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because of this thread, i find myself stuck with the idea of mad doc getting here, taking a wrong turn somewhere, and then spending great deals of time trying to get directions from folks with really heavy accents holding shotguns or somesuch

Wasn't Mardi Gras originally some kind of French festival? Has it always been a gay pride parade?

Nah, its getting lost in the 'hood thats the problem. Hate to say it like that, but it's the truth. But as long as you are with someone who knows the area, or can find a cop, you are good.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

FITZZ wrote:

Railguns wrote:Mardi Gras isn't really a day so much as it is a season that ends on a few parades all at once. It would be good get there about 2 days beforehand to take things in and get ready for how crazy Lundi and Mardi Gras get.

This is true,even though Mardi Gras takes place on a tuesday (hence the name Fat Tuesday) the festivites kick of way before then,I remember king cake parties in our home every week for a month prior to Mardi Gras.
For the most part however the "party" starts on the Friday before Mardi Gras Tuesday and goes non stop up until Mardi Gras day,the following day,Ash Wensday for Catholics marks the begining of Lent (a 40 day time of "fasting" before Easter),and the city returns to a more "normal" atmosphere,this time period may be the best for "sight seeing".

Interestingly enough, Mardi Gras is literally French for Fat Tuesday. Good Friday,(the friday before) as the tradition goes, is the first of the 3 days before Christ was resurrected, ending on Easter Sunday, then you get Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) as a huge celebration to get all that entertaining decbauchery and sin out of the way before giving something up for 40 days. Kinda like Oktoberfest and beer drinking. Us wily Catholics always end up finding ways around our own rules

I lived in New Orleans a couple of years and the advice about sticking to main streets is pretty sound.
I worked at night in a hotel on Canal street and helped out more than my share of rape and robbery victims.
A couple of times in the course of my duties as a bellman I found myself having to disarm a gunman at 2am in the deserted lobby and held him wrapped up like a pretzel until the police came to take him away.
Another time I found myself on the street out front of the building fighting a couple of guys that came at me with knives.
Just be careful where you are and don't let yourself be alone with someone you don't know.

Its not all bad down here in the Big Sleasy and if you are traveling through the ghetto just look like you belong there. Oh wait your going to be in a kilt, that increases the difficulty.

Or you can do like I recommend all the out of towners, if you drive into a ghetto, keep driving straight ahead you will usually drive out in a few blocks. Got to love the micro ghettos.

Yeah, New Orleans is technically a grid.


A grid that never makes any sense.