"I LOVE MY HOMETOWN, NEW ORLEANS! " a New Orleans Travel Page by leo.weeks

New Orleans is the most European city in the U.S. If you are a fan of Venice, including its dirty side, you will love New Orleans. I describe it as the Venice of America. Without the canals of course. The architectural sights, food, museums and wild atmosphere will make you wish you grew up here. When I was riding the St Charles Streetcar to high school everyday I thought to myself, "this is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit". Then I grew up and traveled the world and now understand why everyone who lives in bland humdrum cookie cutter cities like Houston would love to visit. As long as you bring common sense regarding big city ettiquette (crime), and plan what you want to see it can be the most fun you will have in an American city.

Plan every morsal of food during your trip as if it was going to be the best meal experience of your life and it will be. Whether you want to eat at super ritzy expensive places like Brennans, or if you just want to pick up a fresh made Po-boy from Verdi Mart and eat it in Jackson Square, you won't be dissapointed. Here is a quick example, my best freind from NewO flew in from his home in Va for a small reunion with my wife and I and two of our other close frineds from NewO. Since he now regretfully lives away from home he wanted to do all of the tourist type stuff like eat out a lot. We went to Brennans for a late breakfast. Now though my wife grew up in Germany she can be surprisingly picky about food and today was one of those days. She had her heart set on pancakes for breakfast. Well, Brennans has some amazing crepes, but they are really not the same thing as a good old fashioned pancake. Too make a long story a little shorter, she had a fantastic ginormous steak and the waiter instructed my friend on how to make flaming bananas foster, including letting him do the flaming and he almost caught the place on fire! It was a great time and a story we always tell in more detail whenever my wife gets in one of her finiky moods. So like I said, peruse the internet and find all the restaurants that sound good and call them to ask about reservations and dress codes. You may find some places with lazy service, and of course they will blame the hurricane, but don't let that affect your trip. And when you get there turn on the advertisement channel in your room and watch the food adds and you may find something perfect for you. The only bad meal I ever got in the Quarter was at the "crescent city brewhouse", and I actually ate there 3 times over the course of 2 years to see if it had improved and it hasn't, sorry but I cannot recommend it to anyone. I can recommend "Deannies" (the one on Iberville and Dauphine), Louisiana Pizza Kitchen (95 French Market place, www.louisianapizzakitchen.com) Po-Boys fresh made from Verdi Mart or Johnny's (St Loius st) Etc. Too many great places to eat to list here, I will try to go through the pages on this website and rate some of them

I was in the hotel lobby and overheard a couple of tourists ask the concierge how they could get into a local cemetery to see the graves. Well, I was shocked when he gave them directions to walk down Canal St and over into the St Louis Cemetery. I don't know if he just had it out for these people or he was truly ignorant of the high crime areas of the city, but I would never reccomend walking yourself into a cemetery in NewO. I remember in high school hearing a story about a film crew with two police escorts who went into a cemetery to film the graves, so that tourists would stop wandering in and getting stabbed or shot, well the police had their guns taken away from them and all the camera equipment was stolen. They were lucky to get out alive. I blame the tourists a lot for not using common sense, where in the world would you think it is safe to walk through housing projects to get to a tourist attraction. When in New Orleans stick to where all the tourists are. Use organized tours if not in immediate heavy foot traffic area. If you find yourself alone on a street, turn around and rush back to a busy foot traffic street were everyone appears to be tourists. Do not talk to or pull money out in front of the street performers or bums. Ignore the ones who try to stop and ask you what time it is or if you have some spare change, especially at night. If you are driving the same rules apply. If it looks like a bad neighborhood it is. Don't stop for someone standing in the street on MLK blvd. I can't tell you how many people I have seen mugged/stabbed/shot in this area. (my carpool used to travel down MLK to avoid heavy morning traffic on way to school). If you get lost driving and end up near what looks like housing projects don't even stop at red lights if you can help it. Your are way better off getting a ticket than a brick through your window and your purse/wallet stolen. If the worst happensCarry a dummy wallet with $50 in it to give a mugger if it happens, and don't argue with them they will stab or shoot you. So lets summerize, stick to tourist heavy foot traffic areas, avoid the Canal St end of Bourbon street after midnight, USE COMMON SENSE!