My visit to NOLA was really random, although I always wanted to there but never got a chance. One fine day my friend updated his FB status that he is going to Munich for Oktoberfest and after reading that I was dumbstruck for few seconds because that idea never occurred to me, especially when I was traveling like hell. As soon as I got back to my senses I Google Oktoberfest NOT in Houston and closest city that was having Oktoberfest was Austin. This time I asked my friend to accompany me (since he has a car … jk) and to my surprise he agreed, hence we finally chalked out a plan for Oktoberfest. Fortuitously, another friend of ours decided to accompany us, but only on one condition that if we don’t go to Austin, therefore next best place in our mind was NOLA. Long story short, we booked our hostel, rented our car and we were on our way.
Primarily NOLA is famous for its carnival festival Mardi Gras a.k.a. fat Tuesday; literal translation from French. Other than this, it really indulges itself in round the clock nightlife, public partying and vibrant live music scene with wide variety of cuisines reflecting the pinch of French, African and American cultures. As an added feature, NOLA has a lot of historical facts and places to offer but if you are going for a weekend then let’s get real you won’t give a shit … excuse the expression … about anything related to history. Most people come to NOLA to blow their steam, get loose and smashed or in some cases to celebrate bachelor/bachelorette parties. For me it was just another weekend getaway and a chance to see a new place.
We embarked our small road trip on Friday evening and it took us about ~6 hours to cover ~350 miles. By the time we reached NOLA it was 11 30 PM and after having our informative tour of the hostel we decided to go out for few pints of beer. FYI … please don’t ever try Rolling Rock beer as it’s just plain water. After our buzzkill and having savory meat pie, we decided to call it a night and get some rest before THE day. After rolling out of bed in the morning, we went to have some breakfast and luckily we stumbled upon a creole restaurant. I felt full after having a bowl of seafood gumbo but one of my friends had to suffice his appetite with side orders as he’s a vegetarian. Next was Oktoberfest, the prime reason for our trip to NOLA and it was the biggest drag. I mean I have attended much bigger and merrier beer festivals in Houston. In total it had 8-10 stalls with same variety of brewery at every stall. After spending an hour we decided to go for riverwalk which gives a serene view of Mississippi river and docking point for lot of cruise lines.
By the evening we were at French quarters and explored the area around. Architecture is really chic, lot of places to shop or drink or eat. But on my list it was Cafe Du Monde to try Beignets … French donuts. We were lucky enough to get a table within 5 mins. Beignets are light and less sweet as compared to American donuts. To suit my fancy I stumbled upon a niche records store and to my luck they had Greenday and Nirvana vinyl (difficult to find on amazon). Just to give it a try I bought vinyl of American Idiot and owner of that shop was really sweet as she offered to ship vinyl for free if I need any in the future.
For all the party/nightlife freaks, Bourbon Street is the place to be after 9 PM. In order to do so, we went back to our hostel to re-energize our dead cells. Bourbon Street is vivid and vibrant in every way possible. I think it’s 2-3 miles in length with wide variety of pubs & clubs (of any way you can imagine); perfect place for bar hopping. For us, we started our hopping with Hard Rock and ended it with 21st amendment; in total we visited 6 pubs/clubs. Highlights of my trip were having gator dog (alligator hotdog), beignets, American donuts at district grill (best donuts till date) and driving across 24 mile long continuous bridge a.k.a. Lake Pontchartrain causeway.
It is always sagacious to visit these sort of cities with friends … who don’t mind walking.
French Quarters
District grill
Katrina hurricane tribute flags