Coincidentally enough, I found myself travelling to New Orleans this past July for five days of pure Bourbon Street excitement. As I arrived, the first thing I noticed were the above ground coffins, and having no clue what it was about, I asked my travelling companions, who explained to me New orleans was below sea level. The city was actually like a giant bowl, and levees were the only thing that kept the city from flooding. This was made more clear the next day, when we were all warned about the approaching Hurricane Dennis, and the potential flooding dangers. Hurricane Dennis did completely miss the city, and the only rain we got was a five minute sprinkle the day we were leaving.
As for the actual city, it was wonderful. The food was excellent (I reccommend a muffeleta), the vendors everywhere, the atmosphere around Bourbon Street, and especially the live music in almost every bar you entered. Upon the first night, as I sipped Hurricanes inside the "legendary" Pat O'Brien's, I was hooked, this had become my new favorite place to party. My girlfriend told me at the end of that night that she felt she was wandering a "Disney World for twenty-one year olds." Yes, that about summed it up in my mind as I stood in a bar staring at a mechanical bull. I chickened out on riding the metallic beast, but enjoyed watching others try their hardest to stay on.
It wasn't until the second day, when I wandered away from Bourbon Street, and over to the other side of New Orleans that I saw the kind of hospitality the city really had. I had lunch in a small cafe called the Camillia Grill, which had been open for over fifty years, and looked like it had not changed one bit. It was a style and design that worked for them, even today, and the cooks and servers were all outgoing and very entertaining to be around as you ate. I found myself fascinated by their obsession with voodoo, and refused to leave the city without taking home a few voodoo dolls of my own for family and friends.
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