Real Human Moments

What an awesome city, I need to go back. We made the 1 hour drive from Key West to New Orleans all day and most of the night, arriving at 9ish into the city. We took advantage of the early hour and found free parking in the French Quarter. Driving and walking around revealed a city still recovering from Katrina, even 2 years after the fact. The streets seemed too empty for their size, and the run down and broken houses were everywhere. Often times there would be a house that was completely restored right next to a house that probably would need to be demolished, even in the French Quarter. According to a construction worker we ended up talking to for a while, basically all the work being done is privately funded repairs, he doesn’t know anyone who has worked on a project from the Katrina fund.

Just strolled through the French Quarter and took in the sights, sounds and shops. We did stop at the Voodoo museum and learned a bit about the history behind voodoo. For 5 dollars John T Martin, a druid and Voodoo priest explained Voodoo and let us walk through his museum.

Of course we had to get some Cajun/Creole food, so we stopped at a local cafe and sampled the goods. Not a cheap en devour but it was certainly worth it. After our explorations we headed too our hostel, about a 10 minute drive with traffic away from the French Quarter. We stayed at India House a beautiful and eccentric little hostel. It consisteded of 3 buildings right next to eachother, with a fourth behind all 3 which creates a little courtyard in the middle. They have a pool and even a little turtle pond. I believe its owned or atleast managed by a group of artists who just spend their days taking care of the hostel and creating art for the hostel or other things such as a skateboard for a girl down the street.

As usual everyone was extremly friendly, we hung out with a mix of people from Pennsylvania, California, Utah, England and Australia. We picked up a bottle of wine and relaxed on the porch telling stories of our travels and getting to know each other. Eventually Sasha and I headed out to experience the French Quarter at night. Bourbon Street was like Uconn Spring weekend, if every house was actually a nice bar and or strip club. We got the obligatory hurricane or handgrande and actually then went to Frenchman’s street to hear some good jazz. This road is a little bit away from Bourbon street, but just as fun and it has a less “frat boy” feel. Every bar had a live Jazz band playing, we ended up stopping at the d.b.a and saw Honey Island Swamp Band. Really great band and awesome bar.

Later that night, back at the hostel, we bumped into our fellow travelers and hung out till the wee hours of the morning. Finishing the bottles of wine, talking about British TV, Europeans at festivals, and then just plain drunk talk about accents.

I’ll be back for Voodoo festival in October.

Jimbo