Casual observations from my recent trip

[jaunthie]

My job sent me to New Orleans last week. I've never been there before, but I'd heard a lot about it from fisherbear, who grew up near that part of the country. Of course his memories are all pre-Katrina, as were those of everyone else I talked to about the city before I went. The general consensus was that New Orleans a) has fabulous food everywhere b) lots of great live music c) is hot and muggy in the summer months but air-conditioned within an inch of its life and d) probably not somewhere that you want to wander too far off the beaten track in unless you know what you're doing, as crime is a problem.

So how did New Orleans stack up against what I'd heard?



A) The Food: Oh wow. First and foremost, let's get this out of the way: NOT HEALTHY food, and gods help you if you're a vegetarian, as there sure weren't many options available that I saw. But oh, my, was there a lot of tasty, tasty food. Conference food aside (and even the conference food was far above the usual standard), I did not have a single bad meal in New Orleans. The seafood has definitely taken a hit due to the ongoing crisis in the gulf, naturally - oysters were "day to day" available, and a lot of the "local seasonal" focused on inland water and farm fisheries like crawfish and catfish - but every bit of seafood I did have was fresh and well-prepared. Seasonings - nothing bland about the food, that's for sure, but nothing overseasoned, either. Light on vegetables, and far too heavy on the butter/cream/fried, but it's true - you can just follow your nose and the tasty smells and wind up with an excellent, if nutritionally unbalanced, meal. It isn't the cheapest city to eat in, particularly when you're restricted to the more touristy areas (my work had me bouncing between the convention center area and the French Quarter), but you'll bring away the memory (and the poundage) of some truly yummy meals.

A side note: judging from what I saw, labor (people power) must be relatively inexpensive in New Orleans.

B) The Music: I suspect this has taken a hit since Katrina. There was a fair bit of live music, yes, even if you weren't looking for it. Some of it was blues and bluegrassy and zydecoish, more of it was bad rock cover bands. None of it was all that high-quality, but I wasn't on a music discovery mission, so maybe I just missed the good stuff. A lot of commercialization and homogenization of the music scene, though; there's a House of Blues and a Hard Rock Cafe and the like. Not so many places for up-and-coming acts to work out their kinks, at least not that I saw. But again, my exposure was limited. I will say that the worst music I heard, by far, was on Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street on a weeknight - possibly one of the most joyless places I've ever been. Yuck-o.

C) The Weather: In the 90's with over 90 percent humidity. Gah. Apparently it was unusually warm for this time of year, enough so that even the locals were complaining. The city is surprisingly walkable, as long as you don't mind melting into a sweaty puddle. Indoors - the air conditioning tended towards "artic blast" to the point where you would get random cool pockets on the sidewalks outside of buildings. I think I actually spent more time "too cold" in New Orleans than "too hot," but that might have been because the locals were thrown by the unusually warm weather, too. And yes, when it rains there, it pours buckets.

D) The Beaten Track: I wound up walking around quite a bit, both between my hotel and the convention center (a little over half a mile), around the French Quarter, and various points in between. There's urban decay, something you would expect in a city that's as old as it is and has been hit as hard as it has in recent years. But I didn't feel unsafe. Not that I was wandering into any dark alleys, of course. Bourbon Street itself was a blazing-neon, jam-packed-full-of-wandering-tourists, over-loud slice of hell, filled with hustlers and tourists getting oversized alcoholic drinks and gawking at the display of tawdryness, and absolutely no one having fun (even those being "wicked" looked like they were only doing so because it was expected). But all you had to do was go one block over in either direction, and things changed into relative peacefulness and grace of old buildings, hodgepodges of shops and restaurants, and a self-amused awareness of how ridiculous the Bourbon Street spectacle was. The architecture in the French Quarter really is gorgeous, and the cathedral is lovely. Cafe du Monde was about what you would expect from a 24-hour, open-air institution of powdered sugar, fried dough, and caffeinated beverages. And the Mississippi...even walled in and measured and trammelled within an inch of its life, it's always there, always rolling on.


All in all, I liked the city very much. The people were friendly, there was tons more to see and experience than I had time to investigate, and (Bourbon Street aside) there's a grace and an atmosphere that you don't get in younger cities, one that I enjoy a lot. I don't much care for the weather, but even that wasn't so bad compared to some other places I've been with similar weather (like Washington DC). The pace is slower, the buildings are built with that muggy heat in mind, and you cope.

I'd like to go back someday, when it's not just about work.

Comments

[sunkrux.livejournal.com]

Being in the South during Late Spring or Summer, is like being wrapped up in a hot, wet wool blanket. Yuck.

Sounds like you had a nice time. :D Yay. Bummer you were there due to work though.

[monkeybard]

Mayhaps we need to plan a joint vacation. I'd love to see New Orleans again.