Welcome to N'Orle'ns y'all...

Let me just start by saying - THE QUEST FOR THE DEEEELIGHTFUL SOUTHERN ACCENT IS OVER!!! More on that later... ;-)

Well, yesterday i rocked up into New Orleans, Louisiana - the DEEP south!! But before i go into NOLA, let's recap on what's happened previously... damn, i sound like a news journalist!!

Well, Birmingham picked up after i last made a blog! I did the whole Civil Rights thing the next day - wandering around all the sights (incase you didn't know, Birmingham is where a HELL of a lot went down!) Randomly a black dude (called Dread) on a bike pulled over when i was in a park and walked me round the area, letting me know what was significant etc. It was awesome!! In return i fed him some info about England, which he thought sounded like a magical paradise because of no real racial prejudice (i know it exists, but i don't mix with those folks, so to me - there isn't any!).

And i've gotta talk about the food! The South is famous for it's cuisine - and i've had to start wolfing down some - fried chicken for a start... not like our crap... REAL fried chicken - very thin coating and basically a whole goddam chicken is fried!! Unbelievable. And that night i went out for some of 'Birmingham's faaaanest (finest) Ribs' - this was Americana bar to the MAX. I sat down in a place surrounded my number plates, with monster truck driving on the big screen and they serve ONLY ribs - no chips, no nothing - just ribs. And i tell you what - they were AMAZING. Also the BBQ sauce that we have in the UK is NOTHING like American BBQ sauce - we've got it all wrong it seems. I basically ate half a pig for 8 pounds. Awesome value.

Anyway, let's skip forward in time a little - to New Orleans, Louisiana!! Journey here was fine and dandy, though the woman i was sitting next two DID take up both seats, cue me being crushed against the window and (thankfully) the air-con unit!! She was a jolly old soul though, so all was well. I hear in the past few days there was a major incident on the Canadian Greyhound - a man went nuts on it. It's a rogue incident though, so no worries.

Back to New Orleans then... rocked up about 5 yesterday (11pm your time if you're in the UK) at the Lamothe House - and godDAM that's an amazing place to stay - it's like an upscale bordello - like you'd see in a film for a French house for the 'ladies of the night' - it's not a brothel ok, but it looks super fiiine. Huge 4 post beds, a POOL and SPA!! All for 30 pound a night... seriously, this country is CHEAP. Met up with a guy called Dave who's from Georgia (Eastern US) and got invited out on what was to be... a damn awesome night!!

It was a 'white linen' party where basically you had to wear something white - and cruise the art galleries (which had been turned into clubs) - it sounds very uptight and hoity-toity, but it wasn't!! Basically the WHOLE of central NOLA was turned into a party zone - streets shut off and everything!! Dave, myself and his buddy Mike sunk many a beverage and had some Jumbalaya (which is awesome) and cruised around until 3.30am this morning!

And to go back to how i opened this - i've found the perfect southern accent. WOW. Girls from Baton Rouge (south of here in Louisiana) have the PERFECT accent. It sounds like Forrest Gump style southern - lots of drawlin' but in a cute way. Also, the British accent goes MILES down here - hell, it might as well be the second coming of Christ - they're all so overwhelmed that i'm visiting. Amazing ice-breaker. Met LOADS of new folks last night - best night here so far for SURE.

Today i've been wandering NOLA and just visited the cemetary and Voodoo High Priestess (you know i love all the faith stuff - and hadn't encountered Voodoo before, so thought i might as well!) - really philosophical and well thought out. Nice lady, if a little eccentric and laughing WAY too much. But all good.

Here for another day, where i'll hopefully hit the swamps if i can find a place to book a tour! Then off to Memphis Tennessee, my last port of call in the deep south before i head West to Texas (yeeee-hawww) and California (.... they don't have a phrase...)

So i hope all's well in the UK!! I've a TON more stories to tell, but this has taken ages to type haha.

Love y'all

Aaron x