Hey everyone!

It feels like ages since I've blogged, so I will have to do a quick update of Houston and New Orleans!

It was so nice getting to Houston and staying with Angela and Mick, I have missed home comforts (especially the PG tips)! The house is lovely and I'm jealous of the weather they get! We got to have a BBQ in the back garden, that wouldn't happen at home. Angela and the girls picked me up from the Greyhound, and they have grown so much. I've never heard them be so talkative, since when they are in the UK they are immediately shy.

Angela was good enough to drive me around the next day:) We went to the Houston monument, after a pretty good squash on the car ferry. We went to the top of the monument to get a pretty good view of the whole of Houston, it was stunning.

We next went to the space center, which was so much fun. We got a tram tour to a few of the buildings on the NASA grounds. We saw the mission control center, where they control the recent missions. Although it was a little quiet when we were there since there won't be any missions for a while. There were a couple of guys in the room, behind the glass working on software updates. The guy giving out information had told us to turn the flash off on our cameras, so as not to distract the workers. Some people just didn't get that, and he was getting pretty wound up, although I think some people were doing it on purpose so to wind him up. We went to 2 more stops, one a area where they built mock machines to be used in space, so they can test whether they will work. The second was the Saturn V rocket. The thing was massive, I couldn't get it all on a photo.

Back at the center, we could have a look inside at what a real rocket would look like. We attempted to see a film about the astronauts, but it turned out that it was a different film about some composer who wrote music about the planets. Niether me or Angela knew who they were talking about, so we dodged out. The final thing was called 'Blast off', where you stand right next to a screen of a rocket launch. It was soooo loud. We then went into a different room where some woman gave us some chat about the new missions etc. Glad I got to see the space center anyway.

The 5 of us went for a chinese buffet that night, and I think I ate way too much, yum! We spent the night watching the girls on the Wii playing just dance. They were so cute, although I don't think Charlotte appreciated me taking a picture of them, she drew a 'no camera' sign haha!

Mick drove me to the Greyhound station next morning, bright and early for my trip to New Orleans. It was a relatively short trip to some of the others I've had. Thankfully, my hostel provides a pick up service and came to get me. This station seems to have been in the dodgiest neighbourhood so far. The hostel is run by a husband and wife and they're so good. The hostel isn't in the centre, its about a 5minute streetcar ride to the french quarter, or a 20minute walk. But it seems to be in a nice area.

I was planning on staying in that night and getting some plans on where I'm going to go after Orlando, but I ended up being persuaded to go out. There was about 6 of us and we headed to Bourbon Street in the French quarter, it ended up being a good night so I'm glad I went out:) One of the group is from Mississippi, and he has the most hilarious accent, its the country southern american drawl.

Bourbon street is not what I expected. I don't really know what I thought New Orleans would be like, but it was mental. The street was jam packed, especially with it being a Saturday night. We ended up in this Piano bar, which was so much fun. Its 2 duelling pianos, and the guys are so funny.

I managed to get up next day and do some sightseeing. Walked along Bourbon street in the day (very different, but the smell of the night before is still there), saw the Nachez, we had a walk around the French quarter and saw the cathedral and Jackson square. Of course we saw the infamous statue of a horse (according to some American), it's actually Joan of Arc but there you go. Walked past the Cafe Monde but didn't actually go in.

Four of us from the hostel went for something to eat that night at this restaurant, which apparently is so good you have to queue up outside for. Some couple asked the people in front of us whether the restaurant is good, but the people didn't know, they had just been told to go there. This couple said they always asked people why they were lining up for this retsaurant but noone ever knew, they had just been told to go. Luckily, it was worth the wait. I didn't try the local gumbo though, I chickened out with it having seafood in it.

Next day, me and a guy from my hostel went on a plantation and swamp tour. Our first bus driver was crazy! We were so worried that he was drunk at first, but he told us that some people get drunk to be like that, he was just born that way, hmmm. His laugh was so contagious! He drove us to the plantation, called Laura, which is famous because it was run by women. The history was so interesting, although standing outside in the pouring rain whilst getting bitten by mosquitoes was not so fun! Basically, its named after a woman (the last owner) who never wanted to run it. She was the one who ended up selling it and moving to the north. We drove by a second plantation (the one in the picture above), the grounds are just so beautiful, if only it was my house.

The swamp tour was a little worrying at first because he drove the boat out into this big canal, and I thought for a second that this might be it and we may not see the swamps. Eventually we started driving into the swamps and saw so many alligators. I don't think it was too good for them, but the tour guide was feeding them marshmallows. The alligators loved them, they would swarm around the boat as soon as they saw it. The tour man was mental, he was petting the alligators snout and putting his hand down so the marshmallow went straight into his mouth. I was too busy staring at the alligators, and had the fright of my life when I turned around and the tour guy was holding a baby alligator. he just pulled it out from a box in the boat. He keeps the babies as pets, until they get to a certain size and he releases them into the wild. We all got to hold it, so silky!

It was Martin's birthday (the guy on the tour with me), so we attempted to go out that night. For some reason, four of us left for food at half 7, got caught in the rain and then ended up in Bourbon Street absolutely drench at 8pm. So of course the place was dead. Poor Martin, it wasn't a lively birthday night out like Saturday, but it was still fun! We ended up back at the Piano bar, and Will decided as a joke to request Celine Dion's My heart will go on to see if they would sing it. They did, but they managed to make a joke out of it, was quite funny!

Not done much today, we we just went on the ferry across to Algiers so that we could get a good view of the skyline. I'm leaving at 7 tonight, and got up quite late, so couldn't be bothered doing anything big. Another overnight bus, but at least I'm staying in a nice place in Universal Studios, yay! So excited for Harry Potter land:)

Anyway speak soon, I should probably blog more regularly, or I forget what happened.

Loves xXx