My trip to the Big Easy
NOLA
I went to NOLA for a few days before the start of the semester.
I really enjoyed myself.
I went alone and found people very friendly and got lots of recommendations on places to eat and places to visit from my Lyft drivers.
Through this trip, I was again reminded of how much I love to travel and how much I enjoy solo vacationing as well.
When my ex cheated on me and his girlfriend reached out to me, after I ended that relationship, I considered—
What would I really miss about that relationship?
It was surprisingly little.
But one of the areas was the travel adventures.
And then I thought, hell! I’m not going to allow it to stop me from doing it on my own.
So I didn’t.
I hope to continue with this theme, extending it to international travel in the next year or so.
But I had a blast on my own. And here are my reflections:
I love being able to not talk. As an extrovert, I love to be around people but it’s nice not to have to talk.
I love being alone because I engage more and chat with Lyft drivers and people waiting for streetcars or around me.
I love that I do what I want. If I’m in the mood to just veg and eat BBQ and watch a movie because I’ve walked 20,000 steps almost daily for a few days, I can.
I love that I sleep alone and no one is not sleeping well and then cranky the next day.
I love that someone else doesn’t spoil my excitement about eating out and something important to me, even if it’s not their thing.
I love people-watching which I do more when alone.
I love it because I walk and I walk a ton. It allows me to see a lot and makes me feel like my calories and desserts are well earned.
It was an interesting experience to go to NOLA sober. After all, Bourbon st never closes and you can get quarts of booze to go. There is a lot of boozey tours and cruises and ads for “big ass bears” and bourbon and drinks with interesting names like ‘spank the monkey’, but overall—
I enjoyed the trip precisely because I was sober.
I realize—I sleep better without alcohol. I remember events clearer. I don’t experience hangxiety the next day. I was thinking about this as I was walking along and listened to the conversation of a group of young people in front of me.
One of them commented, “Alcohol—the best anti-depressant.”
I thought to myself, yeah, I thought that for a long time.
And it is—for the first what? Hour or so? Then you keep drinking, but then you must ‘pay the piper’ as the author of Never Enough reminds us, there is no such thing as a free lunch and then you will experience the drug leaving your system and symptoms that are opposite of the feel good ones.
I enjoyed my trip. I held a baby alligator. I took a jazz cruise on the Mississippi and saw the interactive Monet and toured the WWII museum. I listened to jazz and ate a ton of great food—complete with beignets and a muffelatta and gumbo and a po boy and bbq and fried chicken and cherries jubilee and other yumminess like ice cream and sorbet and fresh fish like blackened red fish.
It was lovely.
I honestly fell in love with the city and thought, I can see myself living here, as I rode along the street cars and didn’t mind the humidity. The architecture of NOLA is lovely and fun to hear the jazz musicians playing in the streets and clubs.
It was a fabulous trip, all alone.
I like my own company more and more and I look forward to more solo ventures in the future.