Trifter

We are facing year 2000!

A change of a century! Once in a life time!

What is more appropriate than celebrating it in the USA?

But, the beginning of a year in our north part of the globe is connected with winter, and we are coming from a very hot country, not accustomed to drive in winter weather conditions!

Naturally we decide to visit the southern part of the USA, where at that time the weather is like our spring.

I read a lot about the Mardi-Grass, and I decided to celebrate it in the “center” of this event – New Orleans.

Many years ago we decided to avoid huge gatherings and we were due to break this rules, discovering later on, it was a big mistake!

Using the Internet, I found that at the year 2000 the Mardi-Grass should begin at the 5th of Mars.

We decided to arrive to the USA several days before the 5th in order to visit Washington DC.

We booked flying tickets to the USA with Continental Airlines, setting out on the 2nd

of Mars and returning on the 29th of Mars.

Washington DC.

We arrived to Washington DC after a sleepless flight over the Atlantic Ocean, rushed to our booked Super 8 motel, hopping for a new refresh wake up in the morning.

It was our second visit to this charming city. This time our main goal was to visit the new Holocaust Museum.

In the morning I had a new meeting with “Donuts”, the only food there was for breakfast!

Studying the map, we decided that we could walk to the Congress Building. Indeed, it was a nice walk, bright sunny day, only few people on the streets.

We found that we could use the Internet in the Congress Library if we become members of it, so we passed the applying process, and got some American identification cards.

We wrote to our family about our safe arriving.

Our first place to visit was the FBI. We stood in the line with a very nice family from New Hampshire, sharing with them our experiences from visiting their charming state.

What impressed me the most was the collection of weapons they have and the lecture about the methods they use to solve crimes.

Our next place to visit was the Kennedy Centre. Why can’t we have such a place at our home town?

The next morning was dedicated to visit the holocaust Museum.

As being the second generation to parents who were victims of the holocaust, we decided to visit it although we knew it will be a very emotional experience.

The first astonishing impression was the variety of people who came to visit this place.

It seems that suffer is a common feature among mankind and those who know the means of suffer come to share it with others.

The museum is arranged in a way that you cannot avoid any exhibition: you start from the first floor, have to continue to the top and go down to the exit.

Going out of the museum one had only one thought in his mind – not to allow it to happen again!

In the evening we booked a private tour of the city by night.

It was a delightful tour, visiting all the illuminated places of the city.

A very impressing visit was to the memorial wall for the soldiers who died in Vietnam.

On the next morning we flew the rout Washington DC – Huston Texas – New Orleans Louisiana.

On the plain from Huston to New Orleans we caught a glimpse of what is expecting us: drunk and noisy people dressed in funny clothes.

From high above Louisiana seemed to be more water than land.

Now I can understand how the area could be flooded during the Katrina hurricane.

New Orleans.

We planned to stay in New Orleans three nights, using the local public transportation.

We collected our luggage and took a cab to our motel in which we had booked a room.

It was the Travelodge motel on the rout from the airport to the city center, less than 10 miles from the airport

A very huge unpleasant redhead woman welcomed us at the reception. Ahead of us in the line for the reception desk stood a Canadian who was happy to tell us that he visited Israel and was very much impressed from our country and our people!

The redhead lady told us that she upgraded our room, so we cheered up.

I don’t know by what she meant an upgrade room, but it was a standard one and the most common color in the bathroom was rust.

Unwillingly we returned to the reception desk to gather information about how to get to the city center and the schedule of the holiday.

“It will be soon dark” – told us the redhead. “Don’t even dare to show your face after the dark in the city!” – she shouted. “In any case, even in daylight, you’ll pray to God if you’ll return safely back to the motel”. And those were the words of a local citizen.

We learned that there was a bus station right across the motel and that a Mardi-Grass parade would be in the morning after two days, so we decided to dedicate the next day for touring the city.

Reaching the city center by bus, our eyes caught the sign of a public library. After the “lecture” of the redhead woman we decided to write home so they’ll know that at that moment we were still alive!

We have been in a very heavy mood, looking to all sides trying not to be involved in any “misfortune”…

We couldn’t avoid using the city map, but we learnt quickly our way to the French Quarter and put the map back into a pocket. The dominant color around us was black.

