Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Fried Chicken and Drunken Parades

Alrighty, so Mardi Gras has passed and I am extremely behind in typing!

I also have not uploaded any photos; hoping to do that tomorrow :)

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Soooooo I will pick up where I left off, which is Friday.

One thing that had started to become a hindrance here in New Orleans was my lack of phone. It had been fine when it stopped working in Phoenix because I hadn't met anyone, but now I have been going to bars and meeting people and potentially wanting to meet up with said people again...

Also I do not have a key into the house and if roommates are not home I have no way of talking to them to find out where they are and such. Not so good. I talked to Minka about where to get a little pay as you go thing just for a month, and she actually gave me her old phone to use that had been stuffed in a drawer for ages :) It was with att&t, so I biked out to find the store...

In addition, this was the day I was supposed to start sleeping at the hostel, however everyone offered that I could continue to stay here if I wanted! Yay! After some thought, I decided that it would be best to stay for one night at India House... and just cancel the rest; that way the hostel is still getting more than just my deposit and I can maybe meet some travelers additionally.

I do love hostels and the vibe they bring after all. It's like communal living with rad young people from all over the world.

But this place is also extremely rad, plus totally unique (I will be staying in tons of other hostels - but not this excellent house with excellent people that live here, you know?)

Anyhow since I didn't have to pack up ALL my stuff that day I had time...

I got to the phone place and they gave me a new sim card. I bought unlimited text messaging for 20.00 for the month, so my new number for the month FOR TEXTING is: 504 256 1782. I will not pick up if you call because it is way expensive. I have some money on it if I have to use it, but I am trying to stick to texts cause it's free :)

I left all excited! My next errand was to get something else fairly essential: an actual map. I've been using google since everything is so small/close, but there was the odd time where I would be slightly confused and I like having maps as souvenirs too. Off to Walgreens.

Following that was the park, to wallow in my purchases, and do some hooping. I set up my phone to a degree, cut out the part of map I wanted, put together my impulse-buy-laser pointer/pen/flashlight... and then put together the hoops.

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Paul visited me post mass texting with my new number, so he watched me show off for a bit, until food was essential. We walked to Decatur and got some Mexican food... a band was playing (there always is actually lol) and the french market was full on! He left for home, but I stayed and hooped a little more behind the band :)

I visited Michele on the way back (a very recurring role eh) we chatted had a beer etc. until I decided it was time to get my ass to the hostel before the streetcar stopped running.

You see, there were parades tonight (they were every night now until Tuesday) which run down the street that the streetcar operates on. The hostel was far enough away that this was the best way to get there. I was lucky cause the thing was still running, it just started further up he street where the parade was not near.

Streetcars are fun - Wish Vancouver didn't get rid of theirs.

The hostel was extremely cool looking. Minus the location, they were settttt uuuuup. They had their pool, courtyard, funky decorations, huge communal kitchen, tons of fridges, a fridge just for booze, a band playing in a covered stage thing, lots of seating outside and in, two cats, friendly staff people... yep.

I met two girls from Vancouver which was cool! There were people from 17 different countries staying there that night :) I met a couple brits on their way to the liquor store so I went with them and ended up chatting outside for quite a while with them.

One in particular was a real head trip. His lady was sick from food poisoning (poor thing ate bad rice at the airport upon arriving) and he was talking about how we would get along. Then we started talking about hostels and I recommended the Pacific Tradewinds if he was in San Fran... he looked at me weird then said

"wait... do you know the manager there?"

I said yeah I've known him for about a year now or so, so He replied,

"that's my girlfriend's ex. Do you know Sara?"

I didn't but that was really weird. Holy small world batman. Of all the people I ended up talking to there... I mean seriously wtf.

He went to go tend to her, and I went inside and talked to a girl from Toronto. I wanted to go out still even though it was kinda late (I had been drinking outside) so we started walking down canal waiting to spot a streetcar. One did not go by.

We got to the Central Business District and I suggested we go to the Ohm lounge where Josh worked. He had told me he could get me in there and get me drinks, and he is rad and I wanted to visit anyhow (for those who forget he is the one I went to the gay bar with after r bar). He did indeed get us in and get us drinks. A girl spilt a little of my beer and gave me a gross shot of Absynthe as compensation (it was not made properly I have had good stuff ughhhhh).

It was a gloriously cheesy house club thing, so we of course did not fit in but it was still fun :) Josh was super busy bartending but still visited, but after our drinks it was getting too cheesy, so we hopped out and headed for Frenchman Street.

As always, it was a good time. We met some random people, there were special balloons of the type I had not seen in three years or something (if you don't know you don't want to) costumes, a fire dancer, lots of funky blues playing... etc. we ended up hanging out with this particular group of people for ages, just talking on the streets (everyone was out on the streets btw) :) Such a friendly place! Nicole and I decided to get food, but once we ate the tiredness set in.

