I Love New Orleans!

I arrived in New Orleans with my piece of paper with phone numbers and the Couchsurfing address I was supposed to get to. Finding the airport shuttle was easy, and as it sped along the driver told us how crazy it was going to be.

He told us of bars that didn't close, people drinking on the streets (you are allowed to have/drink alcohol anywhere in New Orleans, in public, as long as it's not in glass), music until the wee hours, and to prepare for craziness.

He dropped me off first, turns out I am staying one block from Bourbon Street literally right next to the party! I found the house no problem, but I knocked to no avail. My phone doesn't work now, so I walked in the direction of music and yelling to borrow a phone. There were people on balconies throwing beads, people walking around in boas and beads carrying plastic cups of booze, live music in bars (and there are a LOT of them), horses (police ones chilling out apparently), and the road was blocked off from traffic too. I still had my backpack on as I wandered. I put my hands up and yelled and I got some beads!

So I obtained a strand within five minutes of me being in the city. Awesome.

I found a couple phones eventually (people are friendly) and there were roomates home, they were just asleep.

I got in and met Paul and Joey, two of my three hosts!. Oh yes and the dog Guy Fawkes too. He is obscenely friendly.

Minka (the host I had first talked to via Couchsurfing) was training for her first night at a new job. The three of us (Paul Joey and I) ordered delivery, and at about midnight ish we went out to an industrial/electro night a few "blocks" away. Now I say that in quotations because it was actually several streets away, but the blocks are sooo small here it is not far at all.

They pointed stuff out to me as I went, and I was blown away at how beautiful everything is! All the architecture here is almost surreal. It really did blow me away.

Anyway we hung out at this red-lit little-ish space. Turns out you are also allowed to smoke in any bars as well, so this is something to be aware of. We had a few drinks, I met some of their friends, and danced. Everyone at the bar got to smash a Pinata of a heart for someone's birthday! I ate some candy and birthday cake, drank some more, and then we decided to go visit Minka at her brand new work.

On our way we stopped at the house's local hangout bar - a 24 hour one - Flannigans. It is an Irish type dive bar only with pool (right up my alley). We grabbed a beer to drink on the way to Minka's work lol.

Minka was training to work at a strip joint. She is not overly stoked on the job, but she bartends, stays in the background, and it's a job. She was wearing a long sleeved turtleneck there for her training, and that made me really happy :)

One girl was just insane with the pole tricks, but it didn't make up for the expensiveness of the drinks. We stayed for one drink each, and everyone agreed to head back to Flannigans (Minka would be there soon).

Some of the people from the original Industrial night were at the dive bar! It's a friendly community scene: people into computers, politics, art, etc. I think I got back around 630am or so (really 530am in the time zone I was in before) but it was already almost completely light out on the walk back. It's been a while since I'd walked back from anything in the light.

Thank goodness for that sleep mask and earplugs - The door is glass so I was sleeping in the light the whole time. I probably will be sleeping in the light again mwahahaha.

I woke up at two today (yay eight hours of sleep and no hangover). Three of us (Minka, Paul, and I) had breakfast together at four or so.

Minka makes really yummy biscuits!

Joey went to work (hey Dave - he is an EMT!) and the rest of us went to take the dog to the dog park. There were some punks there so I offered candy and talked a bit. One of their friends was passed out on a lawn chair drunk lol.

As the punks left they had to wake the guy up, and he yelled and they got him by the ear... as they walked away Minka noticed that he had pissed himself.

I found this extremely amusing because it was obvious they did not own a washer (I could smell that they didn't when I talked to them) so he was going to have to deal with it for a long time.

He didn't make it out the gate, so his friends left him leaning face first against a brick pillar thing. Again I wondered what was going to happen. Probably going to fall asleep in the dog park.

Some dudes approached him and tried to kick him out. I heard yelling, then we saw him get up off the ground with his pants down... and then the cops were there shortly. All in all an entertaining show.

The dogs were also fun to watch of course.

We were able to stop for a latte at my request, and looked in a junk art/antique shop. It's cool that we could take the dog (a shepherd lab cross) into the antique store and the coffee shop no problem. No one cared.

Things are different here.