What's up everybody? It's Marko and Alex,
the Vagabrothers, and you're watching the first video
in a new chapter of our travels.
That's because for the next couple months, we are
trekking around America, and we're
starting in one of its most unique cities,
New Orleans, Louisiana.
We're here during the biggest celebration of the year:
Carnival, known locally as the Mardi Gras
Founded by the French, traded to the Spanish,
and bought by the Americans.
New Orleans, Louisiana sits at the mouth
of the Mississippi at the intersection
of European, American, and Afro-Caribbean cultures.
New Orleans, or "Narlins"
as locals call their city has always
been a place where diverse influences mix and melt
to produce new forms of culture found only here.
From jazz music to Cajun cooking
in the city's most decadent celebration:
Mardi Gras.
Where are we going? We're going to New Orleans.
Mardi Gras 2014
What was that?
Why not?
We've been back home two months.
We're between San Diego and Los Angeles.
We're working really hard. We're trying to pitch a television show.
At heart, we're vagabonds; we're travelers.
We can't sit still for very long.
So, it didn't take much convincing for us to go to the
biggest festival in America:
Mardi Gras.
I'm pretty excited. I have never been to the American
south. I've never been to Louisiana. Never been to New Orleans
On the airplane we started to find out what makes
New Orleans so different.
It's got this blend of cultures you don't find anywhere else.
First and foremost, this was not always part of America.
It was part of France. It was part of Spain.
And America purchased Louisiana
in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
It's actually more of a Caribbean city than anything else in America.
It's a very cool place, and it has this tradition of
Mardi Gras, which you will not find anywhere else in the States.
We knew there was a lot more to Mardi Gras
than just Bourbon St, beers, and beads.
And boobs.
We were on a mission to find out more about Carnival,
learn about the city's history and traditions
and also check up on New Orleans a decade after
Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst natural disasters
in American history.
We got off the plane and got right into it.
We made it to the house of our hosts, Leslie and David.
They weren't there. They left us a key,
and basically told us to come meet them at the party.
Thanks to our friend Cassidy and her family
who are hosting us here. The house is under
reconstruction, but they're letting us stay upstairs.
So, we're going to find our room, drop our bags,
and hit the streets. Let's go.
So we hopped on a streetcar and headed downtown
to the French Quarter.
New Orleans has streetcars, which
are some of the oldest in the country.
When we got on, they were full of drunk partiers
from around the United States.
So we met up with Leslie and David, saw our first
parade, caught some beads, and then did what every
other tourist does when he comes to New Orleans
for Mardi Gras: we headed to the French Quarter on
Bourbon Street. Total chaos.
How you feeling?
Pretty good.
One night down. Four more to go.
The next morning Leslie and David told us
that as fun as Bourbon Street is, that's not what
Mardi Gras is about.
It's about family and it's about community.
So, they invited us to a house party where
we ate local homemade food
and checked out a parade, known as
a Krewe.
local community clubs that organise the events every year.
Amidst the parades, the noise
the music, the screaming, the beads,
we found a convent,
full of nuns, where Sister Rita invited us in
to tell us a little bit about the Catholic roots
of Carnival.
The idea of Mardi Gras, itself, was a chance to let off
steam and have a good time before Lent started.
Finish off the meat, eat all the stuff that you weren't
supposed to eat during Lent.
Is that what Carnival means? Yes.
It means "levare" was to cut off.
To cut off the "carne," the meat.
The whole idea of cutting off the pleasures of the flesh,
not just eating flesh meat.
It's comical here in New Orleans because we're
right here in the seafood capital of the world.
So as soon as Lent starts, which is supposed to be
a term of penance, all the restaurants are advertizing
the wonderful Lent and seafood menus.
After the convent, the parades rolled all afternoon
and deep into the night.
After two days in New Orleans,
we spent most of our time in the French Quarter
and Uptown. That's called the Sliver on the River.
It's one of the only elevated parts in New Orleans,
and it escaped Hurricane Katrina
relatively undamaged.
This wasn't my first time in the city.
I came here in 2008 as a volunteer, shortly after Katrina.
We came to rebuild houses
because huge sections of the city were totally destroyed
including the Lower 9th Ward,
which is where the levies actually broke
and flooding was the worst.
I wanted to go back to the 9th Ward to see
how the reconstruction process has been going.
So we headed over to Common Ground,
which is an NGO that came one week after
the disaster, set up shop,
and has been rebuilding the 9th Ward ever since.
So to put it all in perspective, we climbed up
the levies, the concrete barriers
that are supposed to protect the lower parts
of the city from flooding. I'm going to climb up there
and see how the neighborhood is doing.
I guess I have to climb up one-handed
with the tripod. Where's the help, Bro?
Walking along the levy
and looking at the Mississippi there
and trying to imagine what it would have been like
with this entire neighborhood under water.
That's enough to break the will of
any city. Standing there you can see that there's been
a lot of recovery in process.
It's nowhere near done. There's still so much work to be done.
But, the culture's still there.
People are still proud, and they're coming back to
their homes.
Mardi Gras. The big day.
7 am wakeup call.
Dudes are out there in the middle of the street,
playing drums, drinking beers, and
the day started off very cold,
and unfortunately, it started pissing rain.
But locals were out in full force
in a number of parades. But we made
our mission more specific,
to find one of the most unique and interesting traditions
in the city: that of the Mardi Gras Indians.
Mardi Gras Indians are African Americans
who dress up as indians
totally decked out in the most
elaborate costumes. We didn't know much about the
Mardi Gras Indians, so we were curious to find them
and tell us their story. The problem was finding them.
It was cold. It was wet. It was raining,
and we didn't know exactly where to find them.
We thought, where is it going to be dry?
How about under the I -10 freeway?
I don't even know how to say it. There was just a tunnel
of parties, barbecues, music,
food, beer. And in the distance........
feathered head dresses.
We found them. And next thing you know,
dance battle.
Why are you dressed the way you're dressed?
We were in the Lower 9th yesterday, and we know
there was a lot of damage during the hurricane.
How do you feel the city is doing now?
It's come back tremendously.
Are you going to be an Indian one day?
I was. You were?
Hearing the story of the Mardi Gras Indians made
me realize that the city has a long tradition
of people coming together to help each other
out during hard times.
After Katrina, a lot of Americans wrote the city off as
finished. But that's not true. it's very alive.
And that's because what keeps a city alive
are the communities that make it up
And New Orleans is blessed to have such a strong
community spirit. And that is what we see on display
here at Carnival. It's been a crazy couple of days
and one that has really opened my eyes to
the amount of cultural diversity we have right here
in America. I'm just so beyond pleasantly surprized
with what I found here in New Orleans,
and we will most definitely be back.
Hopefully, you've enjoyed our take on New Orleans
Mardi Gras. If you've been here or you're from here,
let us know your favorite thing about the city in the
comment box below.
Also find us on social media @Vagabrothers
and as always, we'll see you on the road.