Quick Tourist Trip to New Orleans

Yesterday was my first visit to New Orleans. Like most Americans I'd heard of it before in regards to its stereotypes (jazz, Bourbon Street, beads, drunkenness) and its plight in wake of Hurricane Katrina and flooding that occurred after the levies broke.

Since 9/11 I've wanted to stop seeing life through the eyes of television and starts exploring and experiencing places for myself. So a chance to visit New Orleans was a chance to put some perspective on everything I've seen on the little TV box.

The GPS took me to the city and I explored downtown for a little while. It's nothing special: a mixture of short and tall, new and old buildings that are typical of an American city. Without a historical element they lack the character I love so much about european cities.

When I saw my first sign for the French Quarter, I immediately turned, found a parking lot and got ready to explore. The French Quarter is genuine in its architectural style: it definitely feels like a little bit of France. I'm not talking about the overly touristy nature of it but of the two or three level buildings with colourful plants sitting on black iron balconies the same way they'd have looked a hundred years ago. The French Quarter is a historically protected place and if you get a way from the touristy areas like Bourbon street it, slow down and seek out details it can be really charming.

One of the classic European characteristics of a city is a central plaza with a beautiful church. The French quarter has Jackson Square with the St. Louis Cathedral, remarkably beautiful and the automobile-free (yeah!) plaza surrounding it is filled with painters, crafts people, an amazing number of Tarot card readers and modern day mimes. Sure, this place is centered on tourists, but its done in a way that lets you enjoy it even if you're not spending. How can you enjoy a dozen T-Shirt shops if you have no interest in that stuff? You can't and that's why I like this area better.

If Bourbon Street is probably the most well recognized stereotype of New Orleans, Cafe Du Monde is probably one of the second most. Originally a quaint little coffee shop opened a hundred years ago serving a unique blend of coffee and french doughnuts called beignets, this is now a tourist icon. Why people would visit New Orleans in the summer where it is 95 degrees plus 85% humidity and eat hot fried dough while sipping coffee I do not know. So I had to try it. I had a hot chocolate (I'm not a coffee drinker) and a single order of three beignets. It was actually quite good: they were warm with a subtle sweet flavor made more intense by dumping powdered sugar on top of them. Each serving comes with a small glass of water and this helps digestion a lot. The shot on the right is some of the almost exclusively asian staff eating chineese food on break near their doughnut maker.

After eating my fried dough I walked northeast on Decatur touring a historical open air market looking for things to take pictures of. The air was hot and humid and I was getting dehydrated so I stopped by a shaved ice vendor for something cold. I'd expected to go the safe route and get strawberry flavor but the guy in front of me ordered "Tiger Blood" and I had to try it. It was great: the flavor of red sugar, but I was hoping for some sort of asian spiced magically delicious exotic surprise. Cold, Wet and Red is great in New Orleans.

I moved east to the Lower Ninth Ward next to see the area flooded after hurricane Katrina. This area looks like a typical low to middle income housing area with small but attractive homes built in the 1940s and 1950s. By the time I arrived I could see the damaged buildings if I looked for them: vacant houses with no windows in place but still standing and looking pretty good otherwise. The telltale signs of a Katrina damaged house was the spray painted "X" symbol on the front of it with numbers stating when the house was checked, whether anyone was in it, etc. On the few streets I explored I'd say one in twelve homes looked like this, much better than I expected. Not sure where my pictures are of this place :(

As I left the city I drove through Bourbon Street. I think the next time I go I'll bring friends and visit this part at night when I'm in a mood to party. Loud bars blasting music and offering beer specials at noon just doesn't do it for me.

I can't take pictures of the heat in New Orleans but that is one memory that will always last. It's hot and humid and this extreme combination is hard to escape. After my hot chocolate (bad idea), beignets (another bad idea) and shaved ice (great idea) I was still dehydrated from the heat and bought a Dr. Pepper from a street vendor. Seemed like a good idea but after trying it I can tell you this combination does not work. I managed to keep it down and the cure to my ills? A second Tiger Blood shaved ice. Those things were fantastic!