New Orleans 2023
Canon T6i + Canon 18-55 mm lens. Adobe Lightroom Classic.
I was in New Orleans, Louisiana from March 5th to 10th, 2023 for about 4 full days and 5 nights. My friends came a day after me and left the day after I left. We rented a condo room from California Building - Urban Apartment Rentals by Hosteeva near the French Quarter. It was honestly such a nice space! I stayed in the living room where there was a couch bed and my friends took the bedroom. Unfortunately, I was not able to take many photos with my camera during this trip, so please go see my personal Instagram @khoalify for more pictures! For recommendations on food and attractions, please refer to my blog below!
3/5: I landed in New Orleans and checked into the condo. I walked around a bit as it got dark and just explored the area around the condo. It was a Sunday and hard to find places still open later at night to eat at. I eventually settled with Curio and had a great crawfish cavatappi pasta. The food here in NOLA is very pricey! After that I made a CVS run to get some bottled water and snacks, since I was told to not drink the tap water here. I was alone tonight and then decided to rewatch an episode of The Originals in the condo because what else would you watch in New Orleans?
3/6: Went out at around noon because I had to get the hot water fixed in the shower. I walked along Bourbon Street during the day and got lunch at Olde NOLA Cookery. Ordered the Taste of New Orleans, which was a seafood gumbo and crawfish étouffée along with red beans and rice and smoked sausage. I eventually made my way to visit the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Going further down, I came across the St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 where Marie Laveau was buried. It was cool to see all of the mausoleums and buildings from outside—I did not go in because you had to get a paid tour. I then headed back to the condo after for a break. Later, my friends arrived and we went out on Bourbon Street at night to look for dinner. We stumbled on Déjà Vu Bar and Grill and had a decently affordable dinner. We ordered fried green beans and onion rings to share, and I had jambalaya. Afterwards, we walked along the street again back to the condo for a chill night in. Of course, we had to watch The Princess and the Frog, which was the second thing I would watch in NOLA.
3/7: We headed out in the morning to explore the French Quarter. Our first stop was the iconic Café du Monde where we tried the beignets and I got an iced café au lait. Definitely worth the hype, they were so good. We walked over to the St. Louis Cathedral and hung out at Jackson Square for a bit before heading over to the Voodoo Museum. It was super interesting to go through and learn more about the history of voodoo in the city and how it ties in with other religions such as Catholicism. We walked past the LaLaurie Mansion after that, which was pretty eerie, and then walked on the famous Frenchmen Street where we stopped by a few shops. We then turned to the French Market which had a lot of cool stuff and ended up back in Jackson Square to rest for a bit. There was a performance in front of the cathedral too. We decided to take a walk along the Mississippi River through Moonwalk Riverfront Park and ended up at a cute dessert shop called Sucré that sold macarons, gelato, and more. I got a sweet strawberry sorbet. Afterwards, we went over to the scenic Louis Armstrong Park, which was humongous and also contained the famous Congo Square. We finally left when the park closed and grabbed dinner at Budsi’s Authentic Thai where I got Pad See Ew with crispy pork and mango and sticky rice. We took a bus back to our condo where we ended the night with a horror movie.
3/8: We started the day by going to the New Orleans Museum of Art. Inside, we grabbed lunch at Café NOMA, where I got a shrimp poké bowl with a basil lemonade. Afterwards, we went to explore the museum, which had three floors with art installations from various regions. Once we had exhausted the exhibitions, we headed outside to the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden where we saw some more cool art. After walking through, we went back to the condo to rest with plans to go out tonight on Bourbon Street. Once we were up and ready, we went to Killer PoBoys for dinner. I ordered a porkbelly poboy with a side of smothered greens. Then we walked to Bourbon Street for the fun part of the night. A lot happened so it is hard to recount all of the bars and clubs we went to but the night consisted of many daiquiri samples, jelly shots, boozy (gummy) bears, beignets at Café Beignet, and some more drinks and dancing. At the end, we scurried to CVS to buy some snacks and supplies and then called it a night.
3/9: Today was my last full day in NOLA. We started the day a bit late after recovering from the night before. We took the St. Charles streetcar to the French Market area and decided to have brunch at Loretta’s Authentic Pralines, where I got a savory crab beignet with a garlic aioli. We visited a small store called C’Mere that sold cute little food jewelry, clothes, and other things and then continued our walk along Frenchmen Street to the river. We went in the Riverwalk Outlets to look around before getting on a cruise across the Mississippi River. The other side was the historic Algiers Point neighborhood of New Orleans with old-style houses. After walking around, we headed back on a boat and walked for a while to the Garden District. There, we went to Boil Seafood House where I had my first seafood boil. I ordered a pound each of crawfish and mussels in a cajun sauce with a side of charbroiled oysters with herb butter and a cheese blend. Dinner was absolutely memorable and we returned back to the condo to rest. I decided to go out to get a gelato drink (kind of like a milkshake) at Amorino Gelato, and went with the white chocolate raspberry flavor. We also stopped by CVS to grab extra snacks and popcorn to end the night with another movie.
