I think it’s safe to say that the hype about the Big Easy during Mardi Gras is all real. There’s having a good time and then there’s having a good time on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. However, during my time in New Orleans the memories that I took away and still hold in my heart today are not as glamorous as those of Bourbon Street. They lie only kilometers away at the historic Flood Street.

Collapsed roofs, overgrown cars, those are the properties that got off easy. Just blocks past that there are miles of streets where the only reminisce of houses are the concrete slabs on which they were built. Miles worth of people’s homes that have just been washed away. While this is extremely tragic to see, I found it to be one of the most interesting and thought provoking experiences of my entire life.  Although nothing was as harrowing as seeing the New Orleans Six Flags with “Closed for storm” still strewn across its entry way. That right there put everything into perspective for me. An entire theme park, roller coasters, games, everything, left exactly the way it was in 2005. If that doesn’t explain the sheer destruction and devastation that Hurricane Katrina, I don’t know what will.

A trip like this is most definitely for the more hardcore travelers looking for their “fix” of exhibition. While these sites may not be glamorous in a sense, they truly will open your eyes to some extremely thought provoking endeavors. New Orleans is a city built upon culture, and no place is more fitting to see this rebuilding of culture that came from the events of Hurricane Katrina and still remain on Flood Street.