Day 13 - New Orleans

The national tea shortage that plagues America has at least allowed me to reacquaint myself with some of the lesser varieties. I've managed to rediscover the joy of Earl Grey and Assam, and to a lesser extent, Chamomile. Green tea of any description is of course, disgusting. I appreciate that black tea with milk is a peculiarly British habit, and I never expect it to be on tap while travelling. Obviously I packed some emergency rations for when things get desperate, but I've been pleased I've not been forced to self-brew so far.

I went out yesterday looking for the National WWII museum, and found it, but didn't go in. Next door was the Confederate Memorial Museum, so I went there instead. I know really quite a lot about WWII, and without sounding like a dick about it, I'm not sure how much additional info I was going to glean from a Louisiana take on things. So I went and filled up my otherwise poorly educated brain next door.  

The relationship the modern Southern States and its Confederate past seems to be a very complicated. I’m not qualified or entitled to comment much, but it is the difficult blend of pride in their forefathers bravery and determination, versus the cause for which they fought, which through modern eyes looks.... well let’s be kind and say ‘a bit dodgy’ that I think I’ve seen while travelling here.

I'm sure more knowledgable and articulate scholars could give a better explanation, but the Civil War, in these parts at least does appear to leach into many aspects of Southern life, even at a diluted distance of 150 years. Not all of that is good I think, but not all bad either. 

Before I leave, I ought to say that New Orleans has been awesome. I loved seeing cheap and gaudy red neon signs all over the place, you don't see much of that about these days, and the indi art galleries, voodoo stores, liquor stores, sex parlours, and for that matter gift shops, all family run, have reinstated my belief that there remains room in this world for the little guy. It's just that there isn't much of that room left available it seems. 
I'm on the road again shortly, and it is an epic bus ride into Texas. I'll almost certainly not have anything to report on that, so expect the next post to be either very short, or one of those surreal wtf posts. Readers may want to just skip it entirely and check back for what Texas has to offer, we'll see.

So I was going to go here, but it didn't look very historical to me

So I went here instead

And sure enough, there was lots of history inside

And I on the way to an excellent light lunch, I found some very cheery chaps playing some ragtime on the street which made me smile.