New Orleans, Day 2 - 6

The entire city of New Orleans is awake around the clock for Mardi Gras.  Whether you're choked in traffic behind floats in Uptown or squeezing through row after row of drunks downtown, you feel like you're in the middle of a dozen celebrations in every direction you look.

People I knew from college and through college friends were everywhere.  From our vantage, the entire week had a real family feel and it was a lot of socializing with people of all ages.  I was expecting complete debauchery, but everyone from the Grandparents down were involved.

I stayed in a beautiful house off of St. Charles St. and in a nice apartment a few minutes drive away with 7 of my fraternity brothers, most of whom I hadn't seen in 2 years.  We got to see massive parades from a box downtown, tons of live music and people losing their minds at bars, and ate food you wouldn't believe.  It was lamb shank, king cake, oysters, dark beer, and top shelf liquor at every meal.

The people in the city were generally about as friendly as I've ever experienced.  We got rides home from bars with complete strangers, invited into peoples houses, introduced to people we would normally never have met, and even on an hour or two of sleep a night, everyone was cordial and easygoing.  I'd rate New Orleans as the easiest city to hitchhike or borrow a t-shirt in the US.

Highlights in the first days include

- Jasquesimos:  Creole Catfish, Cajun Lamb, Alligator Cheesecake, all in an old house off Oak St. in Uptown.

- Endemyion and Bacchus parades:  Two enormous Krewes

- Absinthe House: a 200 year old bar off Bourbon St.  We got there after breakfast at the Palace Cafe and were dressed up, but were the only men not in suits.  It was like going back in time in the middle of the city

- Kingpin:  Great dive bar 100 yards from the apartment.

- The Maple Leaf:  One of the coolest bars I've been to.

- New Orleans:  The city has so much character.  Its one of the prettiest cities I've ever been to in the middle of a unique and complex part of the South.  The French element hasn't been lost, there's an almost maniacal civic pride, the people are beautiful and friendly, and there is a very distinct and overpowering music scene.

Another update to come soon...