Needless to say after that crazy way to start the trip we had to go back to the hotel and crash out. We hadn't eaten anything all day and had gotten up so early. We slept for a couple hours and headed out to an Italian place for dinner. The desk man told me about this place that was quiet, good and affordable. Sounded too good to be true. It turned out to be only a block a way, I was slowly realizing that our hotel was in the perfect spot, we were just outside of the French Quarter. A perfect place to be staying, we wouldn't need to drive anywhere, all the action would be happening around us.

Dinner was awesome, I mean really good Italian food and the atmosphere was just perfect. A parade was starting directly outside our restaurant and we wanted to make sure we could cross back over to the side where our hotel was. No problem, we just went down one block where the parade turned and crossed over.

Now the parades in New Orleans are really something to see, they take parading to a whole new level. It was still early in the weekend so the parade route wasn't that busy at all. We found a spot along the barricade and settled in for some parade watching. Wait a second, everyone here has beers and I don't. I turned around, walked into the variety store behind me, grabbed a six pack and was back on the street before the marching band went by. How fuckin cool is that? Why can't we have this rule in Canada man? That is an entire bitch of mine, the fact that our government doles out liquor to us. I hate that, drives me fuckin insane. Anywho, here we are standing drinking a beer, and wait a second. These floats are throwing beads to people. Doesn't that only happen on Bourbon Street? Isn't the only way to get beads is to show tits? NO WAY. This is where the real tradition of the beads comes from, not the shit you see on TV. Well fuck, we are going to get some beads after all.

What a great time, and no one on the street is giving you a hard time. You know, with a ton of people drinking how shit can happen. We didn't see any of that, especially when you are dealing with Americans. No offense people it's just something about Canadians, we handle our booze better. Sure there were cops everywhere but it wasn't that, the feeling is just "hey lets all have a good time, no worries".

And that was the first day. We went in a little early since we had been up so long, but it really was a full day and we had a fantastic time.

Day 2
7:00 AM
That's the ungodly hour I woke up on Friday. Damnit, went to bed way too early now we're wide awake and there is nothing going on, I had to force myself back to sleep. This happened again and again all morning. Today's agenda? None really, we have reservations for a place tonight but that isn't until like 7. So we headed back into the Quarter to get some breakfast. We wanted to eat pretty cheaply so we went to the nearest McDonalds. We walk in and here is college student A, he is so fuckin drunk he can hardly stand. He's standing at the counter but can't seem to speak, for all I know he was asking for help. He eventually made it over to a booth and passed out. Now this is almost 11am, and this kid is still this drunk. Do you think he got robbed or something? Probably, as fun as New Orleans is you have to remember that you are in a very unsafe city. Doing something like this guy, is just plain stupid. He had no one with him, he was in a strange dangerous city, and he's so drunk he can't talk. Good luck buddy, I hope you make it ok. Speaking of safety, we also heard about 2 women who the night before had been kidnapped off of Bourbon and taken to a motel. There they were both raped repeatedly, then dropped off on the highway. What a fucking sick bullshit asshole thing for a couple guys to do. Who are these fucking people? I mean it's not like sex is hard to find on Bourbon. Why do you feel the need to force yourself on someone and physically and mentally hurt them? These poor women are never going to forget what happened to them, and their vacation and ideas of New Orleans will forever be negative.

Now I want to say, that yes New Orleans is a dangerous place. I do think though, if you keep your head about you, and don't let yourself get into any stupid situations you should be fine. Should be I said, who knows if those girls could have done anything.

We finish our breakfast at Chez Ronald and are back out on the street. We figure we will try and do some touristy shit today, maybe tour a cemetery or something. We decide to head up to Jackson square for some shopping. We pick up this and that, this is where I got my lighter, and low and behold there is a steamboat that goes up and down the Mississippi. Cool.

Ten minutes later we're on, we enter a draw for a trip to the Virgin Islands and step into the lunch line. This is going to be our real first taste of some of this Cajun food. Fuck me, this shit is good. We had some southern fried chicken, (Fuck you Colonel Sanders) some jambalaya, and some red beans in rice. Again the people working this thing are sooo nice and so cool. We grab a couple drinks and are out on the sun deck listening to all the history. Hey look at that, it's the field where the battle of 1812 took place, 2 weeks after the war was over. Stupid Americans. I'm just kidding believe me I want to move to New Orleans now, I have nothing against anyone. Well ok I do, but not Americans.

So here we are, I mean just take this in. We're on a riverboat going up the Mississippi, "Mississippi Queen, nah nah nah nah nah you know what I mean. Mississippi Queen, nah nah nah nah nah she taught me everything." Man this is some pretty cool shit, maybe other people wouldn't be into this but I was, it really was great.

So we're sitting there having a nice slow drink when they announce that I have just won a trip. Come again? Yes I won a trip, the flight isn't included but I won 4 days and 3 nights at a resort in the Virgin Islands, this just keeps getting better.

We finally get off the boat and get our pictures and everything, and damn it's only 3:30. Time went so slow down there, maybe it's because we didn't really have anywhere to be but we could just mosey around and party and have fun, it was so great. We were only there a couple days and yet it felt like a week.

So after the riverboat cruise there was only one thing we could do, head back to Bourbon Street.

Part III

We weren't on Bourbon Street very long, the weekend was here and it was starting to get busy. The street was packed with all sorts of different people. There were elderly couples, college students, bikers, gay people, straight people anyone you could imagine. And everyone was having a great time.

We headed back to our hotel to take a break before our dinner plans for the evening. We had reservations at a restaurant on St. Charles Street, which is right on the parade route. For $US 100.00 each we were entitled to a buffet dinner, all the booze we could drink, and we had seats on the grandstands in front of the restaurant that were only for their customers. SWEET. We got there around 7, the parade started at 6:30 but it would take 2 hours to get to where we are. Fuck that's a long parade route. We settled in and again had some fantastic food, and all the beer I could drink. Soon we were out on the grandstands as the first float passed by. This was an awesome experience. Standing there beer in hand as the floats passed within 10 feet of us. We got so many beads that night. There were kids all running around catching beads, we were also catching plastic cups which is another tradition. The coolest thing though that happened to us was we started talking to this kid across the street. We started out by trading beads, I wanted his really thick green ones which are one of the official Mardi Gras colors. Next thing you know he would come out between the floats and pick up beads off the ground and throw them to us. This was all pretty cool. Mike was his name, 15 year old kid who grew up down there and was just really cool, very laid back and just a good kid. I had caught a nerf football from one of the floats and Mike and I had been trying to barter. He really wanted the ball but didn't really have anything I wanted to trade for. After a little while I just decided to throw it to him as I didn't really need it. Then his father who was with him comes up and gives me a set of glass beads. Now these are very rare, I had read about them on the net before I left. The locals only want the glass beads because they are so rare, the floats only throw about 20% as much glass as plastic beads. So these are very hard to get. When this guy comes up and gives them to me. I was shocked, I asked if there was anything I could give him back to make it even, he said no. How nice is that. I still have those beads and Mike if you and your Dad are reading this, thanks again.

We finally arrived back at our hotel around Midnight, it turned out that 2 parades were on that night. We came home with sooo many beads just from that one night it was insane.

There are still more things to say about my trip to New Orleans but I think I will leave it at that. It was the experience of a lifetime, people told me before I went that it would change my life. I don't know if I would say that, but seriously it really was the best time of my life. I've made a bit of a past time of having a good time and living life to the fullest, I try not to regret anything and always remember that we are only here once. Well I suggest each of you out there get down to New Orleans before your turn is up. Trust me, it will be worth it.

Downs

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