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An old update from 2008 I found.

Okay, so this completely validates that day of driving that I had yesterday. I had one of the best days in a while today, and given that it is only 9 pm local time, it is far from being over.

Last night I got in to New Orleans and went right to the India House Hostel, probably my second favorite that I have ever stayed at (first was Students Inn in Athens) and then went and got a 12 pack of Miller Lite and Burger King for dinner. I was tired from driving, so I didn’t feel like bar hopping, but I still made some friends here by tossing around some beers as the night went on. We all watched movies late into the night, though I went to sleep around 3 am.

I woke up around 8 am, though I drifted off again until 10. After finally getting out of bed, I hung out in the commons area for a while, watching some Michael Richards movie, then I took a swim. After a shower, I headed into the French Quarter. Not as exciting during the day, though it is still interesting to see. Bars are every 3 steps and about 20 strip clubs line the street, each with a different theme. There are also hotels and the best part, the restaurants. After walking the length of Bourbon, I headed a block north and found the Deja Vu Cafe and applied there. It was pretty much just a small restaurant/bar. Said they’d call me around Thursday or so.

After the Deja Vu, I went a few blocks south to Decatur St, and applied at the Crescent City Brewhouse, a local microbrewery, somewhat like an upscale Founder’s for those of you still in Grand Rapids, and got a job offer right away. I start training on Thursday and it will be a week long. We’ll see how well it is going by the time Grand Valley’s fall semester comes along.

Kind of an odd thing happened while I was applying there. As I was filling out the application, a downpour started pretty much out of nowhere. Then it completely stopped the second that I was leaving the building.

From there, I wandered around the French Quarter for a while, and completely by accident, I stumbled on the restaurant that I had my first Cajun meal in back in 2005. For tradition’s sake, I went in again and sat at the bar. I ordered Jambalaya and although the bartender was fairly inattentive, it was still a good meal.

It was just a couple blocks back from there to Bourbon Street, so I stopped in Tropical Isle and had a “world famous” Hand Grenade (190 proof they say) and was talking to this girl from Alabama the whole time I was there. She told me how much she loved living in Alabama and would never give up living in the south, though she was very quick to dis on Mississippi, which I didn’t mind at all. She was there with her boyfriend/husband who had left her at the bar to go find a corncob pipe. They were staying there for his birthday in a hotel right across the street.

It turns out that she ended up saving my ass when I realized that I had left the clothes that I had bought for my new job in Tropical Isle. Right about the time I was back to the streetcar, I realized it wasn’t with me. So I went back and she still had it there with her.

So after that, I ended up waiting at the streetcar stop for about 20 minutes until one came, and was fairly entertained by 2 14-or-so-year-old kids that kept pointed out every woman that walked by and rating them on a “I’d hit that” or “I wouldn’t hit that” scale.

A couple stops after Bourbon, 2 guys got on carrying travel backpacks, so I figured they were heading to India House. I started talking to them and found out that they were from Germany, and were following pretty much the same route that I had, and had stayed at the same place that I did in St Louis, only they were 1 night behind me.

We all got off on South Lopez to go to the India House and I am still there writing this note and watching CSI. We’ll see what else the night has in store.

Benjamin Williams

Hi all, my name is Ben. I’m a native Michigander with a passion for human culture and new places, and more than that, new experiences. I have degrees in archaeology and writing, pursuing a career in the latter. However, I never quite lost that fascination for archaeological theory. For the past 11 years, I’ve been living and travelling between Asia, Europe, and North America, documenting ancient sites and the peoples who built them, and then adapting them into practical archaeological travel information at PathsUnwritten.com. https://pathsunwritten.com/about-me/

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