Day 1 - Nola Livin'

Here I am, at the Philadelphia Airport wearing a t-shirt from Peru. I figured I'd start off my new adventure with a shirt from one of my most recent adventures. 

Here I am right after I touched down in New Orleans!

Right after my arrival to New Orleans, I went to the first hostel I will be staying at called, India House.

(Pictures of the hostel soon to come).

Then I went to a restaurant called "Bayou Beer Garden." They had some great bar food. I got a buffalo chicken wrap and an order of disco fries.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not the biggest fan of fries, nonethless disco fries, but these things were amazing! There were bits of roast beef in the gravy that made the dish. 

Here's a pictures of the beer I had: Abita Strawberry.

Abita is the local beer of New Orleans. There are many different drafts and flavors. Right now, the Strawberry flavor is in season. It was fruity, but not too sweet - making it a wonderful celebratory arrival drink.

After my Strawberry Abita, I tried an Abita Amber - that is the most popular draft. It was tasty, but then it was time to go out and venture a bit around the city.

I wound up wandering in the direction of Frenchmen Street - home to some AMAZING live music.

Here's a picture of some street performers I saw along the way.

I'm not sure if you can tell from that picture, but there is a man laying on a bed of nails, followed by another bed of nails ontop of him, followed by a man on top of that and then topped off with a lady standing on slippers with nails pertruding out of them. 

Yep - that was... interesting.

The rest of my night was spent checking out various different night clubs along Frenchmen Street.

Apple Barrel was an intimate club with a population of primarily older folk. There was a three-piece blues band playing. 

Note: The guy's face in the bottom left hand corner of this shot was unintentional.

Here is the three-piece blues band jamming inside of Apple Barrel.

After the Apple Barrel, I made my way over to another nightclub called, The Spotted Cat. This place was a bit bigger and had a more vibrant, young-adult populated crowd. 

There was a five-piece jazz/blues band playing at The Spotted Cat that consisted of a trombone, saxophone, trumpet, upright bassist and percussionist. They sounded amazing.

Here is the inside of the well-known nightclub, The Spotted Cat. 

Note: The wooden cat in this picture is indeed, spotted.

That about wraps up my first night in the great Creole City. 

WHO DAT?!