Mardi Gras

Oh, Mardi Gras. What a crazy bitch you are. I have mixed feelings about Mardi Gras. On the one hand, I think it's a crazy party and there's nothing else like it in the world... except, maybe, in Brazil. On the OTHER hand, I think Mardi Gras is a little overrated. Take about a week's worth of Halloween celebrations (with the drinking and dressing like an idiot), and add some parades, add some beads... and there you have Mardi Gras. Maybe the difference is I got to celebrate Mardi Gras like a local. Which you would THINK is awesome, but it does come with a few inconveniences. First of all, Mardi Gras is not a few days, or even a week. The Mardi Gras "season" is from January 6th, until the day before lent (mid-February). And during this time, dozens of parties and parades are thrown. So ever since we got here I've been dealing with traffic, closed roads, road blocks, parade routes, crowds, and getting stuck behind floats on the bridge. After three weeks, you can expect that sort of thing to get old.

Mardi Gras really starts to get crazy the final week, or more specifically, the weekend before Fat Tuesday, and then through Fat Tuesday. So four solid days of partying, that makes it. This is when tourists flood the city and you can see the biggest and best parades. So! What did *I* do, you ask? Well, not all that much. I'm not a huge parade person, so I only caught two of the bigger ones.

Bacchus was on the Sunday before Mardi Gras, and was the first parade we saw. It was SUPER, super lame. My first Mardi Gras parade, which we attended because my cousin was visiting and she desperately wanted to see the king of the Bacchus parade (Drew Brees, the quarter back for the Saints). Usually, a parade is one float or marching band right after the other... and I don't know what was going on with Bacchus this year, but they were retardedly off with their timing. We'd see one float, one band, and then nothing for as much as 20 minutes. In an hour, we saw maybe 5 floats. After an hour of that, we just left. It was dumb. D-U-M-B. Dumb.

One of the things I did like about Bacchus

was that it was at night, so, the floats are
lit up.

King Kong. Notice that, instead of people
throwing things into the crowd, everyone
instead throws beads at Kong.

Every king needs a queen.

Look. At all. The garbage. There
are garbage cans along the street,
and they are empty if you can
believe it.



I always laugh at the officer watching the
little car.



This is the float that was carrying Drew
Brees. You can see him on the top, in the
front, wearing gold and a crown. I think
people screamed the most for this one.
(None of the screams/noises are from me,
I always shut my mouth when the camera
is rolling.) Sorry for the bumpiness, I was
trying to catch some beads!



This was actually taken on our way back from
Bourbon Street. We couldn't take the parade
anymore, and when we left and came back
some time later it was still going on.

On Tuesday, we managed to find time to go see the Rex parade before I had to take my cousin back to the airport. Rex is during the day, so the floats aren't lit up and therefore aren't quite as spectacular... but at least the parade had their shit together:

This is a shot of the area and the crowd

before the parade started. We were at the
very end of the route.

Knights? I guess?

This is a photo of Rex (the king) of this
parade. I know what you're thinking. You're
thinking, "Wow. That is an awesome photo."
I know it is.



A military marching band sprinting toward
the finish line (like I said, we were at the
very end of the parade route).



The king approaching.

So after we watched the parade for a little while, my cousin and I hopped back on the ferry to the other side of the river so I could take her back to the airport. After sitting in 2.5 hours of traffic, because they shut the bridge down to let all the floats get across, I had almost had enough of Mardi Gras. But somehow, I found the energy for one more trip over to Bourbon Street.

I have to say that the first trip to Bourbon Street is a bit of a sight. Seeing everyone hanging out in the streets, drinking openly in public, jazz musicians on every corner, people throwing beads at you from the balcony and occasionally asking to see your boobs. It's a site to behold, that is for sure. But it can only be beheld for so long before you're ready to go home. Seriously.

Crowds begging for beads underneath a
balcony. You see? You don't have to take
your top off to get beads.

Well this is what Bourbon Street looks like.
Just a lot of people, half of them in weird
hats, with their arms in the air trying
to catch beads.

So, what about the boobs? Well, most girls
happily keep their clothes on. But during Mardi
Gras there are a decent amount of sluts out
and about, and if you pay enough attention,
you ought to see boobs. This girl could not
keep her shirt on. And when she flashed
the crowd, guys threw beads up at her.

But! The most exciting part of the evening was walking down Bourbon Street and seeing flames on a balcony. People weren't screaming, so, from a distance the fire looked... I don't know. Contained? It was Mardi Gras! It wasn't unreasonable to assume there was some sort of porch bonfire going on, safe or not. So we get closer, and realize that... omfg, a HOUSE is on fire! A house is on fire, the fire is spreading, and the crowd is barely noticing!

After about 20 mins of staring in awe over a building burning to the ground, the fire department finally showed up. In the meantime, people were taking things into their own hands, acting as crowd control and such. I heard that everybody got out of the house and nobody was hurt, and once the fire hose got going they put the fire out no problem. That was a close call. After that frightening display I think Michael and I were both a little shook up and didn't stick around much longer. I had to collect a few beads, but, after that I was ready to go. On the way out of the French Quarter, we passed by this protest of sorts... it made me laugh, and it is definitely my favorite photo of the night:

So we left Bourbon Street, took the ferry back over the river, and were home before midnight. After all, Michael had to work the next morning. Besides, we'd all had enough of Mardi Gras by that point anyway. Even Darwin: