Destination: NOLA (New Orleans LouisianA)

The bridge going to NOLA

Our cute, comfy and cheap hostel

Lunch time/Happy hour

Bourbon Street is alive!

Dressed up people throwing beads from a Bourbon St. balcony

Nadine and I stole a selfie with a highschooler in the marching band

People of Bourbon Street/Mardi Gras (one was in a parade, one wasn't)

Oh the creativity..

The Mississippi river

Sian, Nadine, Flora and I - check our bead count!

Wonderful jazz at Fritzel European Jazz

Tirsdag aften blev det besluttet at jeg skulle en tur til NOLA, og fredag morgen et par timer før solen stod op var vi (Flora, Nadine, Sian, Thomas og jeg) på vej med en fyldt bil på vores 7 timers køretur vestpå :-) 

Det var weekenden før weekenden før Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, som er den 'rigtige' festdag.  

Mardi Gras er den sidste dag før fasten, og hedder derfor "Fat Tuesday", fordi der skulle fyldes godt med kalorier på inden fasten. 

I dag bliver Mardi Gras mest associeret med fest i lange baner, musik, optog, og perlekæder!

En tur til NOLA under Mardi Gras, var den ENE tur som jeg vidste længe før jeg tog herover, at jeg absolut bare skulle opleve! Man kan jo altid flyve til New York, eller Miami, men når man bor blot 7 timer fra New Orleans, og ligefrem kan tage turen på en weekend - så skulle det gøres!

Vi boede på et hyggeligt hostel lidt udenfor centrum. Jeg har aldrig boet på hostel før - tro det eller ej - og havde nok en ide om at man altid endte med at bo med en flok backpackere med sure tær - men det var i stedet en positiv oplevelse, og der var fin morgenmad inkluderet - som først blev pakket væk kl. 11.30 (vigtigt!).

Efter ankomst mødtes vi med fire andre GRSP'ere på en restaurant i Bourbon Street hvor der tilfældigvis var Happy Hour :-) 

Derfra var det parader og perlekæder hele eftermiddagen, og vi sluttede aftenen på en lille jazz klub med noget fremragende musik. 

::::

Tuesday night it was decided that I was going on a trip to NOLA, and Friday morning a couple of hours before sunrise we (Flora, Nadine, Sian, Thomas and I) were on our way with a full car for our 7 hour drive West :-)

It was the weekend before the weekend before Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday, which is the actual holiday. 

Mardi Gras is a celebration of the last day before the fast/lenten season, and this is why it is called "Fat Tuesday" because people needed to stock up on calories before fasting. 

Today, Mardi Gras is probably mostly associated with lots of partying, music, parades and beads!

A trip to NOLA during Mardi Gras was the ONE trip I just knew long before going over here, that I really wanted to experience! You can always fly to New York or Miami, but when you live just 7 hours from New Orleans and you can make it there and back in just a weekend - it had to be done!

We stayed in a really cute hostel about 20 minutes from the French Quarter and Uptown. I have never stayed in a hostel before - believe it or not - and I guess I had an idea that you would always end up staying with some group of backpackers with really smelly feet - but it was actually a really nice experience, and we had a good breakfast included every morning (until 11.30 - awesome!).

After arriving we met with four other GRSPs in a restaurant on Bourbon Street that just happened to have happy hour :-)

From thereon it was all parades and beads all afternoon, and we finished off in a small jazz club with some amazing music.

Elvis has left the building...

Carl Perkins/Gabe Bowling, me, Mr. Sam Phillips/Bryan Langlitz and Elvis Presley/Skye Scott

I tirsdags var jeg endnu en gang i teateret her i Valdosta til endnu et broadway show. 

Showet var Million Dollar Quartet, som er en gengivelse af en aften i december 1956, hvor Elvis' første pladeselskab - Sun Records (mest bestående af én person - Mr. Sam Phillips), fik samlet fire af tidens største musikere: Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins og Jimmy Lee Lewis, til lidt hyggejam, indspilning, og lidt alvorlig snak om fremtiden for musikerne. 

Jeg havde fået en billet i julegave af Jim og Theresa, som jeg så endte med at kunne give videre til en af deres venner, da jeg kunne få en gratis billet igennem skolen sammen med Basak. 

Inden showet havde jeg inviteret på middag, så det var en rigtig aften i teateret :-) 

Showet var fantastisk og der blev spillet (LIVE!) alt fra Blue Suede Shoes, Fever, Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog osv. 

Efter showet blev Basak og jeg naturligvis hængende for at få et billede med de (meget) flotte skuespillere.... :-) 

:::::

Tuesday I was once again in the theater here in Valdosta for one more broadway show.

The show was Million Dollar Quartet, which is a remake of a night in December 1956 where Elvis' very first record label - Sun Records (primarily consisting of one person - Mr. Sam Phillips), managed to get four of the biggest stars of the time together in one room: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jimmy Lee Lewis, for some man-to-man talk, casual jamming, and some serious talk about the future for these musicians. 

I had gotten my ticket as a Christmas present from Jim and Theresa, which I could then give on to one of their friends, since I managed to get free tickets through VSU along with Basak. 

