Viva New Orleans

This post is coming way too late! I am just finishing my semester at school, though, and the workload is starting to slow down (but not for long!). 

So, late last month, I went with my boyfriend to New Orleans.  I've been dreaming of visiting this city for years, and I finally took the chance to go. When we arrived from our bus, we went to go eat some tasty beignets at Café du Monde and then proceeded to walk all around the French Quarter, stopping at shops as we went along. While we were there, we got to stop in old Catholic churches and pray, we had some delicious New Orleans food and drinks (Ramos Gin Fizz at Bar Tonique being my favorite), we got to see a great down and dirty blues band on Frenchman street, and we met some really cool locals who told us their stories. One of the ladies, who had thirteen cats who lived in her shop, told us her Hurricane Katrina story. Another guy, an Oi! punk working at a hat shop, talked with us and gave us free beer. It's no wonder so many people fall in love with this city. I'm waiting for the day I can go back...

Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral

Also, we went and explored a couple of the cemeteries. The three pictures below are from St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. We took a tour of this cemetery to learn about the history, and they walked us by Marie Laveau's (the famous voodoo queen) tomb and told us about the rituals that people do, like leaving food and cigarettes and drawing x's on the tomb in order to get her to do favors for them in the afterlife. Another of the tombs  was a giant pyramid built by Nicholas Cage, who had two houses in New Orleans at one time.

Marie Laveau's cleaned up tomb

the "faux Laveau"

We also took the trolley out to the Garden District to walk around Tulane and Loyola, go see Anne Rice's old house, and visit Lafayette Cemetery No. 1, where both the Mayfair Witches and Vampire Lestat had tombs. We also stopped for a little at Audubon park, at which I summoned a squirrel with my impressive squirrel clicks.

Anne Rice's old house

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

On our last night, after we made it back to the French Quarter, we searched diligently for for a place that would serve us bread pudding and hot cocoa with Bailey's. We found such a place, warmed ourselves up, and toddled back to where we were staying. It was a nice way to wrap up our last evening.

If you ever get the chance to go to New Orleans, do it, but just know that the city will keep calling you back to her.