Day 3 New Orlean, Loisiana - Jazz capitol of the world

spent most of the morning trying to deal with taxi's and airports.i am getting so tired of flying. my delta airlines flight was delayed. the plane was tiny, a bus would seat twice as many people. i slept most of the way, with an odd break to look at the clouds, ilove looking at the clouds when flying. i chat to the guy next to me for a while, he's a vicar off to do some course about the publics perception of the church, which he feels hasn't been that good of late in the states. nice guy.

as i leave the plane a few people ask me how my watch works. so many people have stopped me and asked me what the hell i have on my wrist. lucky i didnt bring lots of dots.

as we come into land at the louis armstrong airport we fly over this bridge that has to be 3 miles long at least. you can see some areas that are unrepaired since katrina. on my ride to the hotel i noticed a few things like telegraph poles that are leaning over, a fair number of homes and places abandoned. you can also tell that around the edges of new orleans can be a little unsavoury, a few dodgy characters.

the hotel is pretty basic, but the beds comfy. there is a bit of wood that sticks out from the bed and i keep banging my leg on it, im going to leave this place with bruises, which is nice... watch some tv, go get myself some kfc lunch followed by a few hours kip.

the contiki tour doesnt start until tomorrow, but i meet up with jordan the tour guide and someone else from the tour.im sharing a room with josh and aussie pe teacher. there are about 40 people who are already on the tour which started in new york, shame cause it would have been nice to be there from the start, everyone already knows each other. there are 9 new recruits though, and they seem a friendly bunch.

they are all aussies. I AM THE ONLY BRIT. there are a couple of new zealanders a south african and 2 irish fellas, but everyone else is an aussie, and half of them are teachers.

we headout to the famous bourbon street tonight to catch some live music and to enjoy a cosiderable amount of booze. its only a short walk but it is alot colder than orlando. we stop for some food on the way at a forrest gump themed restaurant, bubba shrimp's. not the ideal place if you dont like shrimp. everyone gets involved in the whole forrest gump theme. the french quarter is so cool we stop at a couple of bars, they all have live music. no real jazz yet but, nice stuff. i get ID'ed, whahoo. you dont get soft measures with spirits here, i asked for a whiskey and coke and got a plastic cup that held over a pint. full of whiskey and ice. i shall not need too many of these. we stoodup on the balconies where you throw beads down to girls on mardi gras. i can see that would be fun, the streets are great. poor tom gets kicked out 3 times for being under 21.

we go across to another bar across the street, they let you take your drinks from bar to bar, which is nice... i manage to slowly get round the group making myself known, sussing people out. im never going to remember all these names. we stay out drinking and dancing till about 3 in the morning. i showed off a few moves.

managed to grab a taxi with a few others back, just as well as the legs were not in a sober walking mood. i have to be up for 9am for the contiki meeting for the new recruits, then i have the day to do as i please, probably sleep.