New Orleans

Song that I am loving right now: "Come Away with Me" - Norah Jones

Quote of the day: "The saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all" -Savannah Curtis

*disclaimer: this is a long entry..you might want to get yourself prepared to commit, maybe even grab some snacks first.

I haven't blogged in a very long time, therefore I have a bunch of new news. I can't wait to update my blog with all the things I have been up to lately but instead of going in chronological order, I am going to start with the event that interests me the most. Oh, New Orleans. I am starting to go down my bucket list of things to do in life since I have graduated. One place that I had never been was New Orleans. I have always heard crazy stories about bourbon street and even about some of the beautiful architecture that is around the city. So, Kris and I decided to take a trip over New years, if we were going to go, we were going to go all out. I figured that New Years would be one of the greatest experiences. There were two problems with the idea of going to New Orleans, 1. It is 12 hours away and 2. I hate flying. Neither of these things were helping our plans. Therefore, I looked for answers and stumbled upon a train ride. Why not? We could relax for 12 hours while someone else did all the driving. This was a far better thought when the idea was created verses what it was in reality. We were excited that we would be able to travel Harry Potter style to one of the most infamous cities in America. However, it turned out not to be as whimsical as we thought. First, the train was two hours late...but that did not interfere with my excitement. Once we boarded the train, I was so excited, I was constanly looking out the window and informing Kris of every cute little thing I saw in each city. This lasted for about an hour, until I fell asleep...for about 5 hours (poor Kris). When I woke up, we travled back to the dining cart which was just like a resturant. The food was good, not great but ok for what we needed. After we had finished, we went back to our seats and Kris continued reading while I cracked open my GRE study book. It was interesting stopping at each city and seeing the new people get on with the same excitment I had once had, a few hours before. Over time our car became hotter and hotter. We were curious whether the heat was on or the air conditioning had broken. Needless-to-say, it felt like we were in a hot tub in the middle of a desert. How a man kept his full length fur coat on for the entire ride is beyond my comprehension. He was oddly identical to Johnny Depp though so maybe he had pirate powers.

By the time we got to New Orleans, I was ready to get off the train and experience all of the exciting things in the city. The train stopped but we were not able to de-board for about thirty more minutes. I am not one to complain but this was crazy. Finally, when we got off of the train, we jumped in line to grab a cab..it was 10:00, New Years eve. We got in the cab and directed him to go to our hotel, "The Holiday Inn Express." A few minutes later we arrived at the "Cotton Inn Exchange." Hmm, we wondered, clearly not the place we needed to go. We informed the cab driver and he said that this was the Holiday Inn Express just with a different name. We should not have doubted him, but we did and asked him to drive us to another Holiday Inn Express. Next, we found ourselves across town at a Holiday Inn. We figured we would get out and just see if this might be the correct destination. We said farewell and traveled inside with our bags. Unfortunately, this was not where we needed to go. We then used one of the hotel computers to look up our reservation. After calling around a few times, we indeed discovered that the Cotton Inn Exchange was the Holiday Inn Express and it had changed ownership after we had booked it. We took our bags and headed in that direction, this meant traveling through Bourbon Street, at 11:00 on New Years Eve with all our bags in tow. I found it quiet budernsome at the time but looking back it is absolutely hiliarious. We quickly got settled in our rooms, hurried to get our New Years gear on and braved the streets. We arrived on Bourbon Street at 11:57, just in time. Whew. That night was full of fun and interesting people. By far the craziest thing we saw that night was parents pushing strollers with young children in them around...this blew our minds. Here is one of our pictures from New Years Eve on Bourbon street:
The next day, we woke up and went to wander around and see the sights. We had a very fun day eating at the hard rock cafe, shopping in the biggest anthropologie I have ever seen (I was in creation heaven), seeing beautiful architecture, and seeing an incredible street show with break dancers. This might have been my favorite part of the whole trip. Their moves were so incredible and their jokes were even better, I was laughing so hard I was basically in tears. Not long after my laughing turned into uncontrollable hyperventilation, a bus filled with children drove past on the street in front of the show. Not unusal right? Wrong. Accompanying the children on the bus were two ladies hanging out of the door, who were not exactly in spreak break shape, shaking their bootays faster that the tea cups spin at the fair. This was the breaking point for me and when my laughter rose to a level that I did not even know was possible. That night we went to a brewery and had some of the best beer we have ever tasted..it was kind of a sunrayish type beer if compared to terripan. The next morning, we woke up and traveled to take our second train ride of our lives. This one was much better, or I thought so since I slept for an overwhelming 8 hours. The trip was so worth the fight to get there. I am so glad that I can check something off of my list! I thank my boyfriend for dealing with my frustrations of our traveling accomadations..he is the sweetest thing. Below is a catholic church that I found exceptionally eloquent. I encourage every one to try to experience this city once in their lives, have a beautiful day!