From Tarot Card Readings to Pizza

Today we were able to explore the city completely on our own. I decided to do a few things that I wanted to do, but then I also wanted to relax for a part of the day. Karissa, Edi, and I departed from the hotel around 11:30 in the morning for the streetcar station. We took the streetcar to Toulouse Street, and we made our way to Jackson Square. We stopped at the first tarot card and palm reader we saw, and yes there were multiple readers there with tables set up despite the cold weather. She was an older woman with several teeth missing from her bottom row. On her table sat a fake skull, a pillar stand for a candle, tarot cards, three rocks with crystals inside them, and a pack of cigarettes. I pulled up a blue lawn chair that was missing an arm on my left side and watched as my two friends got their tarot cards read. I noticed that the woman would not make much eye contact with them, and her nose was running from the cold. When it was my turn to have my tarot cards read I moved to the chair in front of the woman. I was told to shuffle the cards and then hand them back to her. She split the deck into three piles, and she proceeded to read my cards one by one. According to her reading, in the next six months I am going to be betrayed by someone, but it is not going to be a friend or a family member. Although, the betrayer will fail because everything else in my life is seemingly perfect according to the cards.

My Tarot cards

The next destination for our group was a restaurant called Mother's. When we first arrived in New Orleans we asked our Uber driver where the best place to get "homemade southern cookin'" was, and he told us we had to go to Mother's. When we arrived it was packed with people. We stood in line to order our food and pay. We were given our receipts and went to find a table. There were three large rooms, and nearly every table was taken. Once we found a table in the back corner of the restaurant, a very kind man came up to us and took our receipts. It was a very different process of getting food than what I am used to. The food was absolutely amazing. I ordered red beans and rice with ham, green beans with tomatoes, and potato salad. It sounds like it would be a fairly bland meal, but it was full of flavor. It was the ultimate comfort food.

My meal from Mother's.

Next, Karissa and I went to the Museum of Death. Now, I am trying to think of a way to explain this museum without sounding like someone who is completely insane. Basically, the Museum of Death is everything to do with death. It was morbid, but fascinating. The biggest exhibit they had had to do with serial killers, such as Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, etc. They even had an original piece of art by John Wayne Gacy as Pogo the clown. Unfortunately I was unable to take pictures of the inside of the museum.
After the Museum of Death, we made our way to Royal Street. This was my favorite part of the day because of the beautiful artwork we saw in the galleries. It was freezing on the street, but the galleries were nice and warm. I will save my favorite artists and artwork for my future art post. Seeing original paintings up close was interesting because I could really see the brush strokes and style of the artist. Also, I noticed beautiful buildings with galleries on Royal Street that I had to photograph.

Building on Royal Street

One of the more interesting paintings I saw in a gallery on Royal Street

After Royal Street we started to make our way back to the streetcar station to head back to the hotel. On the way I made an impromptu stop in The Fudgery. I could smell the fudge from all the way down the street and it pulled me into the store. I ordered a cookies and cream milkshake, despite the cold temperate outside.
Once we were back at the hotel we decided to stay in for the night. It was so cold out, and we wanted to work on our blog posts, travel guides, and watch Friends. We ordered Pizza from Angeli on Decatur, and it was some of the best pizza I have ever had. The sauce was slightly spicy, the crust was thin but not too thin, soft but not soggy, and the pepperoni added just the right amount of flavor. Overall, it was a really great day.