Day 31: 5 April - Gay Easter Sunday!

Time again now to check out of my second hostel! This was getting annoying and it was just the worst time for it. Being Easter Sunday every man and their dog was out today and the street cars were packed! It took 3 street cars to refuse to take me and my suitcase before I sucked it up and caught a cab.

Hostel #3 was the India House Hostel. This was an interesting place. First of all, it was huge! The "hostel" was made up of about 5-6 small shotgun houses - these are houses were one room leads into the other, with no hallways. My "dorm room" had 16 beds in it, but there were also about 4 rooms, so there was plenty of space! There was also a great hang out area in the back with a pool.

As soon as I was ready, I was out the door and on the next, very packed, street car into the French Quarter for the Gay Easter Parade. Apparently, after Mardi Gras, this is the next best gay parade that New Orleans has.

Waiting on the corner for the Gay Easter Parade

I got in a little early and settled myself in at the Big Easy Daiquiri bar, right next to where the parade would be. I ended up chatting to a lovely guy from northern Lousiana, in Monroe, named Jared. He was also alone, so we spoke about my trip and life and everything. Nice guy!    

After an amazing, and rather huge, pina colada, the parade was due to start, so I waited on the street. And waited, and waited...We were kept waiting for a while! While standing there, I met Melissa and Phil, and we instantly became friends! We got a beer and chatted and laughed for ages, not even caring about when the bloody parade would come. In that time, it also started pouring down! We didn't care, we were drunk and happy and the parade was starting! As fun as it was, the rain drove away a lot of the parade early, so it wasn't as big as usual, but I did manage to score myself a whole lot of beads!

Melissa, Phil and our takeaway beers\

New Orleans - Party Central!