My pimple and I feelin fresh after getting my hair done in SF and ready to start the next chapter of my USA trip. I landed in New Orleans at 6am. New Orleans is a sleepy city, literally! I had to wait so long for any shops to open. I left my luggage at the hotel and spent my morning wandering around the beautiful town trying to get my bearings.
Vintage Chanel and YSL, yes please! Once this store opened I checked out the prices and lets just say one necklace was worth more than a two-storey house in Bondi.
I love that being "Haunted" is a selling point here.
Hot sauce and dehydrated alligator, sounds about right for a Louisiana gift shop.
If these weren't the weight of rocks I would have loved to get one for mum as a souvenir.
This was my first foodie stop in New Orleans, Cafe Beignet. Beignets are these delicious, fluffy french doughnut balls that are covered in powdered sugar and served with coffee. They are synonymous with two competing cafe's in New Orleans Cafe Beignet and Cafe Du Monde. I won't disclose my personal favourite as I truly feel you need to decide for yourself which is better. I must say the decor in Cafe Beignet made me very reminiscent of Paris.
I am not 100% certain on which unique shop this was but I know I visited the top three. I did buy some cowrie shells in Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo for luck on my travels. I really enjoy researching the most quirky, unique and interesting shops, types of food and everything in between for each place I visit. The three stores that you really should experience in New Orleans are:
1. Marie Laveau's House of Voodoo. You can buy everything under the sun for your witchcraft and voodoo needs. You may just not be able to bring everything home with you, especially if you live in Australia.
2. Boutique Du Vampyre. I mean it's all in the name is it not? It's a little boutique full of everything vampire related under the sun, well not under the sun because vampires can't do daylight..
3. New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. This one is very small but actually pretty well put together and interesting. There are lots of places to practice a bit of voodoo magic by making wishes and offerings to various shrines throughout and you can learn about different spells and the meaning of certain charms.
Question: is this flag Nazi related. Unsure. Also unsure which store I took this photo in. Apologies it was 2 years ago now..
I completely stumbled into this sunny little courtyard while I was walking the backstreets taking photos. This is actually a really well known and highly rated Restaurant called the Court of Two Sisters and I had made it in perfect time to experience their Jazz Brunch. This is off their website and my mouth is watering remembering how good this meal was.
Jazz Brunch is a sumptuous selection of hot and cold dishes available every day at The Court of Two Sisters in our French Quarter courtyard! Since we use only the freshest ingredients, the buffet's selections change according to season and time of day. Eggs any style, made to order omelets, Eggs Benedict and turtle soup are served all day. In the morning, a typical selection of hot dishes includes sausage, ham, bacon, hash browns and grits & grillades. The afternoon’s sampling includes Creole jambalaya, Duck a L’Orange, Shrimp Etouffee, BBQ pork ribs, Chicken & Andouille Gumbo, catfish roulade and an assortment of vegetables and side dishes.
The cold buffet is a creative sampling of boiled shrimp (and crawfish when available) with your choice of traditional cocktail or Creole remoulade sauces, seafood and pasta salads, ceviche, pâtés, cheeses and a variety of fresh fruit. Also included are delicious desserts: pecan pie, homemade French vanilla ice cream, king cake, Bananas Foster and our famous Courtyard Bread Pudding with whiskey sauce.
I was able to try so many uniquely Louisiana cuisines in the most beautiful setting. The servers that looked after me were the best waiters I have ever been served by. I still remember how well they treated me, I felt like a queen. They made me feel so welcome and at home. I spent so long here just enjoying the serenity, plus these waiters were super cute too so the view was not bhed.
After I had properly lined the inside of my stomach it was Hurricane O'Clock. One of the highlights of NOLA is being able to drink in the street and take your bev from one place to another. It's kind of like Vegas but with Jazz and just in general way nicer to walk around.
To be honest, the Hurricane is disgusting! But I think this is mainly because the majority of drinks you get in USA are just straight alcohol with the smallest drop of flavouring. Seriously Americans are wildin with the strength of their drinks. So I still to this day cannot tell you whether a Hurricane is good or not but the description sounds good, not that I tasted any passionfruit.
One part Light rum, Lemon juice, Half part Over proofed rum, Passion fruit syrup, One part Dark rum
That night I went on an amazing ghost tour run by Haunted History Tours. There is an aggressively competitive market out there for Haunted Walking Tours so if you are trying to choose a company, I would definitely recommend this one. The speaker we had was extremely knowledgable, a really engaging storyteller to the point where I wish he would record books on Audible, and he really got everyone involved and excited. We stopped for drinks at a few different places including Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop Bar, which has been operating since the 1770's!
After the walking tour I took myself on my own little wander around Bourbon Street and experienced my first authentic New Orleans Jazz at Fritzel's European Jazz Pub. Everyone is seated facing towards the music. This was such a perfect way to end my first night in New Orleans. They even played Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World.
The next morning we had a briefing from our Contiki Guide. I was joining onto a Contiki at their halfway point across America. They already had a group activity planned for the day, which was seeing Alligators on a boat. I wasn't that interested and needed to be careful with my spending as I still had another few weeks ahead of me. I planned to meet up with everyone later and spent the day falling more and more in love with New Orleans.
For lunch I tried my first Alligator and Po Boy combined at the 'Shops of the Colonnade French Market', located next to Cafe du Monde. If you have read this blog for a while you will know I am not adverse to trying unique foods while travelling. This was honestly the most tame exotic meat I have eaten. It was spiced and cooked to perfection but in terms of meat it really isn't that shocking. It's white meat and tastes similar to chicken breast. It's also lean and has a high protein content!
These were the only markets I had a chance to check out while I was in NOLA but they were really great even if not all the stores were open.
There are some truly incredible artists in NOLA. I had to stop at this wall. My dogs are a sausage dog and a golden retriever and it was pretty cute to see them together in art form. Unfortunately the art here isn't cheap.
The costume jewellery stores make me want to come back to NOLA for Mardi Gras so bad. Imagine wearing these gorgeous pieces, looking a million dollars, having beads thrown on you and drinking all the disgusting hurricanes you can stomach.
NOLA is full of all these things you don't expect. I almost don't want to spoil it all for you. But I must say I do regret not picking up one of these hanging hunks. Expect to see a few of these, and Christmas stores...
This was to be my new travel family for the next few weeks. This was our official first night together. We all got matching shirts and went on a huge bar crawl throughout NOLA. One of my absolute favourite memories was coming across a Big Brass Band in the street and the whole Contiki crew dancing together in the street with drinks in our hands and the biggest smiles on our faces. I didn't know everyone's names yet, but I already knew this Contiki was going to be a lot wilder and I was so excited. By the time we all made it to Bourbon Street everyone lost each other in the commotion and collective drunkeness. Another one of my favourite and weirdest memories was when I somehow managed to get lost, sit next to a couple of gypsies on Bourbon Street because they had a cute dog in a tiara, they taught me a lot about Palm Reading and their history and they also read my palms and told me my past and future. It was a pretty amazing experience. I seriously cannot wait to come back to NOLA one day for Mardi Gras, this place has so much charm and quirkiness, it's infectious and intoxicating.
erica
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