Being A Tourist

This city is just plain amazing. I love it, love it, love it. It's crazy hot, it's humid, but it's fantastic.

Today was my first proper "I'm going to be a tourist" day here. I had my recommendations (French Quarter, French Quarter, French Quarter), I had my map, and I was wearing sensible shoes. Oh, and being environmentally conscious, I had a handbag AND a shopping bag. Go me, saving the planet.

So I got onto the streetcar ($1.25 - EXACT change, please, thankyou ma'am), and spent a lovely hour travelling downtown in the already unbelievable heat. Incidentally, I've been getting it wrong - the US has been hitting the FORTIES for heat.

Arriving on Canal St, I grabbed some batteries for the camera (how prepared I was, right?), and started walking to the French Quarter when I saw... Basin St. The street. One of the main reasons for coming to NOLA, thanks to the song "Basin St Blues". Wow.

Anyway! Straight on to Cafe du Monde - the cafe in NOLA - for Cafe au lait and beignets (ben-yays) - squarish puffy donuts loaded with sugar. Yummy scrummy but overly filling. Then some shopping; there are a LOT of shops filled with, um, touristy stuff. T-shirts saying "I got Bourbon-ed on Smash St", "I drove my chevy to the levee but the levee was gone", and so on. And a lot of Creole/Cajun spices.

So I shopped... in the still insane heat. What hits you is that inside is all airconditioned, so you feel like you've been whacked over the head with a pan when you step outside. HOT.

I found the most amazing 2nd hand bookshop, ever. It was huge. Unbelievably so. And crammed full of books, with a great owner who was so helpful and friendly...and had visited Bath before, madness. So I bought a lot of books (and would have bought more, except for stupid luggage allowance on the plane, grr).

Then lunch. Now, I was stupidly hot, I really was. But I had been told about a restaurant that I had to try, so despite the lack of hunger and abundance of sweating, I set off to find "jonny's po-boys". Po-boys are huge sandwiches, stuffed with food, and unbelievably good. And the restaurant are happy to wrap what you can't eat for later. Yum yum yum. BBQ beef po'boy. Wow.

After lunch, my first sight of the mighty Mississippi (Spelt right!). It's huge. But a lot grubbier than you think. And it makes the surrounding area cooler. So I was more than happy there. It was fantastic. h

Back to Canal St, and finally I bought my camera! I had been looking for a long time, and was thinking of an SLR, but bought instead a Sony DSC-H50, which is beautiful and fantastic and wonderful. So very fitting for a camera from N'Orleans.

By 4, I was exhausted, and VERY hot and sweaty. So I headed back, collapsed for a bit, showered and played with the camera.

Tea was... interesting... my first ever crab. Now, I dislike fish. I am unsure about seafood, but the rule is "try everything once". So crab (fresh in it's shell) it was. Peggy helped me get into it, and I tried it. My final assessment was that it would be good in something like paella. But alone... I'm not entirely sold on it. But I ate crab. And we should all be impressed & proud.

Then, that evening, we went for a ferry ride across the Mississippi. It was stunning, the town lit up across the water, the cool(ish) breeze. Wonderful.

Oh, and last night, LSU WON!!!! A fantastic ballgame, very exciting stuff. And I had my first every "Snowball"... finely crushed ice with syrup on it, mmmmmmmmmmmm. Lemon-lime. Mmmmmmmmmm. I LOVE ice.

Tomorrow... more shopping... and packing...