Day 2: New Orleans.

Food, the French and Finances.

Today I ventured out alone. The hostel is about a 5 minute ride on a streetcar/trolley (we call it a tram). I ventured down Canal Street to visit the French Quarter. I went down Dauphine Street which had some live musicians playing in local bars and taverns, and went down the iconic Bourbon Street during the day time. It was filled with antique and vintage shops and lots of voodoo places. It was definitely very different to what I expected.

I continued on to St. Louis Cathedral (which actually is very small) and the Presbytere. I was amazed at how small this "Cathedral" was. To me it was just like a Church. However, inside it was so aesthetically beautiful and reminded me a lot of the church interiors of Europe. I guess the resonance of the French colonisation that occurred here is really reflective of that. I had this ill feeling however before entering the Cathedral that I was going to get mugged.

I assure you, I am not a racist, if it was a white person it totally would've been the same reaction.

When you see two guys whispering to each other and constantly looking at you and pointing at a female traveller near you, you get eerie. Especially because I'm not a physically strong or aesthetically looking strong male. I'm short, young looking and weak and flaunting a backpack with an SLR camera and probably more cash that is easily accessible to them. So obviously I'm a target. I made the conscious decision to hurry up into the Cathedral and stayed there for a while.

I ended up missing my walking tour, but I heard a woman nearly got pick pocketed outside and everyone was told to "Stay on guard". Well I guess that's a must here in The Big Easy. It's full of crime, whether petty or "real", and has a very high murder rate. It is an area full of immense disparity between the middle class and the high class.

Anyway, I walked through Jackson Square, (where this issue was evident). There were a lot of homeless people still sleeping on the lawn. I couldn't imagine sleeping outside in this cold, I couldn't take it and I was sleeping in a hostel home with blankets and 3 layers of clothing. So what was gonna happen to them?

I ventured on to the iconic Cafe Du Monde. I had a chicory cafe au lait and a serving of French beignets. They are like donuts filled with a tad of a custardy sorta filling and doused with a copious amount of icing sugar. It came with 3. At first I was thinking "I can definitely finish this", particularly because all I had eaten was the plane food from the other day and I had no food at the hostel last night nor this morning either. After the first, I could not do it anymore. But I pushed myself, I told myself I didn't have enough money to be able to throw it around and waste it. So I finished it. All together it cost me $5.60, but I tipped her and gave her $6. I definitely recommend going there with someone else and sharing the beignets. The coffee was nice though. I didn't taste the difference however.

I strolled along the Moonwalk alongside the Mississippi River. At this point in time I am freezing. I'm right near the water, I have no beanie, no gloves, and I'm wearing socks on my hands. I had on a button up shirt, a sweater on top, and a jacket. And I'm still cold. Ugh. How do people do it?! The Mississippi River wasn't brown but it certainly wasn't clear. It was definitely polluted though.

I kept on walking and stood outside a Starbucks just to use their wifi (cheeky). I continued on to H&M. I told myself not to buy anything this early in the trip.

Oops.

So I walk in and I see an AMAZING  Christmas sweater. Why do I have a thing for these "lame" things? $30. Yup they've got a small. Ooh look at that puffer vest! $35. Yup.

I told myself NO.

So I left with a beanie that cost me $12. It's cute though.

I ventured around the city trying to find a service provider for my phone. I needed 3G and an American number to get in contact with relatives in other cities which I was going to stop by.

I was looking for St. Andrew Street which on Google Maps said it was near LaSalle St. Boy, I was definitely in the wrong neighbourhood. I felt so scared and intimidated and as if people were following me and I'd cross the road and they'd follow me. Ugh. So I went into the library for a little bit and gave up on finding the street which would take me to T-Mobile.

I went into a mobile phone shop and set up a sim with GoSmart. It's so fucking shit. It's like a branch off T-Mobile but it's pissing me off, the service is so bad. All in all I paid $30 for the sim (which if you go to America I strongly recommend buying a sim for $5 on ebay beforehand), $45 for the monthly plan (with unlimited talk, text and data), and $10 for the activation of the sim. However there were issues and I was in that phone shop for a whole hour. Ugh. It's like I paid $80+ to sit there for an hour. As they were fixing my phone a lot of people came in wanting to trade in phones for cash which were "blacklisted" and obviously stolen. One guy wanted to buy an iPhone for $300. He said he would be back. He came back literally 10 minutes later with $280 and got himself a new iPhone. Very suspicious.

At this moment in time I was very tired and my phone was dead, so I went back to the hostel.

These 4 cute Australians came. 3 of them were together and 1 is by themself. They've left now but I have the biggest crush for the one by himself. What will occur..?

We all sat around the table eating Creole style pasta (definitely different!), talking about our adventures before New Orleans and where we were going drinking Bud Light Platinums and Budweisers. Caitlin has a thing for this guy called Scooter. I don't see it...but good for her I guess? Hahahaha. We went out to The French Quarter tonight, walking down Bourbon Street. We had some other 18-21 year olds, but we ended up splitting with them going to a gay bar called Bourbon Pub and Parade.

For a Tuesday night, it was pretty pumping! I've never seen "drag kings" before in my life. Drawn on stubble, low crotch pants, muscle tees with slicked back hair. Definitely different from the queen, diva-like drag queens I'm used to on Oxford Street back in Sydney. They played Work Bitch! which everyone obvs knows is my jam, and me and Caitlin danced the night away. I had 2 big X's on my hands to make sure I didn't drink. However a really cool rule over here, you can actually SMOKE in the bars/clubs! That's pretty awesome. Like actually on the dancefloor, not just the balcony!

We left the club at about 2-2:30 and got a taxi back to the hostel.

I'm so tired but I'm just talking to Scooter and someone else who works at the hostel.

Tomorrow's gonna be more of a laidback, relaxed day with Caitlin again. God I love her!