Life on Magazine Street

Sorry for the delay folks, but i'm back in black.

This post recounts the events of Tuesday, May 18th, 2010.

We woke up with wicked headaches that morning, not really, but that's what people say when they drank lots the night before. We were actually quite well. We went to the New Orleans Wal-Mart, which surprisingly, is like any other Wal-Mart anywhere. But, we were in a hostel, and that means, cook for yourself time! Also, not many meat-free cajun places in New Orleans. We picked up the breakfast, lunch and dinner of champions: Organic Flax Cereal with raisins, soy milk, spinach tortilla wraps, 2 packages of family size spinach (recyclable with #5 plastic), yogurt, 3 bell peppers (tri-color pack), 2 packs of tofu (firm and extra firm), mesquite marinade and some honey mustard dressing. Happy with all our groceries, we returned to the hostel and labeled all our stuff, not that anyone would take it anyways. We decided that day to walk all the way up Magazine Street, known for its little shops, nice restaurants and many antique and art stores. It was a beautiful walk, despite the 90+ degree heat, just under 4 miles long, and at the end of it, just like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, a Whole Foods. We bought our veggie dogs that we couldnt find at Wal-Mart, which has always been our pre-hockey game meal. We also found a place that would show the Habs Game #2 vs. the Flyers.

We got back to the hostel, another 4 miles later, and we started our meal to get ready to watch the hockey game. Leland, our friend the traveling musician, was in the common room chatting up a storm, and we left abruptly after eating our dogs.

On our way to the place we wanted to watch the game at, winds were picking up and it looked like it was gonna pour. This waitress named Tiff (really really cute) at a resto-bar called Jackson was putting away the outdoor chairs and tables and she saw my jersey and asked us to come in to watch the game. We complied. 10 minutes before game time and we were making friends the bartender Stephen, and since we were the only two customers at the time, even the chef like us and brought us complimentary strawberries stuffed with goat cheese. Delicious. We watched the atrocity of a game, not as bad as Game 1, but not much better. Before leaving, we thanked everyone for being so awesome, and we told them we'd call them from San Antonio after a Game 3 win.

We got back shortly after to our hostel, where a gathering of people in the common room were going to go see a local brass band at the Maple Leaf bar. We all got 3-4 beers each for the walk/trolley ride (drinking in all of New Orleans is legal in streets, stores and public transports). The band was simply fantastic, I was in the front row all night and couldnt hear a thing when I left, but I didnt care. It was a fantastic show. I met a few people in the bar that were from Winnipeg, Worcester, Fredericton and others. A town of tourists, this New Orleans.

Not realizing how far the trolley had taken us, we started walking back the hostel from the bar. We walked about 10 blocks before realizing we'd never seen these streets before, so we flagged down a cab. It was a Moroccan driver, and he was also awesome. Drove a cab in the Big Easy for the past 20 years. He laughed at us for even attempting the walk, especially tipsy, for it was in reality around 50 blocks to our hostel(not NYC blocks either). We payed the man and went to our room.

Now, we arent very picky about hostels, but when we opened the door to our room, a certain stench was in the air. We saw that a new guy was in the room, and the AC was off. I woke him as asked if we could turn it back on, and he said no. I then asked if he was cold, and that was the reason he turned it off, and he said no. Seeing that we were getting nowhere with our new smelly friend, Tyler and I went to sleep on the couches and chairs in the common room, with a drunk swiss girl on facebook and a tired Brazilian girl called Gabrielle, who was outraged beyond belief when we told her of our situation.

And tomorrow was to be another day.

Walking today: 10 miles

Song of the day: Wanted Man by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Quote of the day: "I wish I was able to make balloon animals." - Leland, traveling musician

P.S. It did pour for 15 minutes that night, and apparently, Magazine street can get bigtime flooded, like 3 feet deep of water.