Before the show I had invited Jim and Theresa for dinner, so it was a full night of fun at the theater :-)

The show was amazing and they played (LIVE!) everything from Blue Suede Shows, Fever, Walk the Line, Great Balls of Fire, Hound Dog etc. 

After the show Basak and I of course stayed around to get a picture with the (very) handsome actors.... :-)

26/12-14: So I went to Miami...

Wal-Mart's missing people board - one woman had been missing since 1989!

Literally drenched in paint...

Going through security check before entering the festival

The gang after the first night of LIC festival

Me, Marie Ale & Dani ready for day 2 of LIC

One of the stages - more than 60,000 people!

The hotel room was.. tight..

Næsten inden julen var helt ovre fik jeg pakket tasken og fanget et lift til Miami. 

Vi var to grupper GRSP'ere (i alt 22 personer) som skulle være dernede ovre nytår, og der var allerede nogen som havde sørget for at booke to lejligheder hvor vi alle skulle bo..... 

Troede vi... 

Det viste sig nemlig da vi ankom kl. 7.30 om morgenen, at der ikke var nogen lejligheder til os.. 

Det viste sig at hjemmesiden var blevet "hacket", og en tredjepart havde fået fat i beskeden vedrørende lejligheden, og efterfølgende overbevist dem der bookede om at pengene skulle overføres til ejeren af lejlighederne i UK - og det var naturligvis en røver. 

Vores situation var altså at vi stod 4 personer i Miami, og yderligere 3 som kom senere på dagen (og endnu flere et par dage senere), og vi havde ikke noget sted at bo i den absolut travelste uge hele året.

Det eneste vi rent faktisk vidste med sikkerhed var at kl. 16 startede Life In Color (en musikfestival), og den skulle vi altså til.

Life In Color (LIC) er en elektronisk musikfestival hvor de sprøjter maling udover publikum - det lyder måske ikke specielt interessant, og jeg havde været i tvivl om jeg overhovedet ville med til en festival hvor de udelukkende spiller elektronisk musik - men det var altså MEGA FEDT!

Vi brugte de første par timer af vores morgen i Miami på Starbucks hvor vi fik fortalt alle de andre at der ikke var nogen lejligheder, og i øvrigt forsøge ikke at gå i panik over at være hjemløse i Miami. Da panikken begyndte at indfinde sig en smule tog vi en lille pause for at købe hvidt tøj til festivallen - hvor man jo selvfølgelig skal bære hvidt så man kan se malingen der bliver sprøjtet på dig. 

Vi besluttede senere at det ville være umuligt at finde en lejlighed hvor vi alle kunne være i med så kort varsel, så i stedet bookede vi et hotelværelse til de næste to nætter, så vi i det mindste havde et sted at sove (du kan se hvor tæt vi boede på værelset på sidste billede). 

Da vi endelig havde fundet et sted at bo som vi også kunne betale os fra, skyndte vi os at tage i Wal-Mart for at købe mere hvidt tøj (og øl :-) ) - og her fik jeg taget mit aller første billede på turen af den lidt chokerende "missing" opslagstavle de havde. 

På trods af en kaotisk og skør start på ferien fik vi på en eller anden måde lagt det hele lidt bag os og havde en virkelig god aften :-)

::::

Almost before Christmas was over I got my bags packed and I caught a ride to Miami.

We were two groups of GRSP's (22 people total) who were going to spend new year's eve down there, and someone had already taken care of booking two apartments for us....

Or at least that was what we thought.... 

As it turned out when we arrived around 7.30AM, there were no apartments for us...

We found out that the webpage had been "hacked", and a third party had gained control over our messages regarding the apartment and convinced the people paying that the money had to be transferred to the owner's account in the UK - and that of course turned out to be a scam.. 

So our situation now was that we were 4 people - with 3 more coming later that day (and another bunch in a few days), and we had no place to stay in the without a doubt busiest week of the year. 

The only thing we knew for sure was that at 4PM Life In Color (a music festival) was going to start - and we were going to go!

Life In Color (LIC) is an electronic music festival where they spray paint all over the audience during the concerts - it might not sound very nice, and I was also very much in doubt if I wanted to go to an electronic music only festival - but it was SO AWESOME!

We spent our first couple of hours in Miami at a Starbucks telling the rest of the 18 people that there were no apartments for us, and trying not to panic about being homeless in Miami. When the panic slowly began getting to us we decided to take a break and go out to buy white clothes for the festival where you obviously needed to wear white so you could see all the paint you got on you. 

We later decided that it would be impossible to find a place where all of us could stay with such short notice, so we booked a small hotel room that we could actually afford for the next two nights and that way we at least had a place to sleep (you can see on the last picture how tight it was).

When we finally had the accommodation for the night checked off we rushed to Wal-Mart to buy more white clothes (and beer :-) ) - and this is where I finally had time to take my first picture in Miami of the slightly chocking bulletin board of missing people.

In spite of a chaotic and crazy beginning to our vacation we managed to put it all behind us for a bit and had an amazing night at the festival :-)