New Orleans - a world of its own

New Orleans Louisiana (NOLA) is one anticipated destination. We've talked about NOLA while planning and every time we agreed that we do not want to miss this place. NOLA turns out to be a world of its own; nothing we've seen so far in the US, and nowhere near to where we've been before.

For lodging, I found Sweet Olive B&B online and was delighted by the stay 4-night, 1-night free promotion. I booked it almost immediately. Location wise, we've found out, may not be as near to the action (ie. French Quarter) as we would like it to be. It's not that far either; about 10-15 minutes walk but we didn't anticipate the low temperature - ranging in early teens celcius during the day and below 10C at night. So far, it's been freaking cold! The accommodation, nevertheless, turns out to be a home away from home. Its homey atmosphere plus a quirky, no-nonsense housekeeper, Clara kept our stay memorable. The house has an interesting interior thanks to its original owner, an artist by the name of Stuart Auld, who used the house as his canvass. Each room is painted exquisitely with colours and decorated with quirky paintings/posters. The Magnolia room, which we had, was in shades of green and the first thing we saw was the poster of Gone with the Wind hanging on its wall.

Our itinerary here is pretty simple. Go enjoy the music and take it easy and calmly. The atmosphere in NOLA is exciting enough without having to do anything. Lots of different food to try and music's aplenty.

We visited the French Quarter on our second day. It was cold outside, about 12C with strong wind. When we were taking a walk along the Mississippi River, some local guys came and asked Jarmo if he wanted his shoe shined. They were real persistent and seemed very interested in Jarmo's shoes (no idea why, they looked normal ones to me). Finally they left us alone and we went on our way to have coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde - one of the oldest cafes in town. We did a little walking tour on our own and found many interesting shops around. The buildings were French like (of course) and the shops sell many colourful stuff  like masks and costumes. There were also a number of art galleries as well as shops for tarot and palm reading. We stopped by the Lafitte Blacksmith Bar for drinks. The place was super dark but had a nice fireplace. Unfortunately the cocktail waitress was a little bit clueless - we wanted some warm alcoholic drinks and she couldn't give us a recommendation. We ended our day with dinner at Port of Call, which is famous for its hamburgers.

On Thursday, we decided to do nothing but stay at home and do some catching up on Criminal Minds for me and work for blue eyes. We went out for lunch and I had real NOLA cuisine at The Praline Connection on Frenchmen Street (after stepping on some shit along the way, literally!) starting with a gumbo zaire (2 thumbs up!) followed by a po-boy of shrimp and oyster. Po-boy is short for poor boy, which a poor boy's sandwich in the olden days. The fried shrimp and oyster in the sandwich were super yums but too much to finish in a meal so I packed half of it home. Blue eyes had the meat loaf while Jarmo tried another local dish called Jambalaya.

In the evening, we headed out to Frenchmen Street for some live music. The Three Muses had a band playing the blues in good ol' 50s style. Reminds of Parisian music and the lead singer looked like one too; clean shaven, boyish with a red sweater and grey jacket over him. I didn't particularly fancy it as it feels a bit too slow but the restaurant/bar served a yummy dessert of banana mascarpone strudle so I was happy. After 2 drinks, we left for another bar called Maison which had a country band playing. We didn't stay too long at Maison cos' the boys wanted to head to the concert at Magazine St. I didn't feel my energy level is up to it so I went home instead.

Personally, I feel a little insecure here. Mainly because of what I read about safety in NOLA. Fortunately we haven't had any issues and I pray that we won't have any for the rest of the stay here. Blue eyes thinks I'm paranoia and he's probably right. I get tensed up when I read about crime rates and and safety. I blame it on watching too much Criminal Minds :)

Dangers & annoyances

New Orleans has a high violent-crime rate; it’s not a city in which to be careless. Stick to places that are well peopled, particularly at night, and spring for a cab to avoid dark walks. St Louis Cemetery No 1 and Louis Armstrong Park – in the Tremé district – have particularly bad reputations, even by day, and are more safely visited in groups (if you’re not taking a tour, coincide your visit with tours). In the Quarter, street hustlers frequently ­approach tourists – just walk away.

Since ‘The Storm, ’ services are more sporadic, fewer buses run, more cell phone providers go on the blink, and hours of operation are curtailed. (Source: Lonely Planet)