New Orleans, LA
ECLECTIC, ENCHANTING, WILD:
I once had a tour guide tell me, “don’t think of New Orleans as Southern America, think of it as Northern Caribbean.” It is a perspective that has stuck with me during subsequent visits to The Big Easy – but I don’t think it captures the whole picture. The city feels utterly separate from anywhere else I have been, within the United States or otherwise. New Orleans is an amalgamation of every culture to ever reside there, and having only existed for the last few centuries, it is an amalgamation that developed rapidly and is still in flux. I have been to New Orleans a few times, but during my most recent visit this past weekend I found myself mesmerized by mix of cultures, socioeconomics, and personalities.
ECLECTIC:
Just by taking a stroll through the French Quarter you get a sense of the Spanish, French, Haitian, and Anglo-Saxon influences. From Voodoo shops to tiled street placards that came straight from the pottery district of Sevilla, everything you see offers a clear view into history. In his fabulous book, The World that Made New Orleans, Ned Sublette observes “to get around in New Orleans, you drive through history, navigating the dense web of references embedded in the street names. Lasalle, Washington, St. Charles, Frenchmen…the street map is a time capsule.” The food, the music, the architecture, and the attitudes of the citizens all come together to create a place that is unlike Spain, France, Haiti, or the rest of the United States, but maintains elements of all four. I think it can be summed up in what my boyfriend turned and said to me in our Uber to the airport Sunday night: “I can’t believe a place like this even exists.”
ENCHANTING:
I would highly recommend that anyone visiting New Orleans for the first time exit the French Quarter for an afternoon and take the St. Charles Street Car through the lower garden district to Tulane University. Within minutes of leaving the hedonistic mess that is Bourbon Street, you will find yourself enjoying a respite of breeze as the charmingly noisy streetcar makes it’s way past gorgeous mansions and beautiful trees. The city will quiet down around you, and the idea of living in a marshland that is slowly slipping farther and farther below sea level will unexpectedly become irresistible.
WILD:
Our fantastic and enthusiastic Air BnB host sent me a personal guide to his neighborhood before I arrived in NOLA. In it he states, “Call it a problem, call it genius, call it a way of life, but there are no open container laws anywhere.” Above anything else, New Orleans is a party. At times it seems as if the entire city is drunk, half naked, and completely saturated with fantastic music. You get a sense that social acceptability operates on a completely different scale, that is, if the scale exists at all. I don’t know if it’s the heat, the sense of impending danger, or the port-city attitude, but New Orleans dazzling, tempestuous, and unapologetic. All in all, a city you do not want to miss.
THE 3 THINGS YOU WILL NEED WHILE YOU’RE THERE:
New Orleans is a beautiful city, but that doesn’t mean it’s clean. The uneven streets collect rainwater and the gutters collect garbage. Make sure your toes are covered and your soles protected when you choose to step out into this wild and amazing city.
The city of New Orleans is immediately adjacent to a pretty serious swamp. And where there is a swamp, there are bugs. This bug spray will help you ensure that you won’t be bitten, without dousing your skin in stinky chemicals. This herbal concoction is a natural bug repellent that will keep your skin both smelling nice, and bite-free during your visit!
Situated right on the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans is hot and sunny. This sunhat is flexible enough to be rolled in your luggage, while still being lightweight enough to wear all day in that infamous NOLA heat.