Getting back to Canal was fine, but trying to catch a cab on Canal at 430am was not fine. The area was still full of people, and all the cabs were full or not stopping. We were walking to the hostel for a while but Nicole's foot was starting to act up. Finally this old black dude pulled over and offered a ride. He was a cab driver normally but his car was broken. Nicole was a little hesitant, but whatever. Yay! He was the nicest old guy ever. He even took us through a drive through that took forever (for Nicole not me) talking about New Orleans before and after the storm, how he had been a cabbie for 29 years, still loves it, never had a person throw up in his cab lol... super authentic stuff! It could not have been a better cab driver.

I know the idea of getting into a stranger's van may be scary to some (obviously), but every time I have technically hitch hiked (I'm always with at least one other person of course don't worry - and always only one driver) it has ended up being the best experience possible, and has both times now made my whole night!!!! I realize this may concern some back home so I want to mention that I am not totally naive about things, but passing up opportunities out of fear can be extremely limiting at the same time.

We didn't get home until 530ish because of all the walking and the drive thru, so we gave the guy some cash for gas and needless to say, slept in the next day.

I still checked out an hour early (checkout was one) to get it over with,but hung out in the hostel for a while still. I had slept in my clothes and was feeling pretty dirty since I had sweated during the night (the room was so hot!) so Trevor from Chicago and I walked down canal to the Quarter.

Saturday had one of the biggest parades: Endymion. This one was one of the only ones I know about that actually went on in Midcity (where the hostel is conveniently located - yes i did this on purpose) so ALL of Canal st the whole way down was full of families and people. The street was blocked off, so we could walk down the middle of the road and look at all the barbeques and lawn chairs set up along the whole route. One other thing that I liked was that there were no blockades. There has to be over in the main part of canal st, but here it was locals and families set up to see things :)

We got back and I freshened up, grabbed a hoop, and grabbed the bike so I could bike back to the Quarter after Endymion.

There was a lot of room on the street, so I though it would be fun and good practice to hula hoop up canal while walking. Trevor agreed and walked the bike while I proceeded to walk and hoop at the same time. It's easy enough for me, but it definitely is not something normal, so I had people taking my picture, videotaping me, kids were yelling and pointing, I'd get people cheering (which was nice - I felt like I was raising moral I suppose) and if a kid wanted to try I'd come over and let 'em go for it. At times I would get called over enough that we were making a zig zag pattern up the street.. waving back to people... then talking to some (doing the odd trick while stopped)

Both of us eventually REALLY needed food though, so at one point I was trying to tell this father and daughter that I had to find food before she could play, so they offered us fried chicken!

I was happy, and after she tried I ended up continuing walking up this time eating fried chicken hooping and walking at the same time. I found this extremely amusing and I could tell some others did too lol.

I got back and made a sign for someone from couchsurfing whom was supposed to be riding on one of the floats! I took this sign and went with the other hostel friends to the streets. I had started my first beer on the way down and had one on the way back too I think, so by the time Endymion started I realized that I was already pretty tipsy and I only had one piece of fried chicken for dinner. Uh Oh.

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Needless to say after the next one I was very inebriated, but it aided in my yelling ability and I managed to get some good throws! This was by far the funnest parade I had gone to (and still is!) so I was super pumped afterwards. It was not even nine pm though, and I was already hammered. I needed food.

I went to get food with another fellow Canadian from the Yukon named Steve! We also got more beer and went back to the hostel. The two girls from Vancouver (Liz and Maria) and Steve wanted to go out to the French Quarter, but trying to arrange a bunch of drunk people to all go out when there is already a band playing and a party in the backyard is difficult.

I decided to meet them there because I didn't want to bike back too late, and I was beginning to doubt anyone would make it out of there. It took maybe ten minutes, but it was awkward carrying all my beads etc back strapped to me with my hoops, beer, and purse thing as well. Ah well.

As stated, I got back speedily (which would not have been the case had I waited and walked the bike with everyone) and ended up meeting up with Paul, Paul's brother, and his brother's friend. We met at Flanigans (of course). Mitch from San Francisco also met us there. We then proceeded to another place on Decatur. Here someone ran up to me while I was talking to a woman named Bacon...

claiming he recognized my tattoo from my couchsurfing profile lol. He knew Paul from couchsurfing.com (so it was not totally crazy that he ran up to me), being a host as well, and I realized that all five of us would never have met if it wasn't for this site. Crazy. I ended up there till 530am somehow, I really think this bars-never-closing thing is feeding my nocturnal side.

I think this brings me toooo Sunday. I'll make a separate post now to break it up :)

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