New Orleans

Long, long, long, long overdue; but I went to New Orleans.

It was magical. New Orleans is so different from any other part of the US I have been to. I know everyone says this, but I promise that it is true.

There is such a strong french creole culture that comes through in everything; the buildings, the food, the music.

After a 6am flight and some seriously chilly aircon on the plane, we arrived at our little home for the next four days: Madame Isabelle’s. A mix of homey and hostel, modern and old world chic, this was the perfect spot for our base camp.

So obviously the first thing we did was drop our bags and head to Bourbon Street for some boozy slushies.

I do not recommend these. They are so unbelievably sweet and filling that after one you want to chunder – like Lauren, who had a large one, drank the entire thing and then threw up at dinner 2 hours later. To much information?

Okay, I’m just going to get this out of the way: Bourbon Street is the worst. It’s gross. It’s full of creepy drunk men and tacky bars and litter.If you’re looking for a good night out, Frenchman Street is where you want to be.

What Bourbon Street does have however is an abundance of the beautiful NOLA buildings that I fell in love with while I was there.

I pretty much decided on this basis that I need a giant sweeping balcony covered in ferns when I grow up.

We also managed to catch more than a few traditional NOLA wedding marches (the whole wedding party strutts around the block being followed by a jazz band).

So walking and drinking takes it out of you quite a lot. So we headed back to the hostel and napped for way longer than intended before heading out to dinner and finding a midnight art market.

The next day we woke to some beautiful weather and sat on the terrace to have breakfast.

Now there are a lot of things to do in New Orleans, so I’m just going to give you some highlights.

Court of Two Sisters: all you can eat jazz brunch

The Garden District: AHS House

Cafe Du Monde (obviously)

Now we never encountered the queues we heard so much about here. We went twice – both times late at night. It’s open 24/7 so why not go at 2am?

Swamp Tour

We did this one.

Ghost and Voodoo Tour

This was great – especially if you love the more theatrical history of the city.

Fortune Telling

I had my tarot cards read here by a cute little old lady. It was pretty fun if you don’t take it to seriously. I mean she told me I was going to go back to uni which I am NOT for.