
It's a city with a massive vibe running through it and is is seriously cool. We spent four days there trying to soak up as much as possible, but of the places we have been so far, this is the one where I think we could have stayed for a lot longer.
Obviously most people today think of New Orleans and immediately think of Katrina, or 'the storm'as it is referred to there, but the city refuses to be defined by it (or any of the disasters they have faced), and is so so much more than that. Everyone you meet is very happy to talk about Katrina, tell you their survival story, and it by no means forgotten; when you drive out of the tourist areas there is clear evidence of devastation that has never been rebuilt and lots of lots of projects that have, but the residents are stoic, no one's story is a sob story told with drama or seeking sympathy, it is given factually as something that happened and is being dealt with. Amazing when you consider the damage done: 80% of all housing in New Orleans was damaged or destroyed; no schools operated for a year; 30% of the population still hasn't returned. In fact the catch phrase seems to be 'It happened' and everyone then and since has just got on with it. Most people have the same attitude about the oil spill, 'we'll deal with it' but not everyone: we did get called on the "BP" oil spill ("you're the reason we've got no oysters") in a restaurant where they couldn't offer oysters because the oyster beds have been destroyed by the oil. We later learnt that typically 3 or 4 generations of the same family have been catching the oysters so you begin to realise the devastation brought to livelihoods by the oil spill. The gulf of mexico is where most seafood is caught for the US so its had a massive impact. You really feel for New Orleans in that it really didn't need another disaster.
So what is so special about New Orleans, well the people here, their spirit and the groove that runs through the city make it special, the music, again, is incredible, played in every bar and on every street corner, and some how even more encompassing of everyday life than in Nashville. We walked into an everyday bar on a Thursday night. It was not only packed but everyone was dancing, absolutely everyone. The band were changing instruments every other song so the trumpet player who played the most amazing solo then sat at the drums and did the same again, and then again on the piano!!
The food, is also very unique and special to the city and like music is another thing the locals are SO passionate about. Creole is the food native to the city, Cajun we learnt is from upstate and only came to the city in 1970s (spot who went to cookery school for the day, geek). So Creole food is everywhere and delicious; Jambalaya, Gumbo, fried catfish and shrimp Po Boys (ginormous sarnies) and chicken creole - all amazing. We had a cookery lesson with this mad but brilliant chef called Anne who managed to teach us how to cook Gumbo, Chicken Creole and Pralines in two hours, and squeeze in a short history of New Orleans too. (Note friends who come around for dinner at ours will be eating this next year!)
Finally their history, where they have come from and what they have got through is also very important to the city - because of the European history and being french and spanish at various points in it's history, the architecture is amazing, especially in the french quarter (which is actually mainly spanish!) where I could have walked around for hours. Everywhere you look it is draw droppingly picturesque and you just want to take your camera out and somehow capture it for posterity.
There is so much to N.O than the french quarter though and thanks to the lovely lady who ran our B&B (Monrow's Row, look it up), Cindy, who imparted so much knowledge, we were able to explore beyond the tourists bits which was ace. We saw City Park - a huge 4 miles long park (central park styley) that has not long reopened after being 95% flooded after Katrina and lake Ponchartrain (which is so big all you can see is water) that borders the city. We also got to go an open air charity concert that was mainly attended by locals in a square downtown and heard Kermit Ruffins (look him up) play great trumpet. While there we met Halvor, Sandy & Karen, some locals/visitors from Boston who took us out to dinner, then invited us to a birthday party the next night! We have been struck about how friendly people are in the states: we've been inundated with advice about where to go on our trip to Oregan from people in bars, in cooking lessons and on trains. We've already swapped email addresses with half a dozen people; hopefullly it will continue when we get to NZ, Aus and Asia.
So after a great few days it was with a slighly heavy heart that we left New Orleans to catch our flight to Portland. The fact that it was a 6 hr flight via Denver didn't really sink in. . .South West Airlines, while very punctional do not provide in flight movies or any food (even to buy) so it felt like a very long flight indeed!
We got off the flight having lost 20degrees of heat, shivering but ready to embark on the next leg of our trip.
PS: Pictures! You can see some pictures on the photo albums with this blog but I think it's a bit easier to view them on the link below, you can also see the videos of all the live music on this link too! http://www.flickr.com/photos/byerin/collections/72157625116497716/- comments