First time traveler here. I have never been on a plane before this and I never wanted to be. Living so far from everything, I kind of had no choice.
This trip started with waking up at stupid hours (I'm not a morning person, especially a 4am kind of morning).
Skipping through my nervous moments of getting on a small, old plane, and an hour of waiting, I find myself in the window seat by the wing. How nice.
The first feeling of the plane vibrating, wobbling side to side already had my heart pumping fast.
On the runway, I never expected how fast the speed picks up and pulls you into the chair. My heart racing more and then drops into my stomach as the wheels no longer touches the ground and we are taken to the sky.
The sound of the propellers is numbing. The random drops and turbulence is terrifying. But the view is stunning.
Montreal! Back to the city of once lived. Totally not missing it.
The landing was smooth and barely felt when the tires made contact. Good.
I half expected having to run through the airport in between flights but on the way there we had to wait a few hours.
On to the next flight to Toronto. Small plane but is an upgrade from that morning.
Toronto brought us straight to New Orleans. Few hours flying above the clouds, seemed like a breeze now, it didn't bother me so much.
With a rough, hard impact, bouncy landing, we arrived in New Orleans in good timing. Thankfully as we didn't waste any time. We had booked a tour the same night.
We checked into our hotel, dropped our things off in our room and noticed we were not that far from the Hard Rock Hotel that collapsed a week ago.
I got closer pictures of this but will share later on.
Moving on, we quickly ate somewhere, can't remember, and left for our first tour, Haunted Tour. An informative tour around the French quarter that brought us to the many houses and buildings that claimed to have been haunted or where some really bad things happened.
The tour guide talked about fires, nuns and vampires. Yes the last two in the same sentence. The Ursuline nuns, big history on that. I don't want to talk too much about it all because then you won't need to go. But I do want to talk about one that marked me quite a bit.
This gruesome building has quite some tales to be told. Back in the 1800's when slavery was a normal thing. There were slaves called skilled labour, the ones that were old enough to work. And then there's the unskilled labour, the children that were deemed useless, unable to work. The unskilled were put into this very building, with very small windows so they can't escape, and were not fed nor cared for. So they were here to rot.
This building, a short distance from the other above was used for the same reasons.
This house was once owned by Delphine Macarty Lalaurie. Cathy Bates ring the bell? (Bad representation of Madame Lalaurie so I've heard).
Madame Lalaurie has been knowm for torturing her numerous slaves, murdering them in the torture room aka her basement. Some were found in the attic, limbs cut off, mouths sewed shut and more. Bottles and glasses were found filled with blood, scissors and other instruments were stained as well.
Yes, this is also the very same house Nicholas Cage owned. He no longer owns the place as he apparently couldn't keep up with the costs of maintaining it.
These houses are not a few hundred thousand dollars, more like in the millions. What's more, they have to stay the same. Yeah a fresh coat of paint, but has to be kept original when it comes to renovations. Even the iron railings have to stay. Imagine living in a house built in the 1800's!!!
Cage purchased this house for approx 3.5 million USD. Rumours say that his wife experienced strange things happening as have others who owned it previously and had asked to leave.
We walked passed many houses and many stories and legends were told.
I must say this first tour has been an impressive one to start off this great adventure. I recommend taking one of these tours to get to know the history in deeper, darker way.
You'll hear about the fires, the floods, the forced Catholicism and how it destroyed many. And the couple that loved each other so much, a tale that gives a Romeo and Juliet feel to it and rumour has it that people can see sightings of the two embracing from time to time.
I really wish to tell you more about the stories I've heard being just on this one tour. If you have any questions I can try to answer them, although I really suggest you wait to see for yourself if you ever plan on visiting New Orleans.
I will try to write out a post tomorrow for what happened on day 2 and talk a bit about bourbon street!!! 😃
I am still feeling excited about everything that has happened and even though I have returned last night, I want to go back asap. There's still so much to do there.
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Loving it so far @foxyspirit
What happened with the Hard rock? Can't wait for the rest of the trip.
Gaz
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The hotel collapsed from the top as it was too weak to hold up the weight. Bad calculations. Lots of people injured and 2-3 people died. They didn't do anything for a while as they searched for one person that was missing.
Yesterday they put explosives in the cranes to blow them up. I'm guessing it's to have a calculated fall rather than collapsing on other buildings.
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@tipu curate
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I have to ask, it's a bit confusing. I usually see people just write tip and a tip is sent. Did things change with tipu?
Also thank you!!!!
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They have started a manual curation thingy now... so you nominate someone to be a curator and then as a curator you can "summon" tipu to a particular post for them to curate it. You can find more detail on their page posts :)
Although I see my summon didn't work so maybe I was out of credits for the day...
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Cool! Good for them for doing that.
And that's ok. Happy to see you on my post.
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Wow what an amazing first day! 3 flights and a guided tour through some of the dark side of New Orleans. Those are some horrific events that you describe there and no wonder the ghosts are still around to remind of past atrocities.
Looking forward to reading more of your travels now!
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Let me collect my memories just a little bit more before getting to the next one. I'm going to have to call up Mandy to chat about our adventures just to make sure I don't leave anything out!
I got more on the ghost stories to come and some other funny parts. Hang tight and keep an eye out for the next one's to come 😊
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I had to change an image, I put the wrong one for madame Lalaurie. All fixed now.
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Woooooow 😮😮😮
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Awesome write up! Vampire nuns! Now that sounds like a comic book waiting to happen. Hope you have a great time!!
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Great times and great memories.
