We just watched TV, rang our mum's and I sat in the sun for a bit while we waited. At about 10.30am we decided that Gary was better and wasn't going to puke any more so went out for the day. Kirsty was going to come out with us but then decided not to. The first thing we did was walk down to the French Maket to have a look around and buy some stuff.
They had lots of things I wanted to buy in there, and it was so cheap. I got a bracelet made for Ashlea with her name on it, a magnet and a cute flamingo pin.
We then just walked around the streets looking in shops and taking photos. One thing that was really cool about New Orleans was all the voodoo/skull themed stuff they had everywhere, I wanted to buy so much of it.
We watched a street performer who did some really good tricks, and then we passed a Hard Rock Cafe, and as Gary was feeling better we decided that we had to go in and have some lunch. We both got potato skins and a bownie for dessert.
After we had eaten we started heading back to the hotel, while looking for a bookshop on the way because I still hadn't had a chance to buy Catching Fire and I really wanted to read it. We found a book store but they didn't have it in stock.
As we got back to the hotel, we saw Kirsty sitting by the pool so we went to sit there with her. The weather was really nice and warm, the only problem was because the pool was in the middle of the buildings, the shade kept going over us so we had to keep moving around to stay in the sun. I was so excited to read Catching Fire that I couldn't wait any longer and downloaded the kindle app on my iPhone so I could read it. It's such a good story that I read loads of it while sunbathing.
Me and Gary had decided earlier on in the day that we were going to go to Bubba Gump for dinner tonight and asked Kirsty if she wanted to come with us. We all got ready and left the hotel at 6pm to walk down there.
Kirsty had never seen the film Forrest Gump so all the theming was lost on her (she finally saw it this week when she came to stay with us). The food was nice, I had shrimp of course, and Gary and Kirsty had burgers.
While we were eating, Kirsty said she really wanted to get a tattoo. One thing led to another and we all decided to go to the tattoo shop that was next door to our hotel on the way back. We didn't really know what we wanted to get but had an idea of stars or something that reminded us of the USA. We got to the shop and decided to all get 3 stars on our wrists in red, white and blue.
The tattoo shop said they could do them straight away for us. The guys we had met round the pool yesterday were in there all getting tattoos of '101' because they said they were going to be friends for 101 years. Kirsty was really scared because this was her first tattoo so the people in the shop gave her a beer so calm her down. Gary decided to get his tattoo slightly different to me and Kirsty because ours was a bit too girly for him.
The guy who did Gary's tattoo was really weird, he had a santa beard and seemed totally out of it. He kept telling Gary about what it was like to get a tattoo and how he should care for it like he had never got a tattoo before, maybe he was too drunk/high to see that Gary's entire arm was tattooed.
Me and Kirsty had a different guy doing ours who seemed a bit better. He was chatting to us about our trip and stuff but had to keep telling Kirsty to keep still.
I went first out of me and Kirsty so she could watch me. He kept putting the stencil on wonky and I had to get him to re-do it loads of times which was worrying me. I said before we went on the trip that I would not get a tattoo while we were there because it would probably turn out shit, but when we were in the moment I couldn't think of a better idea that night, lol!
Kirsty did not cope so well with her tattoo. She was squeezing my hand so hard the whole time, that actually hurt me more than getting the tattoo did. Gary's took about half an hour and ours took about 15 minutes each.
When they were done we went back to our rooms and then about an hour later Kirsty came over to our rooms so we could all take our banages off together. We had tried to look for some bepanthen in the shop to put on them but we couldn't find any (do they even do that in America?) so we had nothing to put on them. The tattoo shop had told us about another cream that we could use so we were going to get that tomorrow. We were all really happy with our tattoos.
I love that we got those tattoos because they are defiitely a great memory, even if they do look really bad now. They took ages to heal and none of them look like they do in the photo above anymore. Half of the lines aren't even joined up and the colours are really bad. I don't care if it looks crap though because the memory is worth it. We love that we have something on us forever that reminds us of just doing something crazy without even thinking about it, I have a little piece of New Orleans on me forever!
I've never heard of bepanthen. Maybe it's called something else here?
ReplyDeleteYou are way braver than I am for getting tattooed by those crazies. I would've left to be honest, but it's cool that you have that shared memory and "badge of honor" sort of speak. :)