I used to love October and November, except for the last three years, because when you’re in University, like I am, these two months become some of the most stressful of the year. Major projects, lots of deadlines. I’ve literally had to tell my friends, “see you in December”, and completely mean it. I just haven’t had time for a social life, let alone to blog, or travel, or do anything but massive amounts of schoolwork and writing.
This year though October was met with a small weekend break to New Orleans, right before Halloween, something that would normally be out of the realm of my possibility due to my busy schedule and my lack of money during this time of year. I barely had the money to get me to New Orleans in June, and I used frequent flier miles for that trip. So how did I pay for a full-price, last minute, airline ticket from Edmonton to New Orleans (a route that doesn’t get seat sales)?
I didn’t pay for a thing. In a strange and wonderful turn of events I won another contest. A weekend trip to New Orleans through Southern Comfort. Flights, hotel, airport transfers, and even a couple meals were all covered expenses. To say I was excited would be to put it mildly. Reading the email that said I won the contest was, at first, met with scepticism. Was it spam? Was it real? After a minute I realized the email and the contest was legit. I then phoned a friend (because we were allowed to bring a guest) and casually asked what she was doing for Halloween weekend. When she said she didn’t really have anything planned I got to tell her that she was coming to New Orleans.
That was fun. Honestly I was probably more excited to invite my friend along than anything else, because I knew she hadn’t traveled anywhere outside Canada in several years. We were all on a pre-trip high (the non-substance kind), until we realized my friend’s passport had expired, and she’d need to get a new one a.s.a.p in order to come on the trip. It was nerve racking, and at one point I honestly thought she wouldn’t get her rush passport in time, but somehow it arrived, down to the wire. Important lesson for everyone, always have a passport and make sure it’s up to date. You never know, one day you might get invited on a free trip.
Traveling on a contest win was a fun experience, but different from what I expected. While I loved going back to New Orleans the one downside was the trip was it was very short. We got in Friday afternoon and on Sunday afternoon we were on a flight back to Edmonton. Another girl who was on the trip with us said something about only having 46 hours. I was glad I had gotten a chance to go to New Orleans in June for a few days. If this had been my first time I probably would have had more of a “I have to see everything this weekend” mentality. Even with this most recent trip to New Orleans I can say I’ll be back for a third visit, maybe more.
The French Quarter in New Orleans in October.
The trip itself was very much like a group tour, with group dinners and activities, which I also didn’t expect. I’m used to traveling alone, to planning everything and figuring things out on my own. It was nice to have some of the details for this trip already taken care of. The other bad thing that happened, which was just dumb luck, was that both my friend and I got sick on Saturday, and we had to forego the awesome sounding swamp and plantation tour. We stayed in for a bit to feel better, and eventually got out, and explored some of the French Quart and St. Charle’s Street. There was no way I was willing to resign my only full day in New Orleans.
It’s funny. Last year at this time I wasn’t sure I’d get to go to New Orleans at all. It seemed pretty impossible, and I can say that if I didn’t have the frequent flier miles to get down to Houston (cutting my flight cost to New Orleans greatly) I would have never gone on that trip. Yet I did get to go to New Orleans, and then I was fortunate enough to get to go back for a second visit. The other day I received an email from a contest I entered with The Planet D, that I won a free stay at a Radisson hotel. Lucky? Maybe. Grateful. Yes. Gratitude can’t begin to describe how I feel about this, and about the contests I’ve been fortunate to win.
In a strange way I almost feel like the universe keeps giving me these incentives to keep traveling. Of course I don’t believe in relying on contest wins to travel, but every little bit seems to help. If anything it made me appreciate my life and what I had, despite the stress of school and my limited travel funds. Any travel is good. There’s always something to learn when you travel, about yourself, about other people, about the world. I’m grateful for it all.
I never win anything!! Lucky you! I still have never been to New Orleans – amazing how we can travel so far and forget what’s in our own country!
Koren you just have to keep entering. Aside from winning a free book in a library contest when I was 11 I didn’t win anything until I was 26. And if you ever get a chance to go to New Orleans you definitely should. It’s a fantastic city.
Wow, it sounded like so much fun! Well, except for the part about getting sick
. I saw on Facebook you guys had an opportunity to visit the graveyards. That must have been amazing 
.
Yes the graveyards were pretty cool. We didn’t do a haunted tour, but the cemetery we were in was where some scenes from Interview with a Vampire was filmed, which was kinda cool. I know you’d love New Orleans for sure. If Amanda’s passport hadn’t come in on time, and you weren’t in Toronto, I would’ve invited you on the trip.
Congratulations! 46 hours or not; mild sickness or not; New Orleans is always a fun place to visit. And a nice break from school, I’m sure.
Thanks Juliann. Yes despite the little inconveniences the trip was fantastic. Any excuse to visit New Orleans is a good one in my opinion.
Congrats on the contest wins! I won a trip to New York about 2 years ago. I had literally never won anything before, so I was pretty amazed that my first win was something so big! It sounds like the trip was similar to yours – a lot of group tours and activities. As you said, it was nice having the details taken care of and I was very grateful, but I felt like a missed out on some things too – mostly the food. We ate at a lot of generic tourist-y restaurants, which I probably wouldn’t have chosen if I had planned the trip myself.
Thanks for the comment Jessica. I can definitely relate to what you’ve said, especially the food aspect. We were taken to a steakhouse our first night, and told we had to get the steak (not really, but the organizer’s were really trying to push steak). Both my friend and I said thanks but no thanks. We’re from Alberta and we can have great steak any day of the week, great seafood on the other hand is much hard to find where I live. We ordered a gullfish dish instead, and it was fantastic. So while it wasn’t a restaurant I would have gone for if I was on my own (more because the prices were a bit over my budget than anything else), getting the dish we wanted in the end worked for the best.