Today, we had a lot planned… but it didn’t go as expected !
First, we woke up in a cold room, very very cold (so much colder than the usual 15°C in the bedrooms at my parents house!). So the poor AC heating system, which is our only way to heat the room, wasn’t that effective. Clearly, it was more designed to cool the room than to heat it ! And the insulation is not really a priority here, which isn’t as surprise as the average temperature in December is usually 15°C, and not 4°C like today…
But we weren’t gonna just lay in bed, we had plenty to do. So we first started making breakfast, but as we started the microwave, the fuse blew out (which wasn’t that surprising considering everyone probably had the electric heater turn to the maximum). Great, and we didn’t even have access to the electric box. Luckily, the stove is gas powered, so we managed to heat up some milk in a pot.
After notifying the landlady of the electrical problems, we packed our backpack for our daily adventure. We were prepared, we were ready, we even had several layer of clothes on to brave the cold… but we weren’t prepared for the melted snow storm outside. So after barely 50m, we turned back to seek the shelter of our room. We had planned to visit the parks of New Orleans, but apparently, it wasn’t the right time.
As even inside the room we had to put two jackets on to stay warm, we went back under the blanket. The landlady came to fix the problem around noon, and very nicely offered to lend us hats and gloves and most importantly, let the access to the electric box open, as more problems were likely to happen (and it was indeed a good idea).
Mid-afternoon, the rain/melted snow turned into actual solid snow. It hadn’t happened in New Orleans since 2004! So between snow here and rain in the Tatacoa desert, we’re really starting to think we’re followed by rare meteorological events !
The snow stopped in the evening, and none of it managed to stick on the ground. But in some towns around, they had up to 10cm! But as it was Friday night, we still decided to go out. Luckily for us, the streetcar was up and running, and also heated !
So we went to Frenchmen street, a street surrounded by bars with live music. All the bars had their doors wide open, which lets you listen to the different music groups and pick the one you want to listen to. But this system is thought for warmer nights, so at first we had to keep our jackets on even inside the bar. But later in the evening, the musicians had warmed up the crowd, literally!
In the end, even if we didn’t do anything we had planned for today, we still spend a very nice evening listening to local music, and also a very nice funk group. Ok, the way back was a bit of an adventure because the streetcars stopped running early (even though their website and signs said they were running…), and it was freezing…literally!
More news about the thawing in the next article!
P.S : sorry about the delay for translating this, we come back late these nights 😉