Day 6 - Maw Nawlins - Part 2

Aaaalrighty, so we survived the day's sightseeing around Chicago with the lads, but more on that later. Let me catch up first.

Friday night in NOLA (na-na-na-na-NOLA) saw us make our way down to the river for our riverboat jazz/dinner cruise. On the way, I got hustled by a guy who claims he was collecting donations for charity. He may well have been, I don't know. I was too busy laughing to care, and gladly parted with a few bucks, just for the laugh. He got me with this line "Hey, I bet I can tell where you got your shoes!".... 2 minutes later... "I don't care where you bought em, you got em on your damn feet!". Yeah, haha, stupid Aussie rube. I'm not going to say how much I got rolled for - it's embarrassing - but it was worth it. Also, please forget I told you this if I ever try to make a bet with you that I can tell you where you got your shoes. It's only fair.

The cruise itself was fine. There weren't too many on board, the drinks were reasonably priced, the food was tasty and the jazz was jazzy. We went down the river, and we came back up the river, and it was all good. There's really not much more to say on that, so... have some photos.

This last image is a photo of a painting I rather craftily snapped. Can someone now go and turn it into a gorgeous oil painting for us? Free?

After the cruise, and with Lisa's blisters giving her a hard time, we hopped on a trolley for the one-stop ride to the casino - Harrah's. We're not massive gamblers, but we like to play the slots now and then, and we like to check out the new machines, so we wandered around the slots for an hour or so, trying a bit here and a bit there, and thoroughly being able to enjoy being able to "smoke while we poke." I'd like to explain what that means but I'm not going to. Figure it out for yourself.

We didn't win any money, but we didn't lose anything significant either so I guess at least we have more for Vegas :) Anyway, onto the most amazing and surreal part of the evening.... FOOTY! A short stroll found us at Ryan's Irish Pub, the self-proclaimed (in writing!) "Best F***ing Irish Pub In The World!" I have to say, I dispute that claim, for a few reasons, including the lack of Irish beers (yes, they had Guinness but so does everyone these days), the absence of pretty much any traditional Irish decoration (a couple of clovers and a most-likely-stolen sign that indicates the distance to Tipperary notwithstanding), and the complete lack of lilting, red-headed, buxom barmaids to name just a few.

Nonetheless, it seemed a pleasant enough place, and Mike the bartender was willing to put the Grand Final (aka "The Granny") on the widescreen for us, so with Guinness in hand, and TV tuned to ESPN Classic, we sat down to... watch an Australian football match, live in an Irish pub in a bar on Decatur Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. 

For nearly 3 hours we sat there, watching the game intently until the final siren, with occasional regular frequent constant interruptions from our new best mate "Mad Max", who once lived in Sydney for a year - illegally - and decided that meant he knew ALL about Aussie Rules and was keen to share his "knowledge" with us. Ok, his name was "Max", but given his professed love for Australia, we're sure he wouldn't mind the appellation. Also, he was most likely at least slightly insane.

I can't even begin to express what a surreal experience that was, and for the game to be as nail-biting as it was, with the result in our team's favour was just... well, what a memory! I'm just glad we didn't mention that the opposing team was generally referred to as "The Saints", or we may have had some opposition from the local New Orleans football supporters.

No, I don't know what that expression means.

 Mike the bartender and his shoulder-pet "Flashy"

We finally got back to the hotel around 3.30am, made a phone call back home to share the victory with the other Cats supporters, and headed for bed, absolutely exhausted but happy.

And again, I'm going to leave this here. Check back for Part 3 day 7 and beyond.... soon.