Grand Canyon

Las Vegas is definitely spectacular! It seems like a big colorful sea of lights in the middle of nowhere (=desert). Each hotel on the strip has his own casino, shops and attractions.

The Christmas brunch in the Bellagio on the 25. was delicious (see pictures below!) and the “Illusions”-show starring Jan Rouven on the 26. also well worth seeing!

However the gambling doesn’t appear exciting for me at all so 2 nights in Vegas were just fine!

 

After picking up our car, we headed to the Grandcanyon National Park, which is located around 5 car-hours east from Vegas. On the way we passed the Hoover dam and took some pictures.  

Hoover dam

The view in the Grandcanyon and its scenic landscape definitely takes your breath away, plain amazing! After taking a look from different viewpoints in the early morning (we even managed to be there at sunrise!) we continued our trip heading to San Diego. The ride was very typical – just like you would imagine a road trip in the US… endless vastness, miles without seeing a human being, different vegetations...We even crossed Route 66! 

What's most important, I finally made it to CALIFORNIA, ihaaaaaa!!!! :))

Vegas, Baby!!

Because I'm in a little rush, only pictures from crazy Las Vegas for today...

Christmas Holidays!!

Hey lovelies!

The semester is finally over and I passed all my exams pretty well! Tuesday, Klaus arrived in New Orleans and since then we've been exploring the city a lot. 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL OF YOU!! Thanks for reading my blog!

Pat O'Briens Piano Bar!

christmasy Canal st.

Tulane sign with christmas lights

the Benjamin Button House

Sandra Bullock's New Orleans House

Finals

Hey everyone! The reason why i haven't been updating for some days is that I'm a little busy with studying for my final exams. I had my first one yesterday and there is another one coming up next week and then finally the last one on Dec 19th. I had my last class for this semester today. So happy that I will be back in January, it's so unbelievable how fast a semester can be over!

And we finally found a house for next semester. It's not so far away from where we live now. I'll show you pictures soon! Have a good weekend!

College Basketball

College sport plays a huge role in university-life in the US! Today we attended a Tulane Basketball game against Georgia Tech. We won 57:52, wow what a suspenseful end!

Black Friday

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known as "Black Friday" in the States. The thanksgiving calmness is over and it's crazy shoppingtime! In fact, a lot of malls open at midnight or in the early morning hours. Bargain hunters are waiting in line for the shops to open because a lot of them grant special deals. I went with my roomies Carmen and Mirta to Lakeside mall to check out what is going on - however around 10am and not in the early morning. Surprisingly, it seemed like most of the really crazy action was over and the most fanatic shoppers were sleeping blissfully already. There were a lot of people indeed, but not as many as we expected. And some shops, for example American Eagle and Abercrombie had really good deals, they had 40 % off on everything. However, I have been shopping enough lately so I managed to buy only a small christmas present ;)

After checking out the mall we went to visit the Metaire cemetery. I have to say that I'm usually not a fan of "cemetery-tourism" but as the cemetries in New Orleans are very unique and famous it's a thing to do when being here. Since the city is more or less built on a swamp and the water-level is therefore very high, the deceased have to be buried above ground, mostly in elaborate stone crypts and mausoleums. They look like this:

Ok now I think I worked up the most things about last week I wanted to share with you guys. I hope everything is fine in good old Austria and you had a nice first advent sunday. I'm getting a little bit nostalgic right now when I think about the beautiful christmasy Vienna :) Have a good week cuties!!

Thanksgiving

Thursday morning, Renate Maria and me went downtown. We took the ferry to get to the other side of the Mississippi river, this part of the city is called Algiers. When walking around in this neighbourhood, we realized that this must be a less wealthy area. Or maybe that's just where normal the middle class lives and we are getting used to all those impressive mansions uptown?

St.Louis Cathedral from a different perspective

 some houses seemed to be still desolated from Katrina

Then we walked around through French Quarter, had coffee and beignets in Café du Monde again, listenend to street-musicians...

 

Also, Thursday was finally the "real Thanksgiving-day"... Thanksgiving is the most important family holiday in the United States. Families from all over the country come together to celebrate. The highlight is of course the dinner, traditionally turkey and numerous side-dishes such as sweet mashed potatos, corn-bread and different salads.

Certainly, my girls and me didn't wanna miss the possibilty to do a real Thanksgiving dinner too ;) We invited some friends and had a good time!

Thanksgiving week

Hey lovelies!

I'm having Thanksgiving-holidays at the moment (Wed-Sun). Since we all kind of spent far too much money during our fall break, we decided that it might be the best choice not to travel but to stay in New Orleans and use the time to discover the city a little bit more. I feel like there are so many places we haven't seen yet!

Tuesday evening Renate, Maria, Miriam and I went out for a dinner to Jacques-Imo's, a popular restaurant on Oak Street which serves typical creole and cajun cuisine. I really liked the way the restaurant looked and its ambiance with paintings all over the wall and ceiling and colorful lights. Everyone enjoyed the food as well!

funny sign outside

in the front my vegetable-curry, in the back Renate's alligator-cheesecake

corn-bread, so good!

After the dinner, we went to Maple Leaf Bar where different bands are performing every night. On Tuesdays the Rebirth Brass Band plays, which what I heard is the best. It was already the second time I saw them and I was enthusiastic again! This is New Orleans :) 

I found a video on Youtube so you can get a better picture of the music and atmosphere!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhwoGVbY9xU

with 3 bandmembers