New Orleans

where we swap desert scenes for swamp land and visit the home of the famous Mardi Gras celebrations

So we were off to New Orleans, but along the way we were stopping in a little place an hour west of New Orleans called Houma for our first night in Louisiana. Six hours from Houston, a good friend from Ireland was working and living in Houma and had offered to put us up for the night. The chance of meeting up with a familiar face was welcome and we weren’t about to turn down the offer.

The weather was becoming even more humid as we left Houston and drove into Louisiana. We started to see some coast and past over the rustiest of bridges, a good clue that were close to the salty ocean. The scenery had turned green and swampish as soon as we crossed the state line and how were glad of the change – we’d seen enough dried out desert landscapes to last us some time yet.

Houma was a nice, small town. We spent the night in our friends place in a swanky apartment complex on the outside of the town, complete with gated access and even a swimming pool. After some bad motels it felt like royal treatment. We went out for food and followed up with a visit to some of Houma’s bars for drinks but having completely forgotten to bring our passports from the apartment and with our Irish drivers licence not holding any sway the night was cut short.

The next morning we bid our friend a temporary goodbye and headed into New Orleans where he’d be joining us later on. It was a straight drive and it’s not a difficult place to navigate to. One thing about Louisiana – there are bugs everywhere. And unfortunately for them an awful lot of them seemed to be ending up on the front of our car. It wasn’t long before we were parked outside our new Airbnb in the Garden District of the city. The accommodation for the night turned out to be a one bed studio, far more dated and worn out inside than the Airbnb photos had suggested (and we’d later find out it came complete with cockroaches). But it was reasonably priced and we were only there for the night anyway so we didn’t mind so much.

We got lunch at a hipster slider burger place just around the corner, called District, and then we walked into the French quarter.

It was that part of New Orleans that we were most looking forward to seeing. We got caught in yet another thunder and lightning storm, complete with a rain downpour, while we were ambling around the French Quarter. Luckily the style of house in NOLA tends to include a balcony so it was a matter of standing in under one of these balconies on Royal Street and waiting for it to pass. The streets cleared for the duration of the 10 minute downpour and most others used the same tactic of finding shelter under balconies. Some brave souls went about their business though with a few cyclists going by getting soaked to their skins. The rain came so suddenly and with so little warning that very few people had an umbrella. The thunder was deafening and the lightening was stunning, even in the still bright afternoon sky. it finished up as quickly as it had started and within a few minutes of the rain stopping everything dried up again. The downpour had temporarily dispersed the heavy feeling in the air and it felt refreshing walking down the street.

We ventured down Bourbon Street for the first time, the street where all visitors to New Orleans probably end up at some stage. It was still only early morning though and it hadn’t quite got going yet. We’d be back later that evening anyway to enjoy it all the more.

We went into the town centre and strolled along the very wide Canal Street which because of its width and palm trees might remind you of some major boulevard in some European city.

We got the green St. Charles streetcar back out to where we were staying in the Garden District. This particular line is apparently the oldest streetcar line in the world, having first started in 1835 and been continuously operated ever since. You can buy tickets on board if you have the exact change or you can buy tickets from the ticket machines that are at some shops. Again, exact change is needed as none is given but you do get a coupon if you ever feel like redeeming it.

We’d heard that Louisiana’s natives are known for their friendliness. Maybe we just bumped into the wrong people having a bad day but a few interactions we’d had with the locals on this short visit was calling that into question. Anyway, our streetcar operator was definitely one of the gruffest people we’d met of late on the trip.

About half way out to our stop and with little or no explanation, the street car came to a stop blocks and blocks from where we’d expected it to and the driver shouted “last stop, shuttle bus will take you on”. Despite a few polite queries from confused passengers, us included, this was as much information as was going to be given. Off we hopped and being not that far from the Airbnb we walked the rest of it.

Later that afternoon we met up with our buddy again and we set about trying out the nightlife in New Orleans. For us, that meant a return to Bourbon street and trying out as many of the bars as we could. Our first taster was Pat O’Brien’s bar where we got to try out the Hurricane Cocktail drink. Then we moved on to find some bars play music and for this we were spoilt for choice with really good music booming from most of the bars and free entry into all. Our last bar gave us a balcony view on Bourbon street and all that we were missing was Mardi Gras parade passing below.

After getting our fill for the night, we headed back to our Airbnb, passing along some really special looking southern houses on the trip back. The houses in New Orleans older residential districts are stunning and really make it easy to imagine the city in older times.

Back at our place we encountered a cockroach scurrying right across the open doorway! Our very first cockroach spotting but unfortunately it wasn’t our only one of the night. Glad that the cockroach was outside the door, we were just switching off the light when we spotted a second one not all that far from the bed. This fella was taken care of pretty quickly but thinking of all the other cockroaches that were likely to be somewhere in the room didn’t make for the soundest of sleeps. That and the not-so-gentle banging of the ancient air conditioning unit over the bed.

Next morning we cleared out of the Airbnb happy to have not spotted anymore roaches. We had brunch in Another Broken Egg cafe and our server showed us how welcoming Louisianans can be and also had one of the best Louisiana accents we’d heard on our trip.

New Orleans style biscuit beignets with powered sugar and honey marmalade – best breakfast EVER

Then we bid farewell to our Irish buddy and hit the road. On the way out of New Orleans we had to pull in because our driver’s electric window came to a grinding stop halfway up. A quick dismantling of the door at a gas station showed that a new part was needed so the door was put back together and the window temporarily pushed back up. Just after as we passed over one of Louisiana’s many bridges we had another memorable moment when a tyre of a truck blew out just metres ahead of us with a deafening bang, a huge swerve from the truck and a spray of shrapnel all across the road, all of which we somehow luckily managed to avoid.

New Orleans had been a welcome change of scenery and weather and meeting up with a familiar face did us both the world of good. We definitely hadn’t seen enough of NOLA. It had been exactly 10 years since Hurricane Katrina had destroyed huge chunks of the city and we hadn’t got up to the wards most affected by it. We also hadn’t got around to enough of the music and art culture of New Orleans but we were coming away with a good taste of it all and that wasn’t a bad result from such a quick visit.

Next up was Tallahassee, FL (via a quick stop off in Pensacola) and on to Savannah, as we moved further east on our ever expanding roadtrip.

our next destination: Savannah ⇒