After the short layover at Mobile at 4am, I must have fallen soundly asleep as the next thing I knew I was already in New Orleans, 5 minutes away from the station. You could already tell why the city captures the hearts and minds of so many: lovely weather, beautiful surroundings, and a lot of people walking the streets.
From the station I was fortunate enough to get a shuttle bus run by my hostel. The two guys who picked me up also gave me a nice tour of the area I was staying (a 15 minute walk to the the French Quarter). As I could not officially check in until later in the afternoon, I sat out in the backyard and started chatting to some really nice Australian and New Zealander travellers who gave me a good few tips on what areas to go to, both in New Orleans and beyond.
As I had only today and 2 more days to spend in New Orleans, I needed to utilise as much time as I could. I had a shower and walked into the city to check out the World War II Museum, supposedly one of the best in the country. The museum had a very good 4D film, directed and narrated by Tom Hanks describing the American experience in the War. The two permanent exhibitions were very interesting- one was on D-Day and the second on the Pacific War. My only problem with the museum was not one of their own creation. I have studied this time period so thoroughly and watched hundreds of hours of documentaries on the subject so I found it difficult to read all the information presented. I tended to spend most of my time looking at pictures, safe, easy pictures. One of the parts my interest did pique was a short film about Eisenhower having to make decision whether or not to go ahead with Operation Overlord. It is hard to imagine how much pressure he was under: delay, and you lose the momentum, the surprise, and potentially an opportunity to land at all; go ahead and you run the risk of storms destroying your ships and crippling any landing attempts. He said go: the rest, they say, is history.
I was a bit crowded for time so I did not get to visit the exhibit run by Boeing showing the aircraft of the war. In the end though, museum fatigue was strong and so I was happy just to head home.
When I got back to the hostel I could officially check-in. I was in a 12 bed room of which currently only 3 were being used. I managed to get a good nap in before I wanted to taste some of the famous New Orleans food. We got a good recommendation from one of the staff and set off with a good group (Sidsel, Mitch and Tim). At the restaurant (The Blind Pelican), we ordered oysters and the local speciality crawfish. Both were delicious and full of flavour. Unfortunately we weren't the best at picking the meat off the crawfish so it was a lot more difficult than it should have been. After dinner we went back to the hostel to wait for Mitch and Sid's friend, Josh to arrive from Austin. When he eventually arrived it was pretty late but we got the streetcar into town and walked down Bourbon street, the main touristy bar strip, to Frenchmen street, more for the locals. By this time it was already pretty late so we only had a few drinks before getting a gab back to the hostel.
From the station I was fortunate enough to get a shuttle bus run by my hostel. The two guys who picked me up also gave me a nice tour of the area I was staying (a 15 minute walk to the the French Quarter). As I could not officially check in until later in the afternoon, I sat out in the backyard and started chatting to some really nice Australian and New Zealander travellers who gave me a good few tips on what areas to go to, both in New Orleans and beyond.
As I had only today and 2 more days to spend in New Orleans, I needed to utilise as much time as I could. I had a shower and walked into the city to check out the World War II Museum, supposedly one of the best in the country. The museum had a very good 4D film, directed and narrated by Tom Hanks describing the American experience in the War. The two permanent exhibitions were very interesting- one was on D-Day and the second on the Pacific War. My only problem with the museum was not one of their own creation. I have studied this time period so thoroughly and watched hundreds of hours of documentaries on the subject so I found it difficult to read all the information presented. I tended to spend most of my time looking at pictures, safe, easy pictures. One of the parts my interest did pique was a short film about Eisenhower having to make decision whether or not to go ahead with Operation Overlord. It is hard to imagine how much pressure he was under: delay, and you lose the momentum, the surprise, and potentially an opportunity to land at all; go ahead and you run the risk of storms destroying your ships and crippling any landing attempts. He said go: the rest, they say, is history.
I was a bit crowded for time so I did not get to visit the exhibit run by Boeing showing the aircraft of the war. In the end though, museum fatigue was strong and so I was happy just to head home.
When I got back to the hostel I could officially check-in. I was in a 12 bed room of which currently only 3 were being used. I managed to get a good nap in before I wanted to taste some of the famous New Orleans food. We got a good recommendation from one of the staff and set off with a good group (Sidsel, Mitch and Tim). At the restaurant (The Blind Pelican), we ordered oysters and the local speciality crawfish. Both were delicious and full of flavour. Unfortunately we weren't the best at picking the meat off the crawfish so it was a lot more difficult than it should have been. After dinner we went back to the hostel to wait for Mitch and Sid's friend, Josh to arrive from Austin. When he eventually arrived it was pretty late but we got the streetcar into town and walked down Bourbon street, the main touristy bar strip, to Frenchmen street, more for the locals. By this time it was already pretty late so we only had a few drinks before getting a gab back to the hostel.
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