Laissez les bon temps rouler - Cajun for "let the good times roll"
I`m very excited about being here in N`arlins. My drive here from Biloxi, again along the coast road (see pics), had me end up accidentally at a NASA base. Very cool.
Anyway, the city has come a long way since Katrina*, and although there is a still a lot of destruction, a lot is better. In particular the bridges, many of which were close on my trip here last year. However there are still scores of homeless people living under bridges in tents, even on Canal Street.
Right now I am sitting in the back yard of the pictured India House Hostel, a $17-a-night backpacker`s hostel, where one has to pick one`s way over the sleeping bodies in the dormitory. I feel at home here, and did so as soon as I stepped through the door. It has the same communal feel as the Forest Hostel, without the hippies and the dirt, but is it larger and more anonymous, and so a little less friendly.
Later today and tomorrow I will go into the French Quarter, and tomorrow evening will pop across Lake Pontchartrain using the world`s longest bridge (38km long see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Pontchartrain_Causeway) to visit a friend from Mardi Gras last year.
* Amusing story about Katrina. Last night in a bar I was chatting with a girl who was telling me about the area. She: "This place is not what it used to be, a couple of years ago we had a huge hurricane, the worst in years." Daniel: "Wow, worse than Katrina?" She: "Oh yes, much worse; everything was destroyed." Daniel: "What was the name of this hurricane, I have not heard of it?" She: "Katrina." Ummmmmm ok.