DAY 1 "Are you Ewan?"
This was the first totally solo leg (uni-pod?) of my trip! Dani took me to the airport before she went to work so I got there at about 7am. It was another short flight but the train to New Orleans would have taken a day and cost more than the flight. There was a cute girl sitting next to me on the plane. I tried to get her attention by being annoying and leaning over when she was doing a crossword. My incredible advances failed... at least for now! We touched down in New Orleans and my research kicked in, I managed to find the right bus and the girl from the plane turned up at the bus stop about ten minutes after me, my research was better than hers... or maybe she grabbed something to eat. She told me that she'd flown from New Hampshire to surprise a friend in New Orleans. She gave me her number (I didn't even ask!) and she said that if her plans fell through then she might arrange to stay at my hostel. I arrived at the hostel, it was a bit of a dive but with a good mix of friendly young people. When I first went into my room there was a dude in there with some whiskey. "That'll wake you up in the morning! Captain Morgan!" was the first thing he said to me after he'd taken a big swig from the bottle. There was an Aussie guy in the room too and I quickly befriended him so we could team up on the other dude if he tried anything funny. The Aussie stepped out for a bit and the black dude told me "I can get you anything. Women, drugs, you name it." I thanked him for his kind offer and quickly ran away to find the Aussie guy. It turned out that Aussie guy was called Darren and he used to be a policeman in Sydney. I think I picked the correct dude to befriend. It was raining all day so most of the hostel folk stayed in for the night. It was a bit of a trek to downtown and most of us were pretty tired as we'd only just arrived or been drinking heavily the night before... or both. Darren and I got speaking to some Irish girls, Lisa and another girl with a crazy Irish name (Eomer?... no wait that's the dude from LOTR). We chatted for a good few hours and were joined by another Aussie. At one point the hostel phone rang and Darren decided to answer it, it was the first time I've cried with laughter on this trip. From what Darren was saying we figured there was a Korean guy called Min-sok Lee on the other end asking to talk to "Ewan". Darren was saying stuff like "This is a youth hostel, you know you're calling America right?" and it was just too funny to hear him try and explain stuff. In the end we decided it was Yu-an and that turned out to be one of the hostel workers, it was her father calling. We only worked that out after Darren had asked anybody that walked by if they were called Ewan. I was actually in bed before midnight in our room with the air-con stuck on 65.
DAY 2 "Pat Benetar in the taxi!"
The day started with making a new friend in Dom, another Aussie policeman who'd arrived the night before and was staying in our room. Dom, Darren and I were all heading downtown so we decided to go together. Before we left the hostel we gained another hosteller in Victoria, a singer from Liverpool. Our group of four headed into the French Quarter by the streetcar (tram). We went down to look at the river and then stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. They're non-dougnut-shaped doughnuts with a thick layer of powdery sugar on top. I left there looking I'd been snorting cocaine, that stuff got all over the place. Then we went to the French market and then just continued walking, Dom was looking for a specific place and we just happy exploring with him. We ended up walking into a slightly dodgy looking area, it turned out we'd gone a bit far and we were a bit north east of the French Quarter. One woman sitting outside her house took it upon herself to steer us away from trouble. "When you gets to da end of here you gonna turn left, you don't want go dis way, you in da ghetto! I won't tell you wrong." After that delightful piece of information we headed back to the safe area. I'd been told to check out any cemetery so when we walked past one I insisted we go in. They have to bury their dead above ground because the place is below sea level so it makes for some interesting looking tombs and stuff. We came across Marie Levau's grave which was covered with calling cards, jewellery, random stuff and a Macho Man Randy Savage action figure. She was a voodoo woman so people give her cool stuff even though she's dead. We grabbed some food somewhere, I had a big salad. Darren had made a note of a free concert in the park that was going on so we headed there around 5pm while Dom chose to check out some other stuff instead. At the concert they had some blues and some jazz and some scantily clad women handing out info on sporting event tickets. Victoria decided to walk back to the hostel but Darren and I got the streetcar (tram). We had some beers at the hostel, watched a basketball game on TV, chatted with some Aussies, Americans and some Essex girls. Then around 10pm myself, Darren, the other Aussies and the Americans headed downtown. It was a really fun night except for all the walking in the rain, at least it was warm enough that you dried off pretty quickly. We went to a couple of live music bars, one bass player totally inspired me to pick up the bass again, we bumped into Dom and his Brazilian friend, we then went to a bar where we played some pool and chatted up some local girls, they loved the accents. All of us got a taxi back to the hostel and a note I'd put into my phone was "Pat Benetar in the taxi!" so I imagine I was singing along and annoying the guys, "Hit me with your best shot!" (I don't actually remember this, I found the note the next day).
