Day 208 - Looks a bit dodgy around here

Panama City to New Orleans

We pushed on for New Orleans and decided to take the scenic route along the coast through Biloxi, which was a nice change from the featureless landscape we drove through yesterday.

As we entered New Orleans and approached the place where we were staying we started wondering what kind of place we'd booked, the intersections all had people sitting with signs asking for money. Just a few blocks from there and at our Airbnb though it was a different story, it looked like a reasonable neighbourhood. The house we are staying in lost its roof in Hurricane Katrina and is still in the process of being renovated, the area is a mix of different styles of old, mainly weatherboard houses.

Our house is called a "shotgun", there is no hallway, each room leads onto the next so you go from the front room, to each bedroom, and then the kitchen out the back. The name apparently arose because you can fire a gun through the front door and it will travel unimpeded out the back.

We left the car and walked into the French Quarter which is the main tourist area, and strolled down the famed Bourbon St. It was only 5pm but already there were plenty of people looking a little the worse for wear with drinks in hand. That's the done thing in Bourbon St - take your drink and walk down the street. There were already some strange sights to be seen, an old man wearing nothing but a tutu, and topless girl with a sign saying "pics for tips".


Napoleon House was recommended to us as a good place to go so we tried a Pimms Cup - not too bad, but not that great either. While we had our drinks we checked out the menu with New Orleans speicialties. Po Boys are a big deal (they're a big deal in some parts of Melbourne too) - but at the end of they day they are just another type of sandwich to us.

We walked across the road to a cajun and creole restaurant and had a great meal with blackened fish, jambalaya and gumbo. We had been told there is no such thing as a vegetarian in New Orleans, as the food is all heavily based on meat - no complaints from us!