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FALL BREAK: NEW ORLEANS
Finally, finally, finally…..fall break had come! For us this meant: NEW ORLEEEEAAAAAANNNSSSSS!!! YEAH! So time for a loooooooong blog…get ready!
We went with 8 other people and had rented two cars. After a long wait, we were on our way at 4.15pm and had a 7-hour drive ahead of us. Us, Joe, Peter and Nhat were sharing a car. We were driving a pretty fancy silver Chevy, which is basically the common car brand here. The thing about driving a car on the interstate here is it's pretty boring. An interstate is just one long, VERY long road from one state to another. We all felt sorry for Jesper…7 hours of driving in cruise control, 70 mph…with sleepy German guys and a guy from Vietnam in the back…Lena tried to keep him entertained, but wasn't really good at it. Haha! We did have a break 3-4 hours after we left and had dinner at Wendy's :) Oh, how DELIGHTED Jesper was with his "Baconator", a double square burger with a lot of bacon and cheese. Lena has a feeling we're going to Wendy's again soon!;P
At around 12.15am we finally arrived at our hostel, the India Hotel. What a coincidence to find a Dutch girl behind the counter! It made it a lot easier to explain that we had booked two separate rooms (one for the girls and the other for the boys) on two different names, and that the other half of our group was still coming, since they hadn't arrived yet so Jesper was perfectly on schedule. First, the girls checked into a private bedroom for four people with a private bathroom. "SWEET!," we thought. Ten minutes later we were told they had messed up the reservation and had us check in into a private bedroom with public bathroom, saying we would have to move in the morning to yet ANOTHER room…pretty annoying. But for low-budget standards, it was okay.
The next day, we went into town with the street car. We love those things! Wish we had them in Holland. They look very lovely driving down the street. We went into the French Quarter, looking for a place to get breakfast. After walking around for a while, we finally sat down at a place and decided to have lunch instead, since it was almost noon already. Okay, so New Orleans is famous for its local foods: gumbo, jambalaya and beignets. Lena tried one of them, jambalaya. It's hard to describe the dish, but it was red rice (like it was marinated in tomato sauce) with sausage and chicken in it and it was very spicy! But oh so yummy…the serving didn't seem much, but it filled her stomach until dinner! We went on to the French Market, a marketplace where they sold anything and everything, from sunglasses to jewelry to Mardi Gras masks. It was really nice to just stroll around the French Quarter.
For dinner, we chose to go for an authentic African restaurant in the French Quarter. A teeny tiny restaurant with only one waiter, a small kitchen and a restroom located OUTSIDE of the restaurant next to the kitchen. The food was really good, though. The servings were probably typically African, because we got A LOT of food for an average of $13 and gravy was no issue as they probably had loaded trucks full of gravy in the back…YUMMY! After dinner we went on to Bourbon Street, THE street in New Orleans. It's similar to Beale Street (Memphis) and even Broadway (Nashville), except this street was full of clubs, all kinds of clubs. Anyone could have a good time here. After going to this club with the ten of us, the two of us decided to relax at a blues club, which had a live blues band playing. Good times!:)
The next day was pretty exciting!!! Our first time eating breakfast at McDonalds: pancakes, sausage and scrambled eggs. It was time for Cajun Encounters! Cajun whatta…?? Encounters :) We drove up to Slidell (LA) for a swamp tour! YES, a SWAMP tour. Since we don't really have swamps in Holland, we decided to just go for it. On a swamp tour, you get to see wild alligators, snakes, turtles and anything else that is living in the swamps. We felt so adventurous! Haha! Like the crocodile hunter. There were 20 people on one boat. We had a funny tour guide, who told us all about the swamp. Next thing we knew, we encountered a snake, turtles, several alligators of different sizes (mostly small, so thank God they couldn't eat us!), different birds and Woody Woodpecker! Yep, in the flesh. Haha!
After these exciting encounters of different sizes, we went to the beach at the Gulf of Mexico. Four of the guys (Jesper, Joe, Tilman and Peter) decided to take a swim. After a while, three of them came back injured on their feet and legs. Apparently, a part of the bottom of the ocean was not sandy, but "sharpy". Hehe! It was not normal and actually this was the same gulf that had the major oil crisis going on, but it looked clean like any other ocean or sea. After a quick stop at Walgreens (similar to Kruidvat or Etos in Holland) for bandaids, we went back to our hostel. Jesper had to put about five bandaids on and under his feet as they had some major cuts from the "NICE" swim they took.
We found ourselves a nice place to have dinner: Coop's Place. It seemed to be one of the familiar restaurants in New Orleans, with good prices. Unfortunately, there was a line standing outside the doors of Coop's Place. Six of us decided not to wait and go to another place instead. After dinner, we met up with the rest of the people again and went to a jazz club called "Maison". Nice live music, but what we were confused about were the three girls in hot pants and revealing shirts dancing to the jazz music as part of the entertainment, waving flags and stuff…So, it wasn't long before we left to another jazz club next door called Blue Nile, where there was another live band playing, this time with more swing and much more danceable. Something that made Jesper move his feet, even though, he was still injured!:) It wasn't too crowded, but we definitely enjoyed this club and we noticed that the most jazz/blues bands played music from the Average White Band and The Commodores. As we headed out to go home, we saw a band performing on the corner of the street. A large crowd had formed around it; people were dancing and having fun. It was so cool to see that this city just explodes with music, no matter where you are at what time.
The next day (Monday), we checked out early at around 10.00am. Half of the group went to the cemeteries, the other half (Jesper, Lena, Joe, Peter and Nhat) went back to the French Market (on Lena's request, haha!). We got some nice souvenirs and had breakfast at Coop's Place. And it's true, that place has good food for a good price! Most of us had a homemade omelet with homemade French fries, which were awesome. So, definitely a place we recommend if you ever plan on going to New Orleans. After the French Market, we went to a big shopping mall, the Lakeside Shopping Center. No, we didn't buy too much…..we think. Haha! We also had some nice frozen yogurt with fresh toppings (not Sweet Cece's this time :P). We love frozen yogurt…
And then, it was time to go back home to Memphis, TN for another 7 hour drive. We were actually planning on making a little stop on the way back at a fair close to Jackson, MS. But sadly, we either passed the fair without knowing it, or they had already broken down the fair when we went back on Monday. Too bad, it would've been fun to actually experience a fair in the States!! Maybe next time…
Until then, we'll keep you updated! Check back regularly for new photos, videos and blogs!
Love you!
-Lena & Jesper-
- comments
Domi Great adventures again! Really awesome you did that swamp tour!! Looks like fun indeed, and very adventurous :D Poor Jesper! Not so fun to injure yourself when you think you're swimming safely :D Glad to hear the Gulf was cleaned out now tho! xoxo