New Orleans in love - a trip to the Mississippi
No, they did not demolish my house, "says Marcy, peering through the car window at the empty lot, watching movies, cooking and learning for college in her wooden house in the '90s." Okay, "I say cautiously," but your house is gone. "-" Yes, "says Marcy." When the construction workers arrived, I said, Show me how that thing works. And then I sat down on the bulldozer and demolished the house and cried while. I did not want anyone else doing that. "
Because of those stories, I have never returned to New OrleansEver since Hurricane Katrina swept the city into chaos in August 2005. After several fractures had occurred in the dike system, almost 80 percent of the urban area were up to 7.60 meters deep under water. In 1994, I was an exchange student here, Marcy and I were together every day, and it was one of my best years. A year full of music, spicy food, almost unbearable heat, with stimulating people, sleepless nights, cocktails in the French Quarter, on white wooden verandas, under huge oaks with medlar branches hanging to the ground, at night on the dike, overlooking the moonlit sky brown gray river. There seemed to be a little too much of everything in New Orleans: too much heat, too many drinks, too much chili; the parties were a tad too long and the days always too short.
A reunion: Till Raether with his college friend Marcy Nathan in the city, who takes a casual approach every day
In "Coop's Place" at the French Market, there are inexpensive dishes
After a year, I left, breaking ties with Marcy and everyone else. I found them again on Facebook because New Orleans left me alone. That's why she's driving me through the new city, which is like a colorful, carefree version of my memory.
Yes, it is still on house walls to read "plunderers are shot," but the writing fades. Many houses and streets are still destroyed and many people could not return. But those who come back have built their city better than they used to. The gloom lies in the past. The city is less dangerous, it is even more exuberant and confident than before. Districts have reinvented themselves, young families, artists and life artists from all over the US are moving into the city, showing that after a catastrophe everything can get better. Perhaps New Orleans gives hope to those cities that have just been hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, how to emerge stronger from a disaster.
In the past, New Orleans was a city that could scare you. Today she shows you what it feels like to be out of fear. Because you trust yourself and the future. All the people I met here said, "Tell everyone how nice it is here." It sounded like it sounds when you want to give away something good, because it makes you more enjoyable when you share beauty with others.
French Quarter: still the party center
Glitzerstern on the Mississippi: New Orleans and its boulevard Bourbon Street in the French Quarter
The old town is on the one hand tourist trap, on the other hand beautiful: white and pastel-colored two-story houses with courtyards and forged balconies, from which party guests throw a colorful plastic chains. Bourbon Street goes right through. Even during the day, the music from the clubs blows on the street and vice versa from the street musicians in the bars and cafes. So you never know if you would rather be inside or outside. Most clubs require no entry.
Coop's Place. In this restaurant on the edge of the French Quarter, the locals meet, eat salad with grilled shrimp or the delicious red beans with rice, spicy, a good basis for the dark beer from the local Abita brewery. Dishes from 10 euros (1109 Decatur Street, Tel 525 90 53).
Red Fish Grill. A casual seafood restaurant. Delicious crispy is, for example, snapper with onion carbonara, about 15 euros (115 Bourbon St., Tel. 598 12 00, www.redfishgrill.com).
Sylvain. In this new bar you can sit outside in the narrow backyard under colorful fairy lights. Try whiskey-cola (about 5 euros), because the coke is homemade: it tastes of cinnamon, nutmeg and some chocolate (625 Chartres St., Tel. 265 81 23, www.sylvainnola.com).
Two new scene streets: Frenchmen Street and Magazine Street
In the Frenchmen Street, on the eastern edge of the old town, after the hurricane Katrina, the jazz and festive scene has moved. Most clubs can be found near the secluded Washington Square Park, for example the Spotted Cat Music Club (623 Frenchmen Street, program at www.spottedcatmusicclub.com), d.b.a. (618 Frenchmen Street, www.dbabars.com/dbano) or The Three Muses (536 Frenchmen Street, www.thethreemuses.com).
Magazine Street has always been beautiful, but since Katrina, many new fashion and antiques shops have sprung up here. In fact, they can be walked all the way down, from downtown to Uptown, and down to the University District, with frequent detours north to the magnificent Garden District (for example, the ornate Victorian house of Sandra Bullock, Coliseum Street on Fourth Street). You should start with a hearty breakfast Slim Goodies Diner, z. For example, the "Orleans Slammer", a kind of breakfast sandwich with rösti, chili, bacon, eggs and cheddar, about 8 euros (3322 Magazine Street, Tel. 891 34 47). At noon then the old-fashioned French, but brand new corner restaurant CoquetteWhere there is one of the best deals in the city: a three-course lunch menu of local produce for under 20 euros (2800 Magazine Street, tel. 265 04 21, www.coquette-nola.com).
