The annual conference of the Academy of Management was this year held in New Orleans, Louisiana. This is the larger area.

I moved into the Radisson Hotel on Canal street and had a nice view from my window. But that was the only positive thing about the hotel...

This is the downtown; the red star indicates my hotel.

The "core" of New Orleans: Bourbon street. In daylight, it doesn't exactly make a good impression.

Despite the unbeatable "3 for 1" offers of the many bars that seem to be open 24/7

At night, however, everything changes like magic... Bourbon transforms itself into a strip of drinking guys and girls, choruses of "show your tits" and flying "beads", the famous plastic chains that girls get for conforming (and guys for showing their a**es)...

In the midst of so much sinning, one man felt obliged to hold up moral values; his huge white cross had showed words from the bible condemning earthly pleasures.

I didn't get paid for watching girls (or guys), so my first days here were full of conference sessions and discussion. However, I found some friends and whenever there was (or we took) a break, we discovered something new. Here the famous St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square. Not many tourists went inside, I guess there was more fun outside...

On the other side of Jackson Square, street artists entertain the masses and carriages wait for tourists who want to spend 10 bucks for a half-hour ride.

On evenings during the conference, large schools regularly sponsor receptions; Ohio State always picks particularly interesting venues. This year, they invited everybody to the Aquarium of the Americas on New Orleans' waterfront. It took us about an hour to find the food and drink - but this hour was well spent marveling at the wonders of the water world.

...

After the conference was over, a small group of PhD students went on an excursion to one of the old Southern Plantations - Oak Alley.

Sugar cane was the main crop here and some old machinery is still on exhibit. Everything is so sweet here :-)

The guided tour was quite expensive, but interesting. And we admired the guides for their resistance against the heat, especially in their old outfit... At some point we wondered if they had ventilators under their wide skirts... but we didn't dare to ask.

A popular game: "If you shoot me then I shoot you!"

A lonesome guard at the gravesite of the last owner of the plantation.

Sugar Cane.

The next planned stop was Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve, but we didn't really find the way there. After crossing the Mississippi twice, we decided to settle for some other piece of the swamp land... as long as we got to see some Alligators!

The park was not the most attractive one, but with some imagination, it looked pretty nice. Well, as long as one managed to overlook the ubiquitous traces of civilization, be it oil on the water...

...or the omnipresence of Coca Cola. From time to time crazy motorboat drivers swoooshed through the picture, without any consideration for the nature that they consumed. Sometimes I wish I had a weapon too...

From outer space or just a stick?

Beware of the French!

Just don't move, please!

Zoom out again and you see the context: a concrete wall and the wooden path on which we were allowed to walk to see the water from time to time.

Zoom in again.

Hm, what is he thinking?

Back in town. It took me only 10 minutes from the hotel to the major conference hotels (Marriot, Sheraton), but I had to cross an invisible border. On one side the French Quarter with its tourists and conference participants, on the other the real New Orleans

I had just returned from a trip to Switzerland, a very different feeling. But it didn't take me long to adjust and to feel "at home".

Evening at the Mississippi river.

Steamboat "Natchez", one of the most touristy things to do in New Orleans. But nice to look at.

I saved my money and took the free ferry to Algiers... a short ride, but nice and romantic. Despite the fact that New Orleans' skyline isn't exactly impressive.

The three unique towers of St. Louis Cathedral are perhaps the only memorable part of the picture...

My breakfast place - the local McDonald's. I usually felt somewhat overdressed, but it was cheap and a nice place for observations. At the Chinese next door, I once had to endure the persistent and very public approaches of a beggar, and I didn't even know if I should be angry at him or someone/-thing else...

Together with a new-found friend from the University of Michigan, I went on a little discovery tour, including St. Louis Cemetery No. 1. New Orleans' graveyards are very famous because of the particular graves - due to the high water level, the dead are buried above the ground. The bigger buildings are sponsored by societies, and the members get to move into one of the "drawers" when they die. But not for long, then the next guy gets the space. These graves are also called "ovens", for obvious reasons: New Orleans gets temperatures above 100 degree Fahrenheit in summer. We were lucky; due to an approaching hurricane (Charlie in Florida), it was relatively cool during the conference.

Most of New Orleans is not exactly picturesque.

A big sign at the entrance to the "Treme" quarter read "Only for residents and invited guests". On the map in my guidebook the whole quarter is just one white spot - it seems that this is not supposed to be a touristy place...

Quite different the Garden District. This famous area with beautiful mansions and gardens can be reached with the old streetcar.

I got off at Loyola University, a Christian School. Right behind it is Tulane University.

The Audubon Park stretches south of the university area and has a quite nice zoo.

I came an hour before closing time, so I had to rush through, but the veterinaries working on the elephant deserved some special attention.

These guys probably see everything much better...

Since we hadn't seen any Alligators on our tour along the Mississippi, I was eager to see them here in the zoo... So I went to the Louisiana Swamp Exhibit....

Cute! But not dangerous enough...