"Like a bird, on the wing / I just wanna be free enough to do my thing..."
Another city that was always a definite on my US itinerary was New Orleans. I'd heard so many rave reviews from so many corners over the years that I knew I wanted to experience everything it had to offer for myself. I think it's always hard when you have really high expectations of a place. San Francisco suffered a bit from that for me and while I enjoyed it, it wasn't quite as good as I was expecting. New Orleans was a little bit the same. Great, good, fine; but not magic. Don't get me wrong, I certainly had fun there but it wasn't next level. I found that everything tends to be focused around going out and drinking at night, so there is less to do through the day. Certainly the two and a half days I had there felt like enough for me and I can't think of anything specific I missed out on. The French Quarter is great for a wander, there's some decent shops downtown and the Mississippi bank makes for a really pretty walk. They have a hop on/hop off bus that lets you explore the city and the tour guide I had on mine was great and very knowledgeable. But for me, it wasn't packed with amazing things to do. Again, fun but not amazing. I also really struggled with the food because I'm allergic to prawns/shrimp and they feature so heavily in local specialties like gumbo (clearly this won't be an issue for a lot of people though). I'd like to go back at some point with mates as I think it would be a very different experience and a lot more social. Though I tried, going out alone is tough. Do next time I'm packing friends and maybe then I'll be able to conjure up a bit more of that New Orleans magic. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=73dR2UV1zz4
