NOLA pt 2

10th November 2012
For the second day, I had organised a swamp tour with Honey Island Swamp Tour . We were picked up from the French Quarter and were driven to the Honey Island Swamp. The drive there was quite eye-opening. When we arrived at NOLA, it was still very early and I didn't really have a good look at the surroundings. Driving a mere 5 minutes outside of the French Quarter, a beautifully restored area, and the impact of Hurricane Katrina was still present, years since the event. There were so many abandoned, dilapitated homes (on stilts) as well as entire apartment blocks. The driver gave us a quick overview of the area, the fact that so many hospitals and schools which never re-opened. As well as families who collected insurance money (if they could) and moved away. And other families who weren't eligible for insurance (since their home wasn't elevated to a sufficient level) also left. After a while, every second sentence went along the lines of, "see that building? It used to be a ____. It's gone now". He also pointed out how far the water had reached inland, and it was substantial which was frightening.






I wasn't particularly interested in the swamp tour purely because I have been on swamp tours in Australia. However, swamps are famous in Louisiana and I decided that it was something that we did need to see. Though we were in the wrong season as it was too cold for the alligators (the main attraction). As I said, I wasn't particularly fussed. Seen one gator, seen them all. But it was a lovely boat tour, especially seeing the homes built next to the swamp, on stilts once again.

My sneaky photo even though we weren't allowed photos.

Back in the French Quarter, we went to Preservation Hall on a side street from Bourbon Street. There, we met an Australian couple from Perth. And as I later discovered by the end of the trip, even though I have never met someone from Perth, I met a substantial amount when I was overseas. I also visited a voodoo shop which was a little unsettling. I am not an atheist, I am agnostic, and I believe it is because I am open minded. My logic is, you just never know.

Bourbon Street is basically a street filled with 'cabarets' (girl's in lingerie), bars and a thousand and one drink vendors. There were so many people who were drunk (although who can blame them when they have a Giant Ass Beer in one hand and a ginormous fish bowl of a mysterious concoction in the other). The most interesting part was the beads. I wasn't entirely sure of the meaning (and still I am unsure) but apparently it is connected with the Mardi Gras. There would be people throwing long beads from a balcony at certain bystanders below, usually if they a) were pretty, b) flirty, d) willing to flash or e) just being a good sport. Generally people just threw them to everyone and I have a few necklaces, although I only got given 3 and the rest were from my friends who got them for me. Haha. One of the roommates was really into it and just lifted his shirt constantly (he is a guy so I don't think it had quite the same effect).

I had some of the Hand Grenade which was quite strong. We got it on both nights, and the second night, the drink was a lot stronger. Apparently the drink are equal parts of: gin, grain alcohol, melon liquer, rum and vodka. It was quite nice though. I also wanted to try the Hurricane, as it is famous in NOLA. However, I am not much of an alcohol drinker and the friend who did want to drink already consumed a fair bit. The main reason that I don't drink alcohol is because I get the Asian flush which irritates me to no end. So what is the best way to avoid it? To only consume a little amount of an alcoholic beverage.

NOLA!

November 9th 2012
When I think of New Orleans, the first thing I think of is the song from The Princess and the Frog. Of course, the second thing is Hurricane Katrina. Sunbear, his two roommates and I caught an overnight bus from Atlanta (12am) to New Orleans (8am). It was a 9 hr bus ride however at $60 return ticket, it was a lot cheaper than flying (which would have been around $300). Moral of the story: never catch an overnight bus again. Ever. I am still unsure if we should have spent an extra $150 for comfort and a 1.5hr flight. But it was terribly uncomfortable and I believe I slept for 2hrs and was in limbo for another 4 hours.

When the bus was in Louisiana, the landscape started to change. We were driving past marshes and swamps and houses on 4m high stilts. It was incredible; a structure on stilts.

Not my photo. But this is an example and it is a lot sturdier looking than the ones that I saw.

Bleary eyed, we arrived in New Orleans at 8am in the morning. The benefit of an overnight bus, granted. We headed to India House Hostel to drop off our bags. Quick review. There were only 2 potential hostels in NOLA and the second was further away from the French Quarter. India House Hostel was cheap. That was about it. I think it tried to go towards a theme of being grungy but hip, yet it just felt as though it was dilapidated and someone threw on some colour and called it 'artsy'. The bathrooms were the worst out of all the hostels I stayed at (across North America and Europe). The bed was squeaky and overall, it gave off a feeling of being very unclean.

We caught the tram sorry, they call it a trolley down to the French Quarter. The architecture was stunning and very quaint. The buildings are a consequence of the Spanish colonialism, and despite Hurricane Katrina, the buildings have been restored beautifully. One of the few areas where it is as though the natural disaster never occurred.

