It was Monday in New Orleans and again we didn’t have too much planned other than going to check out St Charles Avenue and the amazing houses in that area. We were still in the hotel around lunchtime and I got some gumbo from Mother’s Restaurant which was brilliant! I also got some sweet potato pie which wasn’t great – but that’s probably just because I’m not used to that kind of thing. We then set out to find the bus to take us down St Charles Avenue – and it was hot out!
We took the bus and got off at one of the stops to walk down Prytania Street and found Lafayette Cemetery No.1, which I was very excited about, even though we didn’t plan on seeing one that day. The cemetery was really interesting and would be great for proper photographers as there’s so much history and moodiness about the place. We then had to go and find the properties I read about that was supposedly THE ones you are supposed to go and see. Some of them were indeed amazing but a couple of them were only on the list because of who lived in them, not because of how great they are and were a bit disappointing. I’m sure there’s loads more amazing properties in the area but it was too warm to just blindly amble along and we got back on the bus to Audubon Park (you get a daily pass for $3 on the buses so we could ride as much as we wanted). The park was quite good and very quiet with only the occasional jogger or cyclist. It wasn’t the most exciting park ever though, and after a while we got on the nicely air-conditioned bus back to the hotel. By this point it was about 5pm so we had a rest before going out for the night again.
We decided to eat at Pat O’Briens as they do a ‘typical’ sampler of NOLA food that I wanted to try – and of course I wanted another proper Hurricane! This turned out to not be a brilliant idea as my food was ok and included beans & rice, gumbo and jambalaya, but Brian’s burger, though huge, was pretty awful. The reviews for the food on Tripadvisor etc. were pretty good but once again we should have trusted our instincts and shouldn’t have eaten at such a touristy (and Irish!) spot. From there we just did the usual pub crawl thing. Bourbon Street was still fairly busy even though it was Monday, with a lot of people walking around making music by tap-dancing and playing various other instruments, but by 10pm most places started closing down. We tried a few places on our way back to the hotel and I remembered a place we’d been in the day before called Backspace Bar & Kitchen that is open all night so we ended up in there for a few drinks and chatting to the barman. It was a very laidback evening and overall a very chilled time in New Orleans. Our hotel was just far enough from the French Quarter to ensure it wasn’t too noisy and insane but close enough to easily walk backwards and forwards and the room was very good as well so we were nice and comfortable there. New Orleans offers an amazing choice of bars and places to hang out in and we’ve probably only scratched the surface but it was great having so many options for live music, great drinks and cocktails, markets, local food and culture and best of all – people watching!
Biltong and Burger 