'Who he think he is? Justin Bieber?!'

This morning we had an early wakeup and were off on a Plantation tour by 8:30am, both of us got on the bus feeling rather zombie-like. This was short lived however as we were welcomed by a hilarious bus driver who asked if we were the'aetholo... ew party?' I replied with 'Bartholomew? ' to which his response was (in a posh british accent) 'oh sorreh, hello miss Bartholomew!' before cackling away and saying 'y'all famous or summit?'
LAD.
For the next 10 minutes me and Sparkle were laughing like crazy with the driver - at one point a random guy in a mini fork lift truck pulled out in front of us to which our driver started commenting 'he needs to get out of the way! Who he think he is? Justin Bieber?!'
Needless to say we both died with laughter!
He loved our accents and was positive we were famous- I of course loved this!! As we picked more passengers up his banter got even better:
* 'y'all wanna see how to scare a taxi driver?'
- pulls up by a taxi driver and bashes the bus window hard - the taxi driver looks petrified and jumps out ready to have a argument, just in time our bus driver says 'dude I'm just messing wit you!' before cackling away and driving off!! Haha!!

*''lets see if people are listening...'
- pulls up beside two elderly women, opens the bus door and asks ' excuse me ladies are you going on the swingers tour? ' Both shake their heads adamantly completely oblivious to what our driver said! The whole bus howled with laughter and finally the two ladies realised what was said and started giggling away to one another.
We all were sad to leave the party bus but had to transfer to another one to reach the plantation which was around an hour away, the drive out of town was really interesting as we drove into swamp land and huuuge fields of sugar cane. There were some adorable houses with rocking chairs on the porch looking out into the fields, just like the movies! Haha!

When we reached the 'Laura' plantation we were all struck by how beautiful it was, the gardens were stunning and the house looked idyllic!
Our tour was fascinating as we learned about the family who owned the plantation, how they worked through the summer before going to New Orleans for the parties in the winter and of course Mardi Gras! The family story was fascinating and very tragic, the family was Creole so spoke french and the women were able to be presidents of the plantation and conduct the business. Fascinating to see how Creole women were able to own and run their own businesses in the early 1800's yet American women weren't able to do this until mid 1900's! There's much more I could tell you but I am writing this blog with a rather sore head after night out in The Spotted Cat jazz bar... Awkward.

Once home from the plantation we relaxed at our lovely hostel to avoid the heat - it is still insanely hot however we are adjusting... Slightly. We decided to visit Frenchmen Street as it's where the locals hang out and is full of real jazz bars and great restaurants, arriving on the street there were people playing jazz on the streets, local singers in every bar and overall a really cool atmosphere. We grabbed some authentic New Orleans grub - me a jumbalaya - much much much better than our cheapo homemade one and Amy had some peppers stuffed with beef and shrimp, which came with mac n cheese - lad. The service is amazing here and they are so relaxed and friendly, after dinner we went in search of some jazzzz!

We hopped into 'The Spotted Cat' where they had an amazing live jazz band with people dancing and foot tapping away. The bar is tiny making the atmosphere amazing, after a few drinks we tried our hand at the dancing but we had nothing on them, they were flying around spinning in every direction whereas we were drunkenly swaying and shimmying about trying not to trip over our maxi dresses!

Our taxi driver home was lovely and kept saying 'good for you' as we told her about our travels, she's coming to take us to the airport at the end if this week too!

New Orleans is magical and after reflecting on last night I can definitely say we are in love with this place. I was very nervous about walking into dangerous spots around the city/ how safe it was, but honestly, the people are amazing and it feels no more dangerous than Nottingham or anywhere near us.

Here's some photos from our day to make you jealous :)