I was the planner for the trip since the other two guys honestly couldn't have cared. First stop was Café du Monde for the famous beignets and café au lait. The line was fairly long, although it did move quite quickly. The beignets were really good and there was an insane amount of icing sugar. The coffee was amazing and quite strong; I like strong coffee. At that time, it was the best coffee I had in the US.






Jackson Square. I bought a pendant with St Francis of Assisi for $1 but I lost it somewhere between the US and arriving back in Australia. Unfortunate.

Mississippi River

Gator Jerky at the French Market

I was really excited to visit NOLA for the food, cajun/ creole food. Or basically, food that wasn't a burger or a pizza. We weren't in the right season for seafood (I did really want to try the crawfish which is what the place is famous for). Oh well. First stop at lunch was Gumbo Shop.

What is gumbo? An amazing dish. Or ...

 Gumbo is a type of spicy stew typical of Louisiana and South Carolina cuisines, but also consumed frequently on the Gulf of Mexico. The hearty dish consists basically of two ingredients: broth and rice. While this may sound boring and limited, gumbo is actually a dish with an extremely large variety of flavors and consistencies, depending on how the broth is made. 

 

Chicken Andouillle Gumbo. It was so good.

Most people know of the stereotypes of Northerners and Southerners. One of them is the idea of southern hospitality. And from my experiences, I do think it held true. The woman who served us was so lovely and her accent was amazing. I adore most southern accents, they are so soothing. Sunbear was sick and this woman noticed and she kept on calling him 'babycakes' which was really adorable since the term just rolled off her tongue. If anyone else had said it, it would have been really creepy.

We also went to Bourbon Street that night, however I will write about that another day. Though, it was a very interesting experience.

What was also interesting was the way that people said New Orleans. I pronounce it with an emphasis on the 'e' in Orleans, so it is Or-lee-ns. But then some people pronounced it as OR-lans. Or more along the lines of a single syllable, 'N'orlin'.  I couldn't figure out which one it was, so on the trip, more often than not I just referred to it as NOLA (New Orleans, Lousisana). I just Googled it and most people seem to say that it is pronounced as New OR'lans. Then again, whenever I am watching a video with someone who does not have an American or Canadian accent, there is a very high chance that quite a few (99% of the time they are American) people criticise the person as they are saying words 'incorrectly'. Tomayto. Tomahto. On the same vein, pronounciation of the word 'Australia'. Generally Americans/ Canadians pronounce it with such a strong emphasis on the AUS part, the same way as their 'awesome'. And Australians pronounce Australia as .... I have no idea. I don't think there really is an emphasis on any of the syllables.

Washington D.C

16th-17th October 2012
The last day, we visited the Highline. I had quite high expectations for the place; everyone had recommended it. I didn't particularly like it. It was alright but not overly interesting so I was quite disappointed.

My Overall Thoughts
NYC is bustling and loud. It was both overwhelming and underwhelming; it was what I imagined it to be and it was also not. My favourite part was visiting the borough of Brooklyn. In some respects, I am a little disappointed that I didn't love NYC more than I thought I would.

Would I re-visit?
Eventually. But probably not in the near future. I would love to explore upstate New York. Especially after following Jessica Naomi's blog.

We caught the bus from NYC to Washington D.C with Megabus. It was a 5hr overnight bus ride and it was hard to sleep since I kept on getting motion sickness and cramping from curling up onto a seat. Nonetheless, it was a $10 ticket, so I can't complain too much. We arrived in Washington D.C as the sun was rising and wandered around the Capitol before heading back to union station for breakfast at Au Bon Pain.

For breakfast, we had Jelly Bellies. And became inspired to draw this at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Sunbear hadn't tried sushi before. Say what? I obviously had to rectify that. Although, I am not the biggest fan of sushi; I have an aversion to fish, especially when it is raw. Although, sushi is ridiculously expensive in the US. In Atlanta to NYC and then to Washington D.C. Though to be fair, I do only visit the cheapest sushi train in Sydney. We went to Yo Sushi!and it had a very high novelty factor. If you pressed the button for attention, all the music would stop and the light saber instrument would turn red. It was expensive, I think the cheapest plate was $3 and the most expensive plate was $7. A decent plate was around the $5 mark (I think the $3 was probably something along the lines of cucumber only sushi). Of course, factor in tip and tax it was a very expensive dinner. Oh well, peanut butter.



We had an Amazing Race moment when we couldn't locate the bus stop to the airport and had to ask everyone for directions. No one knew anything, including the security guard working at a boom gate. Really? We made it to the airport. Note to self: don't fly out from Dulles International Airport. It was too far away from where we were staying, considering that there was a much closer airport. D'oh.

