Took a trip to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) this past weekend and WOW, what a cool place! If you love food, art, parties and live music, this city is for you.
It's almost as if it's not part of the United States. Everything is named after something French. I saw zero Starbucks, zero Pizza Huts, maybe one Mcdonald's and a Subway... pretty much no franchise/corporate garbage.
There's no last call, you can drink anywhere on the street, the party never ends. I barely saw any police the whole time I was there...maybe that explains why NOLA has the highest murder rate in the US...yikes! But I never once felt unsafe. Murders are usually personal so don't get involved with ghetto thugs and you'll be fine :) Everyone there is super friendly.
The food is AMAZING! Almost every restaurant serves some sort of regional cajun/southern cuisine unique to the region. There are a ton of great original cocktail bars and local breweries too. And everything is pretty affordable.
Happy hour oysters and cocktails:
That Crystal hot sauce is the best!
Red beans, local sausage, biscuit and rice with pecan praline bacon:
Unreal!
Waited in line for an hour on a Friday afternoon for this fried chicken joint, but it was totally worth it. I ate two orders of fried chicken it was so damn good.
Weather was perfect.
The architecture around the city is beautiful (especially the french quarter), and there are gems to be found on pretty much every street (like this random house):
And here's grand ole church:
And here's a big statue of the great Louis Armstrong, one of the most influential people in jazz history:
FYI, jazz was born in New Orleans.
Here's some cool art from the side of a building:
And some art installation in an event space:
And the most impressive art I saw in NOLA were the mardi gras costumes at the Backstreet Cultural Museum:
Wow these were impressive. And super heavy, probably 100 lbs each.
There are art galleries everywhere, people selling art on the street, performance art, etc.
And don't forget the music. There is live music EVERYWHERE. It's almost as if NOLA hasn't heard of a dj or playlist. If you're bar doesn't have live music, your bar doesn't have customers. Frenchman Street has bar after bar of great bands. The talent is top notch, the music is soulful, funky, dancey, jazzy...pretty much sums up the entire city of New Orleans. Oh, and the one dance club I did go to (near the Bywater hood) had the best DJ/dance music ever. Zero top 40, no fancy bullshit dress code or anything. All dance jams I'd never heard before and great vibes.
Last but not least, NOLA is built on a swamp, so I took a tour outside the city and here's what I saw:
Ya I got my redneck going on in the bayou..it was hot and sunny :p
Definitely going to go back to New Orleans again. The music, food, art, good vibes, unique culture and never-ending party make it one of a kind.