This was the first totally solo leg (uni-pod?) of my trip! Dani took me to the airport before she went to work so I got there at about 7am. It was another short flight but the train to New Orleans would have taken a day and cost more than the flight. There was a cute girl sitting next to me on the plane. I tried to get her attention by being annoying and leaning over when she was doing a crossword. My incredible advances failed... at least for now! We touched down in New Orleans and my research kicked in, I managed to find the right bus and the girl from the plane turned up at the bus stop about ten minutes after me, my research was better than hers... or maybe she grabbed something to eat. She told me that she'd flown from New Hampshire to surprise a friend in New Orleans. She gave me her number (I didn't even ask!) and she said that if her plans fell through then she might arrange to stay at my hostel. I arrived at the hostel, it was a bit of a dive but with a good mix of friendly young people. When I first went into my room there was a dude in there with some whiskey. "That'll wake you up in the morning! Captain Morgan!" was the first thing he said to me after he'd taken a big swig from the bottle. There was an Aussie guy in the room too and I quickly befriended him so we could team up on the other dude if he tried anything funny. The Aussie stepped out for a bit and the black dude told me "I can get you anything. Women, drugs, you name it." I thanked him for his kind offer and quickly ran away to find the Aussie guy. It turned out that Aussie guy was called Darren and he used to be a policeman in Sydney. I think I picked the correct dude to befriend. It was raining all day so most of the hostel folk stayed in for the night. It was a bit of a trek to downtown and most of us were pretty tired as we'd only just arrived or been drinking heavily the night before... or both. Darren and I got speaking to some Irish girls, Lisa and another girl with a crazy Irish name (Eomer?... no wait that's the dude from LOTR). We chatted for a good few hours and were joined by another Aussie. At one point the hostel phone rang and Darren decided to answer it, it was the first time I've cried with laughter on this trip. From what Darren was saying we figured there was a Korean guy called Min-sok Lee on the other end asking to talk to "Ewan". Darren was saying stuff like "This is a youth hostel, you know you're calling America right?" and it was just too funny to hear him try and explain stuff. In the end we decided it was Yu-an and that turned out to be one of the hostel workers, it was her father calling. We only worked that out after Darren had asked anybody that walked by if they were called Ewan. I was actually in bed before midnight in our room with the air-con stuck on 65.
DAY 2 "Pat Benetar in the taxi!"
The day started with making a new friend in Dom, another Aussie policeman who'd arrived the night before and was staying in our room. Dom, Darren and I were all heading downtown so we decided to go together. Before we left the hostel we gained another hosteller in Victoria, a singer from Liverpool. Our group of four headed into the French Quarter by the streetcar (tram). We went down to look at the river and then stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets. They're non-dougnut-shaped doughnuts with a thick layer of powdery sugar on top. I left there looking I'd been snorting cocaine, that stuff got all over the place. Then we went to the French market and then just continued walking, Dom was looking for a specific place and we just happy exploring with him. We ended up walking into a slightly dodgy looking area, it turned out we'd gone a bit far and we were a bit north east of the French Quarter. One woman sitting outside her house took it upon herself to steer us away from trouble. "When you gets to da end of here you gonna turn left, you don't want go dis way, you in da ghetto! I won't tell you wrong." After that delightful piece of information we headed back to the safe area. I'd been told to check out any cemetery so when we walked past one I insisted we go in. They have to bury their dead above ground because the place is below sea level so it makes for some interesting looking tombs and stuff. We came across Marie Levau's grave which was covered with calling cards, jewellery, random stuff and a Macho Man Randy Savage action figure. She was a voodoo woman so people give her cool stuff even though she's dead. We grabbed some food somewhere, I had a big salad. Darren had made a note of a free concert in the park that was going on so we headed there around 5pm while Dom chose to check out some other stuff instead. At the concert they had some blues and some jazz and some scantily clad women handing out info on sporting event tickets. Victoria decided to walk back to the hostel but Darren and I got the streetcar (tram). We had some beers at the hostel, watched a basketball game on TV, chatted with some Aussies, Americans and some Essex girls. Then around 10pm myself, Darren, the other Aussies and the Americans headed downtown. It was a really fun night except for all the walking in the rain, at least it was warm enough that you dried off pretty quickly. We went to a couple of live music bars, one bass player totally inspired me to pick up the bass again, we bumped into Dom and his Brazilian friend, we then went to a bar where we played some pool and chatted up some local girls, they loved the accents. All of us got a taxi back to the hostel and a note I'd put into my phone was "Pat Benetar in the taxi!" so I imagine I was singing along and annoying the guys, "Hit me with your best shot!" (I don't actually remember this, I found the note the next day).
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