My Overall Thoughts
Washington D.C. was as I expected it to be. (I basically didn't expect much, but just some pretty buildings to look at).

Would I re-visit?
.No. I am not a museum enthusiast and for me, Washington D.C is one of those places where if I have visited it once, then it would suffice for the rest of my life.

The Three Sisters

A month ago, my old manager had transferred to another store in Katoomba. A few co-workers wanted to surprise her so I joined as I did want to spend a day out. We woke up before the sun rose and caught the train from central. A pet peeve. I hate people who are late, anything longer than 5 minutes already irks me. But this girl who has been late every other time we were together was, once again, late. Normally it isn't that significant except as we were catching the train to Katoomba, there was only one train every hour. She missed the train and was late.








The two hour train ride wasn't overly long; it was pleasant. When we were 4 stops away, one of the coworkers really needed to go to the bathroom, however we didn't think that there was a toilet on the train so he got off at a station in the Blue Mountains. There wasn't a bathroom at the station and he ended up walking on the track before finding a porta-loo.




The rest of the coworkers and I waited at a cafe for the stragglers. It was cold in Katoomba. Well, it was actually quite chilly and the air was so much fresher and crisper.






As I was taking my shots of the Three Sisters, there was this tourist who asked me, "do you know the story of the sisters?" I said, "Yes. Do you know the story?" because sometimes people are overly helpful and just want to tell everyone what they know. He said that he didn't no. So I proceeded to tell him the two versions that I was taught.

1) There were three sisters who fell in love with the men from another tribe, however there was a battle and the father of the daughters wanted to protect them so he got an elder to turn them into stone, with the intention of turning them back to women after the battle. However the Elder died and they remained as stone formations.

2) There were three sisters who fell in love with the men from another tribe however the father wasn't happy with their decision and so turned them into stone to prevent them from being together. Elder died and then the sisters remained as stone formations.

After I told the story, the same tourist went, "well that's actually not true. The story goes like this: there were three sisters and they were called X, Y and Z (I can't remember what he said). Did you catch that? They were called X, Y and Z. And they were granted a wish to turn into swans however after 500 years as a swan, they would then turn into rock".

Firstly, that has to be the stupidest story I have ever heard. It sounds like some warped fairytale. Oh really, the sisters wanted to be swans? And if they were turned into rock, why didn't they resemble a rock in the shape of a swan? Secondly, Google didn't show me any story that sounded even remotely similar. And more to the point - and I was fuming- why did that tourist need to act as some hot-shot and correct me on a story. I don't even know what his game was; to correct people? Seriously. Why ask and lie and tell me that he didn't know the story, when he knew a story. My god. And all those Chinese tourists; there is something in life called manners and common courtesy. Learn some. You shove me with your shoulder, I will shove you back.

Though all that aside, it was lovely visiting the manager. She was so stunned and it was really nice being able to see her again. We had a lovely chat with her in the tea room. The best part was when the group of us couldn't quite turn off our 'work mode'. There was a couple and I only noticed them because the girl was dressed as the biggest bogan. White tank top, hair in top knot with a leopard turban type headband and leopard harem pants. All that she was missing were her Ugg boots, although of course she didn't have them as she stole a pair of shoes. Mind you, they were $6 canvas shoes. I don't even know. Actually, if I could understand why people steal $6-10 pair of shoes, then maybe I can also also understand why people steal one shoelace, not a pair, just one.

Coney Island & Brooklyn

14th October 2012
There was a plan to watch the sun rise from Brooklyn Bridge however we were lazy and slept in. We caught the subway to Coney Island; an empty subway carriage which was odd. I am not entirely sure why I had wanted to visit Coney Island and why Sunbear had agreed. It might have had something to do with this song, but not entirely sure.


Coney Island is definitely a place for summer. We were there in autumn and the amusement park was closed which was eerie. It reminded me of the amusemment park from Zombieland truth be told. There were quite a few people at the beach, but it was due to the Kite Fest for Healthy Minds. There were so many kites and some were very large too.There was also a playground on the middle of the beach which reminded me of Henry's "castle" from Once Upon a Time.


We then caught the subway to Prospect Park.









Brookyln was lovely and this was the best day on the trip. I guess it was also because we had settled our differences and could actually enjoy the trip. Although, I do think it was also Brooklyn (on my second trip, I stayed in Brooklyn and I enjoyed it a lot more than when I was in Manhattan).

We went to IHop for dinner and there, I witnessed the birthday song or this as it is from the Emperor's New Groove.   There, I said that I wanted to have my 21st birthday at IHop, just so the employees could sing to me.