Young cooks and their tasty concept
Stephen Stryjewski creates the new Southern Kitchen in "Cochon", an old warehouse
With body and soul: In the evening in a club
New Orleans has always been famous for its cuisine. The young chefs of the city swear by vegetables, meat and fish directly from the producer. Some restaurants have their own vegetables grown in community gardens just outside the city and even keep their own slaughter cattle. For example:
Cochon. Scenic, laid-back restaurant in an old warehouse in the Warehouse District. Chef Stephen Stryjewski also has a cooking school and a bistro next door, where you can even buy chocolates with fried bacon (main courses from 15 Euro, 930 Tchoupitoulas Street, Tel. 588 21 23, www.cochonrestaurant.com).
Patois. Close to Audubon Park, old school friends have opened this lovely restaurant with internationally inspired but locally rooted cuisine (6078 Laurel Street, tel. 895 94 41, www.patoisnola.com).
High Hat Cafe. At Freret Street in Uptown, formerly deserted and dodgy, a whole restaurant scene has settled down, like this family-friendly restaurant. Try: Catfish, a catfish species, roasted whole, about 11 Euros (4500 Freret Street, Tel. 754 13 36, www.highhatcafe.com).
Lower Ninth Ward: where Brad Pitt does everything right
Anne Parfey in front of her new house in Lower Ninth Ward
If you want to know what happened in New Orleans during and after Katrina, visit the eastern district of Lower Ninth Ward. Here storms and dike breaches destroyed more than 4,000 houses, where mainly poor and older African-Americans lived. Hollywood star Brad Pitt founded after the storm, the organization "Make it right", which has since made incomparable: International architects have built without fee hundreds of different eco-houses in which the old or new residents can move, with financial aid and voice in planning. A visit is a lesson in helpfulness and confidence.
By car, you can hire a guide and donate to rebuild (www.lowernine.org, tel. 344 48 84). Multi-hour bike ride about 42 Euro / P (www.ninthwardrebirtbiketours.com, Tel. 909 99 59).
The Bywater: the neighborhood for hipsters and creatives
Creativity and Confidence: "Euclid Records", a hangout in Bywater not just for vinyl freaks
Amy Knoll and her hipper shop in Bywater
The Bywater used to be a gloomy, repellent and dangerous part of the city center. In the empty, dilapidated houses people are drawn with the desire to make something new from the rundown quarter. One of them is Amy Knoll, who lives in a self-renovated old coach house Bon Castor (3207 Burgundy Street), a shop selling fashion, art and gifts from the neighborhood. "There are few other stores, no supermarkets, no H & M, that's why the people here at Bywater started doing everything themselves," she says. "They grow vegetables themselves, tailor their own clothes and make their own gifts." Amy and her boyfriend were in middle management of the Urban Outfitters furniture and design chain in Chicago when they decided to move to New Orleans a year ago when they were in their late twenties: "We wanted a new perspective and that's where you feel that you need much less than you thought. "
The Bywater district has no strains, no poses, and from Amy's "Bon Castor" you can easily explore the newly awakened area. Directly opposite is the great restaurant Maurepas (3200 Burgundy Street, Tel. 267 00 72, goat meat tacos with coriander paste, about 6 euros!), A few hundred meters around the corner of the pink record shop Euclid RecordsTwo Vinyl Enthusiasts founded (3401 Chartres Street, www.euclidnola.com). In addition, in Elizabeth's Restaurant, there is the fabulous Dream Burger with blue cheese and caramelized bacon, about 10 euros (601 Gaulle St., Tel. 944 92 72, www.elizabethsrestaurantnola.com).
Restaurant classic: food with a lot of spectacle
Fiery bananas for breakfast at "Brennan's" in the French Quarter
The city's classic gastro scene has been in the hands of fewer families for more than 100 years, loves the taste spectacle, serves everything with alcohol and views the restaurant as a stage.
Anyone who cares should stay in the restaurant Arnaud's As a nightcap, the waitress flambles over coffee with orange liqueur, an orange peel spiral sprinkled with cloves and cinnamon and sprinkled with brandy, about 6 euros (813 Bienville Street, French Quarter, tel. 523 54 33 , www.arnaudsrestaurant.com). And the next morning for breakfast "Bananas Foster" at Brennan's (sautéed in butter and flamed with rum bananas with vanilla ice cream, about 8 euros). The joy of enjoyment can be read here on the menu: "Breakfast without wine is like a day without sun" or "Damn all diets!" (417 Royal Street, French Quarter, Tel. 525 97 11, www.brennansneworleans.com).
The chill-out ferry
The easy life: walk along the Mississippi shore
If the city gets too hot and turbulent, you can flee directly from the French Quarter on and across the Mississippi River: the ferry to Algiers on the other side of the river is free for pedestrians, runs every half an hour from six in the morning to midnight fantastic city panorama. And in Algiers behind the dike, even a beach overlooking the city center (ferry departure to Algiers Point on Canal Street Dock, Riverwalk and Aquarium).
Good hotels: if you need to sleep
Southern hospitality at B & B "Hubbard Mansion" in the Garden District
Aalles is easily accessible, for example with the nostalgic streetcars
Jazz Quarters. Beautiful cottages in a courtyard with a 200 year old garden, between French Quarter and Louis Armstrong Park. Brand new, surprisingly quiet and lovingly furnished with antiques. DZ / F from about 100 Euro (1129 St. Philip Street, Tel. 523 13 72, www.jazzquarters.com).
Hubbard Mansion Bed & Breakfast. Don and Rose Hubbard, an elderly African-American couple, have built this magnificent building modeled after a 200-year-old Southern mansion. Warm but not intrusive atmosphere, spectacular breakfast. DZ / F from about 110 Euro (3535 St. Charles Avenue, Tel. 897 35 35, www.hubbardmansion.com).
The Columns. Classic in stunning Southern Villa, is a listed building. Very nice bar. Just like the Hubbard Mansion right on the historic tram line that leads to the French Quarter. Double room from about 80 Euro (3811 St. Charles Avenue, Tel. 899 93 08, www.thecolumns.com).
Balcony Guest House. Affordable and somewhat simpler, but nicely furnished guesthouse in the trendy district of Bywater. Double room from approx. 60 Euro (2483 Royal Street, Tel. 945 44 25, www.balconyguesthouse.com).
New Orleans French Quarter. Artfully designed chain hotel in the middle of the French Quarter, but with a quiet courtyard (outdoor pool), in carefully restored old stable building. Double room from 150 Euro (316 Chartres Street, Tel. 581 12 00, www.wfrenchquarter.com).
That's the sound of the city: music tips for New Orleans and for the home
Musician on his way to a concert in Louis Armstrong Park
Take a break at Diner "Slim Goodies" on Magazine Street
Trombone Shorty. The young jazz and funk trombonist (CD: "For True", Verve / Universal) played as a child in the district of Tremé as a street musician and is currently considered the hottest musician from New Orleans. Now and then you hear him in the legendary music club "Tipitina's" (501 Napoleon Avenue, www.tipitinas.com).
Rebirth Brass Band. Tubas, trumpets, drums, saxophones and trombones: the classic sound of the streets of New Orleans, which reinvents itself time and again. On Tuesday evenings, the legendary band (Rebirth of New Orleans, Basin Street / Sunny Moon) usually plays at the "Maple Leaf Bar" (8316 Oak Street, tel. 866 93 59, www.mapleleafbar.com), at the weekend in Frenchmen Street.
Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns. Blues ballads by Billie Holiday, sung with a melancholy, expressive voice: Meschiya Lake, young, white, totally tattooed and from South Dakota, is in New Orleans because their music is not anywhere else (CD: "Lucky Devil", Continental, eg via iTunes). She appears again and again in the bar "Mimi's" in the district Marigny (2601 Royal Street, Tel. 872 98 68, mimisinthemarigny.net).
Also good to know
The location: in the deep south of the USA on the delta of the Mississippi
Phone. USA 001, New Orleans 504.
Best travel time. Spring or autumn. In summer, the subtropical city is extremely hot and humid (many hotels offer special rates in July). Particularly eventful, but also crowded and expensive, the city is around big festivals: Carnival (peak on Mardi Gras, the day before Ash Wednesday), French Quarter Festival (mid-April) or Jazz Festival (May). Dates: www.neworleanscvb.com.
Getting Around. New Orleans is one of the few US cities that can be reached by bus, tram and walk (day passes for public transport cost three dollars, by bus or streetcar).
Information desk. The German website of the local tourist information: City portal with news, event information, restaurant and shopping tips: www.nola.com.
Read. "City Trip New Orleans": compact, up to date and with city map (travel know-how, 9,80 Euro).
More information can be found here: www.neworleans.de
