post-Katrina New Orleans

We have spent a day and a half in New Orleans. Overall, I'm not sure what I think of it. Parts of the city are really beautiful. Oddly, the buildings remind me a lot of Antigua, Guatemala (or not so odd, since apparently New Orleans is also Spanish colonial architecture). Bourbon Street is a bit of a drunken mess, but people are so happy that I find it hard to be annoyed. In general, it is quite simply a city in a good mood.

At other moments, though, I found that I failed to be enchanted by it. Sometimes it seems very dirty, and the really popular places are so overrun with tourists that they are no longer pleasant and relaxed, like this area is supposed to be. The food is good (and a very welcome break from the smoked meat we get everywhere else), but it's so heavy that we skipped dinner last night.

So while it's been really fun, I don't really mind that we're leaving today.

A few items of note. It's a little over two years since Hurricane Katrina, and in general you don't see evidence of it at all. Sure, there are some collapsed houses, but not very many, and if you didn't know there was a hurricane, you might think it was something else. There are piles of tourists, especially considering it's off season and the middle of the week. But houses are on sale EVERYWHERE. In the French quarter, near the convention center, in the poorer areas of town and on the outskirts. Nice houses, broken down houses, everything. It's like they finally got their insurance money and have decided it's not worth it to stay.

On a lighter note, we went to a jazz club last night. Unfortunately they had a blues guitar instead of jazz, but it ws still fun.

With love from New Orleans,

Sarah