New Orleans Part I The Invitation

Oh, my dear friend, - exclaimed David. - Then you know nothing about New Orleans and its inhabitants. Don t pay much attention to Katrina. The city is completely reconstructed. Well, I ve agreed to visit New Orleans, cause I wanted to make this trip but I was afraid. Meanwhile I began to find the information about New Orleans, what facts of this city I know. I wanted to make my trip exciting and interesting and began to make some programs of my trip. So I began to look trough all the traveling brochures, to search the information in the Internet. But I don’t think that I’ve found something interesting or attracting that I haven’t heard earlier. Moreover, when you’ll decide to go anywhere don’t choose my way of preparation for the trip. You may ask me why? The answer is very simple. When we read some books about countries or cities or when we watch different movies and TV reports we usually draw some pictures of these places in our mind. We begin to imagine something unusual or fantastic. Our minds are full of unnecessary information. But usually it turns so that the reality is quiet different from our imagination. Running a few steps forward I don’t want to say that I was very disappointed from my trip. But the picture in my mind was so colorful that at the collision with the reality I’ve received a big, huge contrast. So my preparations for the trip consisted with the searching and reading the information about New Orleans. I found that in every brochure is written the information that I’ve already knew. New Orleans is the synonym of jazz, blues, carnival Mardi Gras, especial cuisine, Voodoo, and (that thing is very strange) cemeteries. I didn’t know why cemeteries are one of the most popular places in New Orleans, but visiting them were obligatory as visiting the most important sights of the city. And I was very interested in that thing. So I had the opportunity to find out why cemeteries are the main places to visit. Speaking about such great megapolises as New York, Chicago or Washington we have no doubt or any question what to see in these cities. These cities are the centers of culture and other sort of life. Actually why do tourists go to this or that city? They go to see the architecture, to go the museums with the real masterpieces, to watch the fashionable play, to rest into stylish restaurant and so on. So, everything that was said earlier is not about New Orleans. Well, New Orleans is not a part of the general tourists’ idea about traveling. It even is not a part of general representation about big cities with their museums, art galleries etc. New Orleans stands on the 35th place in the American table of ranks, or stood if to take into account consequences of the hurricane. But the glory of this city is bigger than the glory of the Detroit or Houston. So what do people go to New Orleans for? The answer is very simple. They want to walk along the French Quarter, to listen to a very good music, to visit the Voodoo Museum, to go to the St. Louise cemetery, to have a tasty lunch or brunch (when it’s to late for breakfast and too early for lunch), to watch the great New Orleans’ event â€" the Carnival Mardi Gras, to visit the houses with the ghosts. And believe me; I decided to go to New Orleans for the same reasons as many others. I am the man, you see, and no one human thing is alien to me. I wanted to visit the city where the holiday does not end, where the clock stops, where the constant atmosphere of pleasure reigns. Iuri Tarabanov writes about interesting travel experiences. His Discount Travel site is travelime.com