Shew, been quite a while since our last update…so where were we…

We continued our trek back to the east coast with a mid-south stop in Louisiana in New Orleans. This was another real party city famous for its annual Mardi Gras and live music soul.

We wereinterested to see how the live music would compare with Austin and we found it to be everywhere. The best place to get it, though, and the place recommended by the locals themselves, is Frenchman Street. Grab dinner there to a live band then bar hop while you mix up drinks with lots of live music bars scattered along the street. But for the real party, head to the electric Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is made up of four kinds of bars: music bars, beer bars, dancing bars and "adult" bars - though we wouldn't know about the last one ; )This street lives up to reputation and for a Monday/Tuesday night mid-week stop in the city, we couldn't believe how many people were there and how they were all keen to party. They also close off Bourbon Street at night allowing people to fill the streets as much as the bars and roof-tops that hang over the street. Drinking in the streets, the sounds of live bands escaping the bars onto the streets and plenty of people having a good time was a recipe for fun. And the best part, it doesn't shut down at 2am! This partygoes on till the last people leave.

We had one day to take in the tourist side of New Orleans and managed to see quite a lot as the city is fairly small and easy to get around. We spent a whole day walking and managed to get to everything we wanted to see: a walk through the French Quarter, a walk down the boardwalk along the Mississippi from Riverwalk Marketplace to Jackson Square while watching and listening to the organ player on the Steamboat Natchez sending southern tunes into the open air, and a walk to see the monstrously huge Louisiana Superdome (where they housed people when Katrina hit). We didn't see any signs of the detriment that Katrina caused and the city has definitely recovered and is flourishing.

The last thing you need to experience in New Orleans is the food. They're proud of their unique local style and flavours and they have every right to be…it is delicious. The food is abundant and almost every restaurant has something of local flavor on their menu.

We highly recommend going to New Orleans for a few days to take in all the vibe, atmosphere, music, food and fun that the city has to offer. (We think being there for Mardi Gras would be incredible.)

Trek on…Brett and Darren