GROAN! After getting in at 3am, going to bed at 4am and an alarm for 8:30am. This morning was rough! Fliss woke up like the creature from the blue lagoon and I was gasping for water! Thankfully breakfast was served right next to our room so it wasn't far, there was a selection of pastries, toast, fruit and a waffle machine!!! Clearly the fruit went out the window (I'm in American! Peanut butter is classed as fruit here!) and I actually spotted the waffle too late so I settled for a cake, a muffin, a croissant and some OJ. (And here's me thinking I was going to be loosing weight on this holiday!) the group took up the majority of the small courtyard and tables. We hung around until about 11 before we all set off together for the French Quarter and the French Market. Now we were all pretty tired and hungover messes so walking around in 33/34 degree heat was a tough job, but New Orleans delivered.
The first place we discovered was the French Market. It was a large market which was full to the rafters with stalls which sold absolutely all sorts, the first one was one with a load of t-shirts. After a few laughs at some comical slogan t-shirt we spotted two perfect t-shirt for The Red Party Becca had told us was happening tonight (compulsory to wear red) it was two t-shirts which were a take on Thing 1 and Thing 2 except I was Trouble 1 and Trouble 2... How perfect for me and fliss!? I believe I actually accidentally bartered with the man also? They were $10.99 each and I thought he said $10 so I gave him a $20 for both and he looked at me odd but just accepted it... I later realised the sign saying $10.99. My dad would be so proud!!
Most of the stuff was utter tack, but the atmosphere of the market was lovely, the stall workers were very friendly and more than welcomed you to look through the stall. Then came to food part of the market! OMG HELLO! So much good smelling food, if I wasn't so hungover and hot I was of been all over those stalls! But instead we went and got some iced lemonade (I keep saying it, but lemonade here is DAMN good!) Fliss got normal lemonade and I got a strawberry lemonade, YUMMM! It went so quick even I didn't get chance to snap a photo of it! Me, Fliss and Lewis then went for a stroll around the French quarter, the buildings are so beautiful, they reminded me very much of European/Italian houses, all bright colours, iron work on the front with shutters on the windows. Most houses or buildings had balconies absolutely overflowing with flower beds and horse drawn your carriages pulled down the streets. It's a very pretty place to walk amongst.
As we were walking further into it we were seeing more and more men in red dresses and wigs... Now seeing a man in a wig isn't that much of a shock for me, but usually they're fierce drag queens, these were more.... Less fierce macho muscle men with small hand bags? Now I still don't know the reason behind it or what the point of but this was actually the start of the red party that Becca had told us about. Within less than an hour the streets were crammed with a sea of red clothing (and one adorable dog in a fifties red polka dot dress). Now what I can make of it, it was a pub crawl style race? Because there were stations of water and certain people were rushing between bars. A race to get drunk? HOW DO I APPLY!?
We then wandered through the red crowd to a park in search of some shade. The park was really nice, it was a large square city style park with a kids play area and a curving path around the perimeter, pretty much all the benches were full... By questionable looking people, so we kept walking until we found one tucked away in the corner, it looked like someone had left they're hat and sunglasses there. Except they hadn't. We sat down and immediately we heard this southern accent say 'hey! They're sittin' on yer bench!' Erm... You can bagsy benches in New Orleans!? But coming from a group of pretty much homeless people so if they said anything I certainly wasn't going to question it! Anyway luckily we only had to put up with a few side eyes and evil looks. We didn't sit there long.