Coming near our destination we felt a very strange and a strong smell. “What can it be?” – We thought. Reaching the French Quarter we started to walk in flooded streets with heavy mud! This was left after the previous night celebration, mud mixed with vomit after drinking too many gallons of beers. The beer’s vapors were the horrible smell that covered the streets.

After walking one and a half blocks in that charming French style quarter we rushed to the harbor, to smell the sea!

At the dock welcomed us a nice surprise: a high stage and several jazz bands played on it.

We went on a sail on the Mississippi river. The last station was the New Orleans zoo. It was like in the old days, sailing on a typical Mississippi boat! The zoo was a charming place to visit.

We returned back to the harbor, strolled again on some streets of the French Quarter. They seemed much better: they were clean and one could hardly smell the beer.

So we came to the conclusion that we came too early in the morning to that place.

As we knew we were going to be there on the next day for the parade, we gladly took the bus to our motel, having in mind that a rusty shower is waiting for us…

Next morning we woke up very excited. The big day had arrived! We were about to go to watch a Mardi-Grass Parade, something I saw only in the movies!

According to the schedule we had, the parade should begin at 10 am. Around 9 am we strolled among hundreds of people trying to find a piece of the pavement to stand and watch conveniently the parade. If an eye watched us, it could easily notice that we weren’t familiar with such an event! People brought with them many different kinds of sitting facilities: chairs, ladders, benches etc. One couldn’t imagine the creativity of building special furniture to this event. One family brought with them a ladder, and combined chairs on top of the ladder for all the family members, like a Channukiah!

We could only stand on our feet trying to release the muscles from time to time.

It happened that 10am became 11am, when the first musical band and the first wagon appeared. The people in the wagons were dressed and acted like being a part of a theatre play. What more, they threw kinds of simple pieces of jewelry to the crowd standing along the pavements. It was very funny to watch elder people acting like children and trying to get the attention of the people in the wagons, in order to get jewelry thrown at them. They shouted and jumped and danced in a funny way to get that attention. My wife was lucky and she grabbed a chain with a very big crown with bold letters: Mardi Grass 2000! It still decorates my bed side even nowadays!

After three hours of standing in one place our muscles were so stiff that we couldn’t move a leg! We tried to find a restaurant to eat lunch but couldn’t find anyone open. Only three streets away from the parade we found a place to eat and found out that what cost 10$ the day before, costed that day 25$! We ate something and walked towards the bus station.

We could barely stand on our feet, so we looked for a place to sit. We found a bench not far away from the bus station. Several people sat with us.

Suddenly a young guy approached toward us wanting to make acquaintance. Of course, everybody could recognize us as being not American. We shook hands and in the corner of my eye I noticed that everybody around us disappeared. That made me very cautious! He wanted to know from where we came, so I told him. He mentioned that he was glad to have new friends. Then he began to tell us a story: He came from California to New Orleans to celebrate the Mardi-Grass. He stayed in a kind of a hostel. He hided his money in his shoe… As I heard the word “money”, I didn’t let him finish his speech, grabbed my wife by her hand, told her in Hebrew to walk immediately in front of me toward the bus station, I apologized to the guy that we have a bus to catch, and left him with an open mouth. To our luck the bus arrived at that moment.

We found empty seats at the back and hoped to relax from the last event…

An Afro-American big and fat woman accompanied by a girl aged around ten took places in the row next to us. We noticed something strange about her behavior. “She is drunk” – my wife whispered.

Suddenly she began to scream at someone she called Bobby:

“Why don’t you want to marry me? You promised my father who gave you a lot of money!” The little girl wanted to burry herself! The shouts were unbearable!

“Who is Bobby?” – Someone asked her. She pointed out at a guy, half the size of her!

All the bus began to persuade Bobby to calm her down but he refused.

That was a reason for the woman to shout louder. A big guy with a Texas’s hat told Bobby that he would throw him out of the bus if he didn’t make something to quiet her.

The threat did its goal. Bobby told the woman that when they’ll return home he’ll invite her to dinner. That helped quite for a while. Suddenly she began to scream again and “little” Bobby grabbed her and told her that their bus station is near and they have to go off the bus. Hoof…

After three more station we reached our motel, we ran to our room and started to pack for the day after, knowing that we were about to leave New Orleans with a decision not to visit this place again.

Next morning we took the bus to the airport to the Hertz renting cars site, as we planned to travel in the northern states of the Gulf of Mexico.

But this is for another article.

Now you can understand what SABENA means: Such A Bad Experience Never Again!!!