"Y'all wineheads"

Last night we slept for approximately 11 hours. Not sure whether this was due to tiredness from travelling, the heat or the fact that we drank a whole bottle of wine between us with our dinner... But nonetheless we were very refreshed when we awoke this morning at 8am!

First up was mission one: the find-a-shower-challenge. As opposed to the two places we have stayed previously, this hostel has random toilets and showers dotted all around the building. Sounds fun? That's debatable. Kitty was loving life on a her mission to find a shower but I wasn't so much. Managed to find one that was free in the end though and eventually we were both ready to explore New Orleans!

The heat is really something else. You think you've been hot in your life. You haven't! I thought i had sunburnt my entire face (even though i was wearing factor 30 suncream) when we got back to the hostel this evening. As it turned out, i just had a ridiculously red face from being so hot, one that those who have ever done a serious ballet class with me will know well! We don't know how people manage to casually go about their business in this kind of heat, but I suppose people just adjust.

Anyway... Mission two of the day.. Find breakfast. We walked a couple of blocks to a road that has been highly recommended to us called Magazine Street. The houses along it are absolutely beautiful, with wrought iron railinged balconies, porches and flowers. A small sign of the real
South. We were looking for a specific cafe for breakfast that had been recommended at the hostel, thought we had gone the wrong way down Magazine and had just about given up hope when we stumbled across it! The breakfast was excellent, Kitty had a concoction of corn tortilla, black beans, salsa, eggs and cheese whilst I had a more simple eggs, hash potatoes, bacon and biscuit. Amy Trickey you would love the so called biscuit, it just tastes and looks like a savoury scone! Kitty forced me to choose it over toast because she is unable to eat it herself!!

On to mission three: finding the French Quarter. It wasn't really too much of a mission, just a straight walk up Magazine for about twenty minutes. One of the things that's really nice about New Orleans is that everyone you pass says hello, 'how y'all doing', 'mornin' ladies' etc. Its like being back in Collingham!

The French Quarter was pretty much as we expected it to be. On Bourbon Street the buildings were elaborate and European with flower draped balconies on the upper floor and seedy bars on the ground floor. Very touristy. The area around St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square was very chilled and lovely. Apparently this area is also a top destination for film locations, the most recent being 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'! We were mega thirsty so stopped for a drink at a cafe where there was live music; a cellist, drummer, pianist and saxophonist making up the band. They were very chilled out and the music was great. Our waiter figured we wanted to aim for places less touristy and gave us several suggestions of places to go which was nice.

We were really starting to feel the effects of the heat and it was about half 2, so we decided to head back to the hostel and chill out. As we walked back down Magazine Street, we couldn't get over how pretty all the houses were (Kitty has decided she wants to live there!), although we can't decide whether it's pronounced Magazine like the English or Magazine like the French word for shop. If you have the answer to this please let us know!!

Later this afternoon we wandered down to our new favourite place, Walmart, and bought some gluten free jambalaya mix (especially for you Cass) and thoroughly enjoyed eating it with some miniature bottles of wine which just tasted like ribena but were apparently 10% vol?! Ann et Vin if you're reading this, new venture... As we were choosing which wine to have and ahhing at the miniatures, a man who can only be described as a gangsta with a full set of gold teeth walked by and said 'y'all wineheads'. What a lad.

The hostel is much quieter tonight, lots of people left this morning. However we did meet a friendly guy who sat and played his ukelele whilst we ate our jambalaya (Callum and Gemma hope you appreciate!)

Tomorrow we are up early again to go on a plantation tour out of the city. Should be really interesting and there will be lots of photos no doubt! Sorry for the lack of photos today, as it was our first day wandering the city and we have heard some not so pleasant stories, we didn't take our phones out with us. We did take lots of real camera pics though as everyone seems to be equipped with mega-huge Canons, we felt right at home. We've taken some photos of the photos on our cameras though so do not fear!