Lewis left us to go on his horse carriage tour, so we went for a stroll through the rest of the French Quarter and down via the Mississippi. Not before bumping into him every 10 minutes and then spotting him on his horse tour! New Orleans surely cannot be this small!? We popped in for some lunch at a restaurant by the river. Fliss got a Louisiana omelette which looked so good, full with peppers, onions, shrimp (prawns but it sounds better), crawfish and a creole sauce... So tasty!! I didn't get anything because I swear I haven't stopped eating since I got here! Took a page out of Rachel Green's book and ordered a water on the side of nothing! We then found a chilli shop called Pepper Palace, it was so cool! I was a shop with hundreds of different types of hot sauces and chilli related products, hot sauce lined the walls with fun products like chilli lollies, drinks and chocolates. But what I really loved was they had an huge island in the middle of the shop which had boxes with all testers of hot sauces and tortilla chips to try them with! Naturally I made my way round expertly trying them all! Some were crazy hot, as fliss found out, and some were mixed with cream cheese which were delicious, such a good idea for a shop! There was also a hot sauce at the front which was in a hand grenade case and you needed to sign a waiver and be over 18 to try it..... We didn't try it.
We had a swamp tour booked at 3:15, so by the time we were finished it was time to get back to the hotel ready for our pick up. We wandered back through the French Market and up the road to our hotel. After getting picked up on the bus to go to the swamp tour, pretty much everyone zonked out for the 45 minute trip, think it was well needed for everyone! Once we eventually got our tickets sorted thanks to a sassy lady with an attitude, we were called straight away to the boat. We all clambered in and the tour began!
I've been on one of these before in America when I was younger, and from little bits I remember and things my mum told me, it wasn't a very nice experience. The men on the boats would aggravate the alligators when they were resting to get a retaliation out of it which I really don't approve of, I would quite happily watch from a distance to see them in their natural habitats. So I was a little bit wary on how this one would be. Well! It was so good! Our captain was so informative and he had a genuine love for the animals, you could tell in the way he spoke to them, spoke about them and researched them, they were almost like his pets!
Our first stop was at the side of the river bank where a small family of pigs lived. There were about 5 that came to the river, clearly used to it because they knew they got treats when a boat came close! The captain would throw marshmallows (which apparently pigs and alligators love!) in the water and around about. Watching they jump and swim in the water for them or making noises as they scampered for the marshmallow was too cute!
We followed the river round, accompanied by endless facts from the captain about the river itself and the state protected land it sits in, until we got to where Big Al is. Big Al gets his name for a reason, he's a huge 11ft, 50 year old alligator! HUGE! Captain teased him out with a string of marshmallows which Al couldn't resist (they register them as duck eggs), he swan around the boat pretty much just following we're the marshmallows landed. Don't think he had the energy to do any S'MORE for the marshmallows (eh! Eh! Get it? SMORE!).
We then saw some younger alligator, these ones are good jumpers! Again we offered up a string of marshmallows and hot dogs on sticks. Those things can really jump out the water!! (Video on my Instagram - jlowther)
We then went into the more narrower part of the river where we spotted some baby alligators swimming around and Captain shared more and more facts and information about the protected trees, wildlife, plants and the river. He also told us about how the area was severely damaged when Katrina hit the US.
Captain took us down where there is actually a small village of river houses in which some people live full time and some use it as a holiday home for the weekends (?!?!?!?) I thought it would of been basic living but they have electric, air con, satellite TV the lot!
After seeing the village, which FYI had people who swam in this river... Yeah this river with alligators in it!?!? We finished up our tour and got dropped off, we then had to wait for our bus to drop us off at the hotel, which took FOREVER! We were actually waiting an hour, in which a storm decided to shit all over us, so there was 11 of us all huddled under two umbrella... That was SUPER FUN!
The group decided because we were in New Orleans we HAD to go see a live jazz band while we were here. So we met at 9:30 and headed back to the French quarter on Frenchman Street. As we arrived we couldn't have had better timing because there was a brass band starting a set with a crowd already forming quickly. It took maybes 3 or 4 minutes before the whole street was full with people. Cars couldn't even fit through, it was amazing, everyone was just enjoying the moment and the music!
After enjoying the set the band performed we went across the street to 'Dat Dog' (I frickin love American names for restaurants!!) where we sat on the balcony so we could still enjoy the brass jazz playing away on the sidewalk.
We finished the night off with an early night, I had to take advantage of our last night in a proper bed before we go back to camping! We packed our bags and settled back into our deliciously air conned private room!
Houston tomorrow! But mainly driving... So let's see what it brings!
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