It's a new year which means there must have been a New Years eve and if you know me at all you know I don't mess around with new Years eves. This year New Orleans, 15 hours, no hotel. Many were concerned for my safety, many were concerned for the great city of New Orleans, but in the end it was a wonderful time complete with drinking a little dancing and of course some Mardi Gras beads.
My adventure began on December 31st at 12pm when I left for the airport a little nervous and a lot excited. Upon arrival at the airport we discovered our flight was delayed not one but two hours. We chose to fill our time by eating, wandering around, people watching and purchasing magazines that we were going to have to leave on the plane because we were traveling with no luggage whatsoever.
Here is where I would like to say the flight was uneventful and skip to talking about the actual time spent in New Orleans, however; as we barely made it to New Orleans alive I feel I must briefly mention this flight. The first half of which was very calm the second half of which the pilot chose to fly directly through a massive thunderstorm. With the plane shaking and bouncing all over the place I kept thinking to myself please please just get me to Bourbon Street. Finally we touched ground and there was a large sigh of relief from everyone on board we had made it, thank goodness for small miracles. We rushed out of the airport jumped in our GMC SUV taxi and headed to the French Quarter.
Dinner reservations were first on the agenda at Ralph and Kacoos where we were served by a very nice young girl who couldn't understand why we had come to New Orleans for just 13 hours, "Do you work for the airlines" she asked so perplexed by this notion. "No" we responded, "We just really like to have a good time." This restaurant was complete with a large stuffed tiger, a stuffed Alligator in a bayou scene behind the glass and a drink that was called Hurricane Katrina (no I am not joking actually the name of the drink). At dinner I received a free cup with my drink, and as the waitress wrapped my glass up I discussed this with my friend. I wasn't going to carry this around all night with me, so the logical choice was to hide this glass under the pier on the great Mississippi and retrieve it at the end of the night. Naturally my friend agreed and this is what we did.
Following our cup stashing it was time to hit up Bourbon street. Immediately we armed ourselves with drinks, myself with the Hand Grenade which was made with a secret ingredient. While this made me slightly suspect I figured hey when in New Orleans don't ask questions and proceeded to drink it anyway. Let me tell you this "Hand Grenade" was no joke it took me approximately 5 hours to drink this and was completely buzzed the entire time, secret ingredient I don't know what you are but it is possible it is illegal in many other states. Our time on Bourbon street was spent requesting beads and being booed when we refused to lift our shirts in exchange for beads, dancing, people watching and taking many pictures with random people (in exchange for beads of course).
As midnight grew closer we felt it was time to head to Jackson Square where the ball was being dropped from. There was some sort of dance show on stage involving the "Buzz Dancers" and a man dressed up in a hornets outfit. Not quite sure what that was all about we decided to abandon the stage and find a decent spot to view the fireworks and ball. Midnight got closer and closer and we were waiting for some sort of countdown and for the ball to raise, we kept waiting, and waiting and waiting. All of a sudden the ball started spinning with rockets and a sign lit up 2011, then fireworks began and my friend and I looked at each other confused both with the same thought did we just miss the new year?? That was it no countdown no signing that was it??? We determined we had in fact missed the new year, cheered and figured oh well and continued to watch the fireworks.
Post midnight many interesting things happened on Bourbon street. We danced with a gay man to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance on the street, gave a group of desperate people some gum in which my friend was rewarded with a big kiss from a lovely lady, witnessed multiple people getting kicked off Bourbon street and the balconies coincidentally by the same officer on a horse, and were nearly trampled by 6 police officers on horses riding through the street trying to control the crowd.. Following our near death experience we decided maybe it was time to get off Bourbon street and head to the Casino.
At the casino I had a very interesting experience that I have never had at a casino which was waiting in line to enter for over 30 minutes. Please let me wait in line so I can give you my money this is what I long for!!! Once inside the casino we did minimal gambling, witnessed a man get kicked out and utilized the cleanest bathroom we had seen all night to change contacts and wash up a little, as the Bayou had taken it's toll on us and we were looking a little rough.
In need of a little snack before heading back tot he airport we headed to Arbys which was clearly the hangout fro underage drinkers and cheerleaders from around the world. We witnessed many fights, and many tears shed by various people but it as all worth it for our delicious curly fries. Sufficiently drunk, tummy's full and it nearing dawn we decided it was time to head back to the airport, but not without stopping to retrieve my glass.
Getting a cab was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life multiple biatches kept stealing cabs i had hailed and I told them they were bitches, they didn't care and still got into my cabs. Once we finally got a cab and got in we instantly regretted having gotten this cab. Our driver needed some serious medication for her anxiety levels and clearly had some sort of fear of driving, I would think that cab driving would be the wrong profession for someone of this nature but hey what do I know. She took us to retrieve my cup which was right where we had left it then took us to the airport. She also couldn't understand why we had no luggage or what we were doing going to the airport at 4:30 am. we tried to explain it as best we could but it was clearly lost on her as she continued to ask 3 more times. She also felt a need to describe her driving technique as well as explain why she chose to go the way she did. I'm going to tell you as a frequent cab taker this is SO not necessary just get me where I need to go, and don't talk about it. We somehow managed to get to the airport alive and get to our gate where we promptly passed out on the floor of the airport for 2 hours until it was time for our flight to board.
All in all I would say this New Years rates right up there as one of the best!! Would I do it again?? Absolutely, I learned many lessons from my time in the Bayou including that you really don't need a hotel room to really experience all a city has to offer. So another new years another city down what will next year have to offer, who knows all I can be sure of is there will be drinking, there will be dancing and most likely there will be another adventure, until then I'll just have to do what I do for 2011, as the countdown til next new years continues, 364 days and counting!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment