It was Wednesday, November 25, 2009. I was waiting on time on the Siemens' parking garage for my three car mates Phillipp, Alvaro and Alex. We were ready to go down to New Orleans for 4 days. You guys in Europe have to know that Thanksgiving is celebrated on every 4th Thursday in November each year. The Friday after is free, so we had a long weekend which we could use for a trip.
During my trip to England for Graduation, a lot of the interns already made plans for Thanksgiving and booked trips, so that especially all the girls had certain plans when I came back. In the end, I went down to New Orleans with 7 guys. Just to give you an idea about the distance between Philly and New Orleans: The trip by car is 1960 km.One way.
We started around 3.30pm from Siemens and after half an hour drive, Alex realised that he forgot his passport which is for most of the nightlcubs the only acceptable way to identify ourselves here in the US. After we picked up the passport, we finally on the tour. The other was about 1,5 hours in front of us but we decided anyway to make our way down there seperately. On the way, we made funny jokes that I am the only girl in the car and that if we or one of the guys during the trip ends up in a critical situation I could help with the charme of a lady. As we wanted to go down straight to New Orleans, we changed drivers every few hours. I was driving from 1.30am in the night until 6.30am in the morning, mainly through Virginia, on the deserted highways in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by woods and no other car in sight in front or behind of us...The guys were sleeping and our GPS was telling me to go ariound 160 miles (approx. 257 km) straight. Funny enough it was me driving, when suddenly out of nothing the partylights of a police car flashed behind me. With one glimpse on my speed display, I already knew why he stopped me... So I had to pull on the side of the highway and wait for him to come to my car. Actually now it was myself I had to get out of the situation. The guys woke up and I told them that we gonna add the costs of a speed ticket (between $100 and $200, depending on the speed) to the cost calcualtion of our trip ;-)
When the officer came to my window, he asked me: "May I ask, young lady, why you are such in a hurry this early morning at 2.30am?" (I thought that was a funny was to get in a speed conversation). I told him from where we came and where we wanted to go. He told me that he catched me with 20 miles (32km/h) more than the limit and asked for my driver's license. When it came to hand him my license, I tried to make an experiment. I asked him in the best way: "Officer, I have a German license and the International license. Do you need to see both or just the international?" (bling, bling. bling...;-) He answered: "Oh you are from Germany? I have been there and worked there for a while. In Hanau. Do you know it?" He got so excited and at that point I knew already that I won and would not get a ticket. In the end I had to promise him to slow down ("the deer here are soo dangerous, you know?!") and he reminded me: "Please remember, this is not the German Autobahn"! Oh, it was soooooooo funny! I loved this officer! The rest of the trip was ok, no incidences at all.
We arrived finally in New Orleans at our hotel at 11 am, so it was a 19,5 hour drive in total.
After checking in and parking the car, we met the other 4 guys who arrived 2 hours earlier for lunch. Full and tired we all decided to have a little nap and relaxing before going out in the evening. Back in our hotel, we slept around 2 hours until Alvaro started to rush around (we 4 shared one room). He had found the swimming pool!!!5 minutes later, we were all splashing around and enjoying ourselves in the pool with view of the skyscrapers of New Orleans.
The other 4 guys got dinner in their hostel, so Phillipp, Alvaro, Alex and me went out for dinner and we ended up with a typical New Orleans dish: Jambalaya. It is a Louisianan Creole dish of Spanish and French influence.
Later on we met the other guys to explore the party scene. New Orleans is famous to be the cradle of Jazz and for its various music styles. The main party street is on Bourbon Street. One bar and club after the other. The have all the doors open, a lot live bands are playing and very interesting in comparision to other states in the US: You can drink on the streets. Because of that all the people hang around in the street and chat. It gives you a real feeling of summer holidays.
In addition, there are no entry fees for entering a bar or a night club, so you can hop from bar to bar. You all can probably imagine that we had a hilarious first night!!!!
The next day started late after sleeping in and a round in the pool. Together with the 'hostel group', we had our breaky around 2.30pm...After that, we were strong enough to discover the city.
This second evening brought a bit of surprise, when we entered Bourbon Street again. Poldi got to know that every 2nd weekend, it is the big party weekend in New Orleans. Everyone from the region is heading down to the City. I tell you: The streets were packed! And furthermore what was a new experience to me: On that night, there were approx. 99% black people around. No white at all. We really felt like the minority. That was an interesting but also weird feeling. It was so interesting to see all the different people and some of them really fit in the stereotype which are promoted from all the Hip Hop and R'n'B clips.
For the next morning, the other group decided to sleep longer because of the long car ride but we left our hotel at 11am, brought our luggage to the car and explored the French Quarter by foot which is also famous for New Orleans.
After 2 hours we were all really hungry but we also used the stroll around the Quarter to walk to one of the famous restaurants for fried chicken in town. Even though I am not a big fan of fried meat, I have to admit that this one was really good. And the portions were huge!!!We could not even finish it, so we had some left-over for the ride.
The weather was really nice, so we explored the French Market after and took a break at the waterfront, looking at the Mississippi steam boats and relaxing. After that we went towards the city center and there was break dance group of 4 black people, entertaining a huge crowd. We watched their artisitics for a while and had a coffee before we actually started our trip home around 6 pm.
This time we took less and shorter breaks so that we only spent 17,5 hours on the return trip. Very tired but full of experiences, we arrived at Malvern before noon. We were so lucky that we didn't have any traffic jam at all, not on our way down, nor on the way back, even though every American warned us that we gonna be stuck in traffic for hours because of the Thanksgiving weekend. You might declare us as crazy, to go down on such a long distance trip for only 4 days but guys, I tell you, such a road trip is so funny and this is such a unique experience, I can recommend to do at least once in a lifetime!
Watch all the pics on my digital photoalbum:
During my trip to England for Graduation, a lot of the interns already made plans for Thanksgiving and booked trips, so that especially all the girls had certain plans when I came back. In the end, I went down to New Orleans with 7 guys. Just to give you an idea about the distance between Philly and New Orleans: The trip by car is 1960 km.One way.
We started around 3.30pm from Siemens and after half an hour drive, Alex realised that he forgot his passport which is for most of the nightlcubs the only acceptable way to identify ourselves here in the US. After we picked up the passport, we finally on the tour. The other was about 1,5 hours in front of us but we decided anyway to make our way down there seperately. On the way, we made funny jokes that I am the only girl in the car and that if we or one of the guys during the trip ends up in a critical situation I could help with the charme of a lady. As we wanted to go down straight to New Orleans, we changed drivers every few hours. I was driving from 1.30am in the night until 6.30am in the morning, mainly through Virginia, on the deserted highways in the middle of nowhere, just surrounded by woods and no other car in sight in front or behind of us...The guys were sleeping and our GPS was telling me to go ariound 160 miles (approx. 257 km) straight. Funny enough it was me driving, when suddenly out of nothing the partylights of a police car flashed behind me. With one glimpse on my speed display, I already knew why he stopped me... So I had to pull on the side of the highway and wait for him to come to my car. Actually now it was myself I had to get out of the situation. The guys woke up and I told them that we gonna add the costs of a speed ticket (between $100 and $200, depending on the speed) to the cost calcualtion of our trip ;-)
When the officer came to my window, he asked me: "May I ask, young lady, why you are such in a hurry this early morning at 2.30am?" (I thought that was a funny was to get in a speed conversation). I told him from where we came and where we wanted to go. He told me that he catched me with 20 miles (32km/h) more than the limit and asked for my driver's license. When it came to hand him my license, I tried to make an experiment. I asked him in the best way: "Officer, I have a German license and the International license. Do you need to see both or just the international?" (bling, bling. bling...;-) He answered: "Oh you are from Germany? I have been there and worked there for a while. In Hanau. Do you know it?" He got so excited and at that point I knew already that I won and would not get a ticket. In the end I had to promise him to slow down ("the deer here are soo dangerous, you know?!") and he reminded me: "Please remember, this is not the German Autobahn"! Oh, it was soooooooo funny! I loved this officer! The rest of the trip was ok, no incidences at all.
We arrived finally in New Orleans at our hotel at 11 am, so it was a 19,5 hour drive in total.
After checking in and parking the car, we met the other 4 guys who arrived 2 hours earlier for lunch. Full and tired we all decided to have a little nap and relaxing before going out in the evening. Back in our hotel, we slept around 2 hours until Alvaro started to rush around (we 4 shared one room). He had found the swimming pool!!!5 minutes later, we were all splashing around and enjoying ourselves in the pool with view of the skyscrapers of New Orleans.
The other 4 guys got dinner in their hostel, so Phillipp, Alvaro, Alex and me went out for dinner and we ended up with a typical New Orleans dish: Jambalaya. It is a Louisianan Creole dish of Spanish and French influence.
Later on we met the other guys to explore the party scene. New Orleans is famous to be the cradle of Jazz and for its various music styles. The main party street is on Bourbon Street. One bar and club after the other. The have all the doors open, a lot live bands are playing and very interesting in comparision to other states in the US: You can drink on the streets. Because of that all the people hang around in the street and chat. It gives you a real feeling of summer holidays.
In addition, there are no entry fees for entering a bar or a night club, so you can hop from bar to bar. You all can probably imagine that we had a hilarious first night!!!!
The next day started late after sleeping in and a round in the pool. Together with the 'hostel group', we had our breaky around 2.30pm...After that, we were strong enough to discover the city.
This second evening brought a bit of surprise, when we entered Bourbon Street again. Poldi got to know that every 2nd weekend, it is the big party weekend in New Orleans. Everyone from the region is heading down to the City. I tell you: The streets were packed! And furthermore what was a new experience to me: On that night, there were approx. 99% black people around. No white at all. We really felt like the minority. That was an interesting but also weird feeling. It was so interesting to see all the different people and some of them really fit in the stereotype which are promoted from all the Hip Hop and R'n'B clips.
For the next morning, the other group decided to sleep longer because of the long car ride but we left our hotel at 11am, brought our luggage to the car and explored the French Quarter by foot which is also famous for New Orleans.
The weather was really nice, so we explored the French Market after and took a break at the waterfront, looking at the Mississippi steam boats and relaxing. After that we went towards the city center and there was break dance group of 4 black people, entertaining a huge crowd. We watched their artisitics for a while and had a coffee before we actually started our trip home around 6 pm.
This time we took less and shorter breaks so that we only spent 17,5 hours on the return trip. Very tired but full of experiences, we arrived at Malvern before noon. We were so lucky that we didn't have any traffic jam at all, not on our way down, nor on the way back, even though every American warned us that we gonna be stuck in traffic for hours because of the Thanksgiving weekend. You might declare us as crazy, to go down on such a long distance trip for only 4 days but guys, I tell you, such a road trip is so funny and this is such a unique experience, I can recommend to do at least once in a lifetime!
Watch all the pics on my digital photoalbum:
