Outer Journey
It was a bit chilly and windy this morning here in New Orleans and we had a day full of tours planned from 9am till 5 pm. Me and four other girls decided that we were going to take an uber to the cemetery tour where we were meeting everyone. Our feet and bodies were aching from all of the walking we did the day before. It was nice to take in the sights as we had someone driving us to our destination. On the cemetery tour I was surprised to see how many of the tombs were decaying and crumbling with age. We did see some new tombs being rebuilt and brought back to their original colors. The cemetery had a very unique look and was nothing like I had ever seen before. The tombs were all above ground and many were decaying and weathered. The tombs were mostly white and gray, and some had been weathered down to their bricks. We also saw a lot of newer tombs that belonged to people who were not dead yet but who were preparing to die. Overall, the feeling the cemetery gave off was very interesting and not as creepy as I imagined.
On the cuisine tour It was such a fun experience to try different foods and dishes I normally would not try. The first place we stopped was called Tujagues restaurant I had the most delicious fried green tomato. It was crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside and came with and cocktail sauce for dipping. It was a small corner bar that holds a lot of history and even several ghost stories. This was something I have never had before, and it was so yummy. Another dish that really stuck out to me was the seafood gumbo this is something I have never had before, but it was a very hearty and flavorful dish that had many different types of seafood in it. On the cuisine tours we had the opportunity to see and experience so much history, flavors, and different types of cooking styles here in NOLA.
Below is the link to one of the most famous restaurants we have gotten to visit now. Once for out cuisine tour and once for the ghost tour.
https://tujaguesrestaurant.com/
Inner Journey
Today was a day of tours, tastings, and learning about the city. I took so much away from each and everything we did today. I had several things that I could spend hours writing about, but I think the things I enjoyed the most were the cemetery tour, the cuisine tour, and seeing the architecture in the French quarter, so pretty much the whole day. Before coming to New Orleans, I did not know that their cemeteries placed the deceased body in vaults/tombs that are above the ground. They do this because of the water levels and the flooding would wash the bodies away. Another reason was to help the decomposition of the bodies. The tombs heat up in the sun which cremate the bodies on the inside. I learned that many people were buried in one grave and families will places all of their loved ones together. The cemetery had a very old and run-down look to many of its parts which made the tombs look kind of spooky but also so beautiful. I think that this cemetery tour really got me thinking of how the city views death as more of a celebration of life than a mourning. Our tour guide explained that families that have loved ones in the cemeteries will visit their graves once a year to celebrate and share memories as well as fix up the tombs. We also went to the French Quarter and learned a lot about the architecture and why the houses were built the way they were. Overall, I took so much away from all the tours, but I learned a lot about why certain cultures embrace certain ways of life as well as why things were built or done certain ways.
One of the houses in the French Quarter
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