Monday, April 24, 2000
No time for a headline...Leaving New Orleans in a few scant minutes. Just a quickie to say I'll be there tomorrow to you Austin folks. Then on to California, possibly stopping over in either Albuquerque (can't freakin' spell it!) or Flagstaff. I'm ready to be home, I guess four weeks of travel and 6 weeks off is enough for me...I'm anxious to start all the projects that have brewed in my head during this glorious break.
What a couple of days. What can I say about drinking and partying and just hanging out with a raucous bunch of hostellers so much I hardly know what day it is? Met two Aussies and a bunch of Kiwis (New Zealanders) this week. This hostel has a great outside courtyard that seems more conducive to meeting other hostellers than any other hostel I've been to thus far. It helps that this is New Orleans, where everyone else is also sleeping all day and hanging out in the Quarter all night.
Last night I ended up with a strapping young Australian lad nearing the end of his around the world jaunt who loves sweet soul music as much as I do. We ended up at the first non-touristy bar I've been to here. The prices were better, the servers more genuine and the jukebox full of great tunes. When it closed at 4, we hopped a few blocks down Decatur to a 24 hour bar to keep us going until he had to leave at 6 am. That's when things got surreal. There was a Canadian singing about everything any of us did in the bar at the time, accompanied by a man in fuzzy bunny ears playing the slide flute (I think that's what it calls, sounds all spooky).
Anyway, the first guy from Oz was the heartbreaker of the New Orleans hostel, but a good person nonetheless who I suspect I'll be keeping in touch with. Any one who likes Al Green and Stevie Wonder as much as I do is worth keeping around, whether I get to be frisky or not is just a passing thing.
The other Australian guy will be reading this Blog and looking for dirt on himself, so there ain't gonna be any, mate. Didn't we have fun, though? Best part was Jim and Patsy from Florida buying our drinks and dinner tonight, saying it was just about love and enjoying the Quarter. Cheers, mate!
Have also met people from the Bay Area, of all places, the Carolinas, Canada ("I told my mom about the alcohol, the drugs and the three women..."), France, Japan and the UK. That's what hostelling's all about, my friends. I really think I've met some people I'll hook up with on my future travels and it reinforces my desire to have more such adventures.
So much more to say, but no more $ bills for the Internet terminal. Heading to Austin next for a day or two and then racing home before my cash is gone, gone, gone. New Orleans alone was worth every single penny, I assure ya.
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