New Orleans - 2

Monday 20th, Tuesday 21st June 2011

Grabbing the opportunity to put photos on while they are loading quickly. Sorry about the order......they are not going where I want them to.

Bourbon Street – the heart of the French Quarter. It is about 2km in length and is a hive of activity day and night.

Just about every bar has music, much of it is live bands or solo singers. Music is varied depending on the place.  Mike was delighted to find a band doing Cajun zydeco music. 

There are lots of “girly bars” with scantily clad ladies parading at the doors trying to lure the blokes in. They were all protected by big tough looking blokes.

We were warned by a couple of people that New Orleans was not safe. But in the French Quarter we did not feel unsafe at all. Everyone there seems to be in party mode.

We have sampled a good portion of the local food. The first night we had had Jambalya, crawfish pie and file gumbo (didn’t they make a song about that once?). The Jambalya is a rice dish with prawns and chicken in it. The crawfish pie was shaped like a pasty and had fish inside with a creamy sauce. The gumbo is like a stew. They were all very nice. We finished with a pecan pie.....well I couldn't resist...

Second night we shared two dishes – one was blackened fish with garlic mash and veg. The other was chicken with rice which was topped with a spicy tomato sauce. Again, both nice. Then Mike decided Chocolate Suicide sounded like a great (authentic????) dessert to top off the meal. By the time we had finished it we both felt like big blobs…..but it was VERY nice.

Great thing about this place is that you can wander around with your drinks. They serve them “to go” in plastic and you wander in and out of anywhere you like.

The drink of choice here is either beer. There is a never ending choice and Mike is enjoying working his way through them all.

There is not much choice in the wine department so I have had to resort to cocktails. Shame about that!!! The big thing here is a “hand grenade cocktail” which is served in a long tall plastic glass. It tastes like straight Midori. Very strong. And you get to keep the glass......unfortunately it doesn't fit very well in the backpack!

I also sampled “Sex in the Quarter" a cocktail made of Coconut Rum, Peach Schnapps, Pineapple and Cranbury. All the bars and clubs compete with each other and have people out on the street trying to lure you in with special drink prices.

Not that Mike is influenced by price. Apparently size doesn't matter unless you are talking about beers!!

A couple of days before we got here we bumped into a New Zealand guy, David, on the bus……and ran into him again in one of the New Orleans bars……small world eh!!

More New Orleans to come...