How's it going?!
I know that it's been a little while since I've written anything, and that's mainly because of how much we have been traveling over the past couple weeks.
We managed to make it all the way from Austin, Texas to Orlando, Florida, which is both exciting and nerve-racking simultaneously.
This is my first time to Florida, and I have to say, it's been pretty sweet so far...but more on that later. For today, we're going to take a trip to one of the cities we stopped in along the way to Florida...
New Orleans, Louisiana
While we only had one full day to explore the city, it proved to be a good amount of time for a first visit.
The first major landmark that we came across was the St. Louis Cathedral, the one pictured above sitting behind Jackson Square.
When there is not any service happening in the Cathedral, they allow you to come in and admire the beautiful architecture and art that the holy structure encompasses. I was truly blown away by the amount of detail present in every single part of the building. Whether it be the stained-glass windows or the altar at the head of the aisle, there's never a lack of features to study closely.
Right outside the front doors of the Cathedral, there were many street performers, all practically begging for the attention of the tourists flooding the Square. One man was literally juggling machetes...while on a unicycle...which happened to be approximately 12 feet tall. No joke. It was pretty impressive, but also induced extreme anxiety.
As we continued to walk around the Square, we saw many displays of art that were up for sale. The artists would be sitting besides their displays of talent, patiently waiting for by-passers to take interest. Many of them were also in the progress of creating a new piece, which allowed us to quickly look over their shoulder and peek the process of painting.
Both inside and outside of the Square there is an abundance of musical performers, all playing different music, but somehow they all seemed to blend together into a beautiful conglomerate of melodies.
Most of our time was spent simply walking around the tight streets of the French Quarter, not necessarily holding a destination in mind. One aspect of New Orleans (N'awlins) that really stands out as we walked around was how the architecture created a very specific vibe. It's fairly hard for me to explain, but looking around at the buildings, which all complimented each other, I felt transported to a different time.
One characteristic of the New Orleans culture is that there is a historic presence of "Voodoo". While I was expecting to see this, it was really interesting to actually walk past shops that felt so different from anything I had seen before.
It seemed that every street we turned down would offer something different for our eyes to feast on.
This photo of the Walgreens is one of my favorites. While it may seem fairly plain and simple, I thought it perfectly encompassed what New Orleans is all about. Here is a store that can be found in probably every major city in the U.S., but when in the middle of NOLA, it perfectly fits in with the vibe of the city as whole. From the color of the outside walls, to the random enclosed balcony directly above the sign, it's almost like the Walgreens put on a disguise to blend right in.
As far as food in the city goes, it's pretty hard for a vegetarian like myself to find any true New Orleans food, which is to be completely expected, considering how ingrained meat is in the culture. My brother and I ended up buying a smoothie, which is kind of boring, but us herbivores have to compromise!
However, one of the staple foods in NOLA are beignets, which we were able to partake in! If you've never had one, it's basically fluffy deliciousness. They're a deep-fried pastry that you pour a s***-load of powdered sugar on. Obviously, they are not the best thing to put in your body, but treating yourself every now and again to a couple shouldn't be too much of a problem ;-)
Thanks for reading about my trip to New Orleans! I hope you enjoyed touring the incredibly vibrant streets of NOLA with me. If you did, make sure to vote and re-steem :-O
If you want to stay updated on my travels, you can follow me! Now that we're in Florida, there's many more posts on the way!
Peace :-)
!steemitworldmap 29.957427 lat -90.063504 long New Orleans D3SCR