You know that could be a comic book and or movie. Surprised it hasn't happened yet! Any vampire thing should be taken advantage of for the people!
Thank you for coming by. I appreciate it 😉
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I am not a morning person either but it’s 4.33 and I have to catch the plane here in Amsterdam in 3 hours. Loved your travel blog.
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Oh yuck not another 430. Those are inhumane hours lol.
Thank you and thank you fro coming by. Safe travels to you
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You are brave. These kinds of places give me nightmares for a few days. I wish you good sleep ;)
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There's one place that spooked me, I'll be writing about it in the near future. The rest was good. It's a kind city from what I've seen actually. It's a good place to visit.
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New Orleans has a spookiness factor, no doubt. I wonder if Halloween being so close had something to do with when you decided to make your trip there? It's a great write-up on visiting there for the first time as well as taking your first flight!
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We did want to be there as close as we could for Halloween but with having kids wanting to trick or treat, well, I have to be home for that. Also we planned the trip from be as far away from hurricane season. Don't want any of that to happen during our trip.
Many things happen in NOLA around Halloween time so we wanted to take that chance to see the extra bits they offered.
Thank you. Take care
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Good thinking! The hurricane season is wrapping up now (knock on wood) and I'm sure the partying for the Halloween season is probably getting into full swing there already, and you caught a part of it. Glad you had a great time!
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It was good weather although it rained some but it wasn't horrible rain. The humidity though! I will be talking about that at a later time including a shot of my wild hair that does not agree with it lol.
It was a really great time and I can't wait to go back.
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A few really cool things to do if you have time:
Museum of Death
St Louis Cemetery (free)
Ruby Slipper (amazing place for brunch)
All in all it's just an awesome historic city, you really can't go wrong. Hope you have fun and get to try some poboys, jambalaya and gumbo :)
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Awesome is an understatement! I walked by the museum of death and it looks pretty fantastic! It is one of many things that I didn't have the chance to get to. I have returned from new Orleans but I will definitely have to plan to go back for the many other things I wanted to do.
The Ruby Slipper and area has been closed off because of the hard Rock hotel. They widdened the evacuation are by 3 blocks on the 3rd day I was there 😔
I went to the amazing St Louis cemetery. Omg I want to just hang out there without a tour guide! Be able to connect and listen to what lies there. 6 days was definitely not enough time to visit the city.
I didn't have any poboys but definitely the gumbo and jambalaya. They have so much flavor!!!!! Yuuuum oh and the red beans and rice 🤤
Thanks for dropping by.
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Wow! Your first experience of flying! I am always impressed by it. Most people take it for granted now. I love sitting by the wing on smaller planes because you can see the wheels go up and come down for take off and landing.
I've never been to New Orleans it is somewhere I'd like to see
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It is impressive. But on small planes I've noticed, you feel everything a lot more. Like the drops. Makes my heart jump lol.
I don't think I can take it for granted. There's so much that could happen. I am grateful that nothing went wrong.
I hope you get to go one day. It's a great place to be.
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Haunted tour seems so cool, I wish I could visit New Orleans one day ❤️
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Definitely worth going. I hope you get to one day. I have been very fortunate to be able to go.
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@foxyspirit
You don't do things in half measures, do you? LOL. From never flying to doing six flights in your first trip! I did have to laugh when I saw your first tour was the "Haunted Tour". Fascinating and haunting. I have always wanted to go to New Orleans - for the jazz (and the food) - and tend to forget that there is so much more to it. The buildings where slaves were kept - South Africa also has slave stories, and like New Orleans, some of the older folk have memories of parents who were slaves. As for Delphine Macarty Lalaurie - I hadn't hear of her. Spine-chilling.
Look forward to your next installment!
Fiona
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Ya it was cheaper to fly that way. That flight feeling will never get old.
There is so much to NOLA it's unreal. I may have covered 75% of it. I think. I could be wrong. The haunts are a normal thing there but that comes to no surprise with everything that happened.
The slaves that were here did come from Africa and also Haiti. So there are definitely some ties happening there.
Its how the voodoo religion came to be in NOLA. More to come on that later 😁
Thank you for taking the time to read! Much appreciated.
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South Africa's slaves came from Malaysia - they were religious and political prisoners. Some were also local indigenous people. There were slave ships that sailed around Cape Town - the Alabama is an infamous one - immortalised in a song - on the way to America. Another connection.
Haiti - Voodoo and some of the festivals, right?
Happy Monday :D
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That's crazy!
It's a gloomy time for sure.
I never heard of that song but I should look into it.
I missed the festival's unfortunately. We left too soon. 😔
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I will look it up and share it with you. If I forget - likely with everything that's going on - remind me?
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So I was wrong and I was right. The Alabama was a confederate raider and not a slave ship. Here's a link with more information
https://www.ancestors.co.za/daar-kom-die-alabama/
And the song I mentioned.
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I love photos in the sky. And on the first it seems as if it is space)))
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It does give that feeling especially with the old plane lol.
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Thank you for your support! ❤️
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Thank you for using TravelFeed.io
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New Orleans is a fun place to visit, and eat! Glad you are having a good trip.
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Most definitely! I want to go again 😁
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Just reading your post makes me excited. New Orleans is rich with these scary stories which is very interesting. I'd like to see more of your travel. Also a peek into New Orleans cuisine would be great.
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The cuisine and stories will come up within the next few days. From what I've had, the food is delicious!
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So now you have been good and solidly baptized into flying my friend. New Orleans certainly seems like the place to be. Maybe one day for me and glad to see that you are enjoying the trip.
Blessings!
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