The Po-Boy!

Well, I arrived in New Orleans yesterday and the first thing that surprised me was that the airport was named after Louis Armstrong (Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport)! I guess it surprised me since Louisiana is an old slave state and I thought maybe they wouldn't name such an important place after a black man. I'm glad they did:) I also like the fact that they name many airports after important people in the States. It's a lot more fun than good old Sturup, Arlanda och Kastrup:(

The weather is fantastic for someone leaving cold Sweden behind! It's 25 C (76 F) and even if it's a bit cloudy I think I need to get some sunblock right away because my skin is NOT used to the sun at all right now! I found a great site for checking the weather in advance: http://www.weather.com/. Since I'm travelling north, I'll need to keep track of the weather. As you know I'll be in Saint Paul in about a month and today they have 0 (zero) C! Quite a difference!

Satchmo po'boy by givemethegun at Flickr
(CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

My first priority was finding good Creole/Cajun food, so after checking in at the hotel, I headed to the French Quarter (an historical neighborhood in New Orleans) for lunch as well as a bit of sight-seeing. To be prepared, I had looked up a few places in advance so I headed to a place called Deja Vu, which was supposed to have good prices and good food. On the menu, I found something called Po-Boys, that I had never heard of.

Po-Boy is like a sandwich, but it's made of special bread (they're very long) and they often contain rost beef or sea food. This was my first, but not last, encounter with a Po-Boy! As I've been to different places here in The Big Easy, I've discovered that they have them everywhere! You can buy them pre-packaged in stores or at cafés, and even in restaurant like I did. Mine was made with cajun-flavoured crawfish. Yummy, and the price was okay, I guess. It was $12.49 (ca. 80 kr) which is kind of what you'd pay at a downtown cafe at home.

Anyway, The French Quarter by day was kind of a disappointment. Everything looked kind of scruffy. I think it'll be different to see it at night though with all the pretty lights:) This is what the street outside Dejavu looked like - not that impressive, right?

Skärmklipp från Google Maps Streetview

My plan was to stay in New Orleans for three days, but when I checked out their official tourism website (I was looking for a "Katrina Tour"), I found a ton of tours I would like to do: Plantation Tours, Swamp tours, Cemetery Tours, French Quarter Tours - and the list goes on! Now, I don't know what to do! I'm thinking about staying an extra day or two, but we'll have to see!

By for now, everybody! Enjoy the snow:)