Jay Goes to Nola...

spokenjays
Nov 18, 2014
4 min read

For those who don’t know, NOLA stands for New Orleans, Louisiana…

and New Orleans means that most of the bars are open 24 hours a day. Which also means that if you weren’t aware of that before, and you’re known for not knowing when fun has reached its climax – you are in trouble.

Friday… or was it Saturday EARLY morning?: We arrived in the great city of New Orleans just after 11:30pm, checked into our Hostel and got mildly settled in our room. Now let me back up a second… I did not just spell Hotel wrong. We were spending the weekend in New Orleans at a lovely hostel called India House. If you want cheap room & board, don’t care about amenities too much and like to meet lots of new/exciting/possibly foreign people just over a 2 mile trolley ride from the French Quarter… then this is the place for you (FYI: the trolley rides are $1.50, and run until 11pm).

Our room had just the essentials… a door that locked, electricity, 2 sets of bunks beds, a bathroom, and a space radiator/heater (that a friend later pointed out, would heat the room in roughly 3 days). This space was going to be occupied by yours truly, my beautiful wife and her hetero life-mate (friend of the Jays) Theresa Rose. Plenty of space for us… really cool place too!

After settling in…we decided to see what was still open in the French Quarter. To our surprise – just about everything was still open… and serving. Our first stop was a hidden gem called Pirate’s Alley, a hole with their claim to fame being an authentic Absinthe pour (minus the opium and flames). We quickly learned how much we did not like Absinthe, and deeply regretted every burp for the next hour. So, we left in search of something a little tastier… and Finnegan’s delivered. They have a lovely shot/drink there called “The Breakfast Shot”. Intrigued? It is a shot of Jameson mixed with Dekuyper Buttershots, followed up with a shot of Orange Juice… it tastes like a McGriddle. We had a few of those… a few.

Saturday…ADVENTURE!!: The day started with Latte’s and Beignets at The Café Beignet, followed up by checking out all the cool street performers in the French Quarter. Some of these guys should seriously have contracts or record deals for real… and some should REALLY stop doing drugs. There were musicians, jugglers, a guy in Batman underwear (not sure what his talent was aside from creeping everyone out), painters, craft people and the ever-so-typical palm readers. My personal favorite group was the Slick Skillet Serenaders… some of the coolest music ever! CHECK THEM OUT NOW!

From there, we strolled down Royal Street and on over to Bourbon Street, where we found the mother of all Bloody Mary’s at The Old Absinthe House. A guy we met there said we had to try one, “It’s like drinking a salad”, he said. And they delivered… I hate Bloody Mary’s with an extreme passion, always have. But I wanted more after trying this one… so good. It had everything you could ever want in a Bloody Mary – plus some other stuff (i.e.; pickled green beans, pickled okra and loads of crushed black pepper). If you hate them, try this one = life changed.

Saturday Night… the Adventure Continues:

After a short alcohol inspired lay down, we all got gussied up and headed up to the House Of Blues for the event we actually went to NOLA for… Pepper! If you really loved Sublime in the 90’s, and were left with a hole in your soul after Bradley Knowles died; Pepper will fill that void and then some! I’m almost positive that the extra heavy-handed drinks I was getting from the bartender helped the passage of time from doors-open to bands going on. A band called The Movement opened the show…I am now a fan of theirs. They set the stage perfectly for Pepper. And when Pepper finally went on, I was more than satisfied with their live performance.

Ready for more adventure, and slightly loaded from all the vodka, we hit the streets again. We hooked up with a couple friends who just happened to be in NOLA (you know who you are) and did a little bar hopping - for like 4 hours. I’d tell you more, but I can’t clearly remember where we went… So we hailed a cab and headed back to the hostel, where we mingled in the common room (this is where meeting possibly foreign people comes into play). We sat down and shared Totino’s pizza and Ben & Jerry’s with Jordan from London (great guy), Meghan the narcoleptic from New York/Wyoming (her tummy hurt, so she slept a lot), Fernando from Switzerland (loud and funny) and Jason the Swede (not totally sure he was Swedish, but how cool is it to run into a foreigner with your name?). Then sleep took over…

Sunday…A day to Regret: “Ugh” was the theme when we arose at 9:30am. My arm was asleep, my head was spinning, the heater decided to work just as the cold weather stopped and I’m pretty sure someone broke a sandal falling down the stairs. Packing up the car sucked… I’ll say it. Saying goodbye to the hostel was bitter-sweet. Saying goodbye to NOLA lasted all day.

As we drove out of the Big Easy, we decided to do what any hung over group of adventure seekers about to end a historic road-trip would do… we made a pit-stop at a cool old New Orleans cemetary, then went to Biloxi, MS to gamble away what little money we had left at the Palace Casino! I’ll spare you the sad details of that detour – suffice it to say, we went in with very little and came out with less. It was pretty fun, though.

From there, it was back on the road home. It was a great trip chock full of all kinds of new memories, fun times and places to hit up next time we’re there. The only question I have left is… who wants to join us for our next #HostelSituation?

...and I'll just leave these here...