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Well, havent said much for a while now, partly because its been pretty hectic, and secondly, the internet has been hard to find as we have been on the train, or in the car the last few nights!
Anyway, since the last entry, i think in Chicago, we obviously went down to New Orleans. New Orleans is one of the best places i have visited here so far. We got the 19 odd hour train down, most of it in the dark, and arrived late afternoon at the station. Ford knew someone that lived here from being at uni in Newcastle, so we had his contact details,and tried to give him a call. The number we dialed wasnt recongnised, so fortunately we had an internet connection at the station, so e-mailed him and asked if he could come pick us up. By this time it was getting on a bit, so we decided to go for a walk instead of waiting in the station for a reply. Turns out that the neighbourhood we walked through on our "stroll" was in fact one of the roughest parts of the city, and even walking through in the daytime was considered a risk, let alone at 7pm at night! oh well, we lived to tell the tail.
so we got back to the Station and sure enough, we had a reply from Steve AKA Scoober, saying that he would come get us in about 30 mins. Steve's house was probabvly about 3 miles away from the station, and was in one of the areas that had got damaged by the floods a year back. He lived with 2 other males, and one girl, to which she was the G/F of one of the guys...Albert. As we drove down to his house we could see all the abandoned houses most of them with these cross signs put on the door. I think there is one uploaded on my Album of NORL, but these crosses were pretty important, as the told you, when the floods came, who it was that checked for bodies, how many were found dead, and which authority they were from...i.e FD = Fire Department EC = External Check and the number at the bottom of the cross was the amount of dead bodies. Fortunately there were very few with actual numbers below, but there was one to which they found 10 bodies....scary.
So anyway, back to the house, there was some damage in the storm...some 4 foot of water, but it had all been replaced now as Albert, one of the guys who part owned it, is in the renovation business, so did it all when it was needed. All the house mates were really nice people. They offered us everything really, bikes if we needed to go on a cycle tour, food in the evenings, beers...on of which was pumpkin ale, which for the record is delicious...they were really welcoming, and very hospitable. So thanks, if your reading this.
That night we decided to just go our for a few beers in the local called roberts. That few beers, turned into going somewhere else, a little back room bar called the bon temps roule where we saw this group called the soul rebels. They were awesome!! so we had a few in there, whilst listening to them, then went on to this place called snake and jakes which was literally in the middle of a housing estate and was open until 6 maybe 7am ish! It was a really chilled out bar, where we played a few drinking games and cards until the early hours.
Next day we woke up somewhat confused, and if im honest a little hungover! Steve had said to us that he would take us on a drive tour around the city and over to the worst hit area of the hurricane, right after he got back from college at about 11AM. We decided to take it easy in the morning until steve got back, by about 12 we were getting hungry so decided to go grab some pizza at the local pizza place called Dominics. Was good because we ordered a large BBQ chicken between us, but it took a while to come, so we got a large Pepperoni also...sweet.
By the time we got back to the house, we were getting a little confused that Steve hadnt yet returned, and it was near 1:30 now. anyway we ate pizza then all of a sudden Steve's door opened, and there he was! Turns out he didnt go to college and slept through his alarm. This had meant that me and Ford, having woke at about 9 ish, had just sat in the front room waiting for Steve to come back, when infact he was there all along! Maybe you had to be there to see how funny it was, but the stupidity of us two not checking his room is humour in itself!
So Steve true to his word, probably still a little tired, drove us around the sites of NORL. We went through the rough neighbourhoods, the ones that had been hit by the floods the worst, the rich neighbourhood with these magnificent French influenced villas, and then over the bridge to the worst hit area from the storm, where there were very few houses left. Even the homes that were there we completely abandoned. Some had obviously been picked up by the wind and then dropped, whether it be on a Car, Truck or even trees. It was definately an eye opener to what had happened, and definately the severity of it all. You can see in some of the photos the Truck under the house, and the ones that had just been left.
From there we went over to the french quarter, which is the true picture of NORL. We went to a cafe called Cafe Rouge where they just sell coffee and these dough balls covered in powdered sugar, and i mean covered. but boy were the d-li-c-ious. Oh forgot to mention that it was Fords birthday this day also.
By this time we were pretty tired, so went back to the house and relaxed for a couple of hours before getting ready to go out for Fords Birthday.
Next Day we went to a festival..... A Mirliton festival. For those who dont know what a mirliton is, as i bet most dont, its a vegetable, kinda shaped like a pear, but taste so so nice. Anyway, someone in there infinate wisdom had decided to create a festival out of it. Which as strange as it sounds was really good because they had music put on by all different bands in NORL. So i guess that the Mirliton was just an excuse for a party....sums up NORL really! Later that day after the festival., we went to go see Borat at the cinema. Imagine me and Ford sat in the cinema with a Full to the brim audience of americans watching a film that basically took the piss out of them! Awkard? you bet, but the film as im sure a few of you who are into the kind of humour it gives off will agree that it was hilarious!
Didnt do anything that night as we were pretty tired, so just watched another downloaded film, and chilled out. Besides, next day we were to play football, or soccer as its more readily known over here!
Up earlyish we were taken by Albert to a couple of the houses he had been working on, one that had nearly finished its renovation after the storm, the other one that hadnt even been touched. Was weird seeing this house that had been adandoned by the previous owner, an older couple, with there possesions still there as the storm left them. Furniture swept up in the main swell into the corner, pictures still on the wall. If anything it was kinda creepy. At midday we went to watch NORL play american football at Roberts with a BBQ, which you were meant to take stuff to throw on. We took 6 burgers, but didnt even eat any of them, instead we mooched off what other people had brought! Ribs, Chicken wings, Pasta, pork and bean (which is amazingly tasty, but simple) bread etc etc. Had a few beers, then after we were to go do something we hadnt done in a long time...exercise, in the form of a football game. Steve had to do some work, so didnt come, but Albert came along, and drove us to this park in the middle of supposedly one of the worst areas for crime in the city, but to be honest it didnt seem bad. maybe it was a good day, i dunno. The football was definately a shock to the system, and i soon realised that fitnes was something i needed to work on, as by about 20 mins of running around i was shattered. I Blame the beer, but maybe thats just an excuse, i dunno.
Next day we had to be up early as we had a fair bit to travel. Train was at 7ish, and we were going back upto DC, so all in all, probably about 27 hours on the train. which = numb buttocks!! we had only a few hours to spare in DC as we had to get the next train down to Miami region, otherwise the time scale we were working to wouldnt allows us to visit any other time. so 27 hours on a train, 8 hours in DC, then another 25 hours down to miami!
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