I was going to take the free hotel shuttle into to town. It has a three mile limit, which would only leave me a half mile walk to the bus station. Unfortunately when they called out that the bus was outside, a horde of geriatrics made a rush for the bus, all wanting to go to various hospitals and the driver told me it would be ages until he could drop me off. I got an Uber instead!
It’s quite a long journey to New Orleans at 7.5 hours, so I watched a film and the scenery as it passed by. There was a traffic jam at one point and the driver took a long detour down many little country lanes where we would have been in trouble if anything was coming the other way. We stopped a few times and in Baton Rouge (the capital of Louisiana) an old guy got on who was definitely three sheets to the wind (drunk in case that phrase doesn’t translate into French) He then proceeded to sit next to me! Then he held his hands out, just hovering over the seat in front of him and informed me that he could feel the vibes from the material. Apparently though that’s a level two manoeuvre, so I’m none the wiser!
I spent ages choosing place to stay and made the fatal error of reading all the reviews, something I studiously avoid normally. After agonising for ages, I finally settled for Sonder at the Promenade on the edge of the French quarter.
Arriving in New Orleans, my Uber driver to the hotel informed me that in the 5 months he has been doing this job, I am only the second tourist that he has picked up who is not from the USA. I guess it’s not all that surprising as the States was shut to foreigners until November last year.
Wow, what a place, I love my apartment! A nice little kitchen, a balcony, sofa, desk, a little dining table and a bed easily big enough to contain all the people from the song ‘there were 10 in the bed and the little one said’. I could live here.. did i say I love my apartment 😀
It’s much warmer here, although still not like Florida. I’m staying on the edge of the French quarter or Vieux Carré as it’s also known, the main street for general drunken debauchery is Bourbon street, but for more serious music Frenchmen street and places like the excellent Spotted Cat jazz bar are supposed to be better. I thought this was true until my last night, when I saw a band called dysfunction at The Razoo Club on Bourbon. They were exceptional, equalling the very best that I saw in Nashville.
Bourbon street is still a lot of fun though and there is music pouring out of every door as well as lots of street music. Kids playing drums on old plastic buckets, harpists, saxophones and tap dancers all add to the mix.
The food is excellent from jambalaya to oysters seared over a naked flame and served Louisiana style. One day I walked a couple of miles to Willie Mae’s, famous for its fried chicken and recognised as one of the best fried chicken places in the world.
The walk itself was really interesting. The neighbourhoods are brightly coloured with so many different houses in style, size and colour. I saw some houses that had markers on the wall showing where the floods came up to a few years back and stopped to look at Degas house here in New Orleans.
It’s difficult to recount all the bands I have seen here. There are so many, like Nashville, that you can watch one for just a song or two and then move on.
Without doubt my favourite was at the Razoo club, the singer was superb and the guitarist fabulous. The rest of the band were excellent too. There was a Russian oligarch type sitting next to me, he wouldn’t have won any prizes at a beauty contest, but was none the less with an attractive young woman. Several times during the bands performance he gave her a huge wad of money and she went up on stage and literally showered the band with dollar bills, throwing them high into the air. Needless to say the band were delighted and as I was sitting next to them, I got to say hi to the band as they came over to thank him and one guitarist even sat next to me and played for a while from the seat.
I walked all around the French quarter, which is filled with beautiful buildings, some had even started decorating for Mardi Gras, which is still a few weeks away so I will miss it. I can only imagine the chaos that will ensue.
I’m told that it is very quiet at the moment and yet the streets are busy with people of all ages mixing together(which is nice). The laws relating to alcohol here are very relaxed and you can wander around outside with drink in hand, so a lot of people do. You can even walk into a bar clutching a drink you bought elsewhere. As everyone does it I guess it’s swings and roundabouts for the bars.
I love New Orleans, it is refreshingly different, full of life and so chilled out as well. Despite walking many miles I never felt unsafe, although it is a high crime city.
I walked along the banks of the river past the last Mississippi paddle steamer in service and into the French market, which is mainly artisan stalls and eateries. There were a few jazz bands playing and then I headed along Royal Street which is full of art galleries, although galleries maybe a bit of a generous description in some cases. Many of the artists are sitting outside their galleries painting and are happy to chat. 
One guy had a lot of seriously surreal artwork in his studio. I took lost of pictures and hope to do a proper gallery of photos when I have access to some decent computer equipment again.
Back in the day, New Orleans’s belonged to the Spanish, before the French got their hands on it and a lot of the roads have little signs telling you what the name of the road used to be.
I went to the Louis Armstrong Park, dedicated to the great trumpet player himself. There were numerous statues, a lovely fountain and old colonial buildings. 
Apart from the Louis Armstrong statute there was one of Mahalia Jackson, the worlds greatest gospel singer and a very interesting statute of a Native American chieftain, called ‘Big chief Tootie’ who masked up as a Mardi Gras Indian for over 50 years and was a New Orleans icon.
I actually cooked in my apartment twice during my stay. It’s the first time I have picked up a saucepan for a month. I made some seared tuna one night and salmon another both with loads of vegetables which I thought might be a good idea and they were great. I still remember how to cook it seems 😉
If pushed I’d say Nashville has more music, but this is close and it is laid back wherever you are in the city whereas Nashville is a fairly normal city unless you are on Broadway at the music strip.
There are all sorts of tours you can do, including graveyard and ghost tours. I was out latish one night and came across several groups on ghost tours. The urge to jump out and shout boo from behind a wall was very tempting!
I want to stay here longer, but the road is calling again and I have only a few days left.
It is at least a day on the bus to Florida, so I looked at flights and discovered a super cheap flight to New York.
So it’s back to the Big Apple for a 2nd bite! I still want to see Queens and revisit a couple of old haunts.