A Supernatural Experience

Location:
United States

New Orleans, ghosts, city tour

V!VA User‘s Description

The sun streamed in through the patio doors, warming my toes as it spilled across the bottom of the bed. My mom snored softly to my right and my sister slept silently to my left. Through the wall, I could hear the muffled giggles of children waking up. Squinting, I rolled over my sister and stumbled out of the bed and into the bathroom. As I began brushing my teeth, I heard my sister banging on the wall and shouting at the kids in the hotel room next door to keep it down. After all, we are in the Andrew Jackson Hotel overlooking Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. Chances are slim that anyone in the hotel went to bed early, much less sober, and are ready to embrace the day as the sun comes up. Kim banged on the wall until the kids stopped giggling and slipped back into a restless sleep. I thought nothing of it, and stepped into a nice, cool shower.

My mom, sister and I spent the day exploring every corner of the French Quarter that we could squeeze into. We ate po’ boys for breakfast and perused the lively art displayed on the streets. We were fascinated by the efficiency of the colonial cemeteries and we watched the sun set to smoky jazz rhythms and sugary hand grenade cocktails.

As night settled over the city, I discovered the most interesting side of New Orleans. With the darkness came a raw, sexually sinful vibe. I felt that I could truly understand the dark history of New Orleans at this time of night. The voodoo shops welcomed locals and tourists into their musty boutiques selling voodoo dolls, shrunken heads, potions, curses and do-it-yourself witchcraft. As a long-time lover of ghost stories, I begged my sister and mom to take a nighttime walking tour of the French Quarter with me. They agreed, and we found ourselves being led through the streets by a real-life vampire (I’m sure of it!). Our pale guide was luminescent and comfortable with the night, and knew the darkest corners of the city’s history inside and out. We walked from building to building and were regaled with sinful stories of slavery, drunks, murder, rape, fires and ghosts. Atrocities were committed in New Orleans that were unfathomable and people were reminded nightly of these crimes by revengeful ghosts. Nearing midnight, we walked to our last stop on the tour, and found ourselves staring up at the balcony of our hotel room at the Andrew Jackson Hotel listening to the following story.

In the beginning, the Andrew Jackson Hotel was a school for young boys. Approximately twenty little boys attended class in the day and slept in the dormitory style rooms at night. They played in the courtyard on the weekends and shared their childhoods with each other. Late one evening, a fire broke out in one of the rooms. The teachers scrambled to save the boys as they were locked in their rooms. They ran through the hallways, kicking in doors and tearing the boys from their beds. But the fire moved swiftly and cut off a corner of the building. The teachers were unable to save five small boys who were lost in the inferno.

Our guide continued on, unaware of our wake-up call just that morning. “Today, many guests of the Andrew Jackson Hotel report waking up to the sounds of children giggling in the courtyard. The little boy ghosts are mischievous, and love to tease guests. Sometimes, guests will struggle to keep the channel off of the Cartoon Network. They will flip to CNN and it will automatically flip back to the Cartoon Network. Once, two honeymooners staying in this room with the balcony (our room?!) reported something interesting. On their last night, they had a few pictures left to use on their camera. They went to bed without using them, woke up early and caught their flight home. After arriving home, they developed their pictures and the last few pictures on the roll were of the honeymooners as they slept.”

I looked over at Kim as she gripped the post next to her. Her face was white and her eyes were big. My mom assured her that it was just a story for tourists. The tour ended and we hesitantly walked into the lobby of our hotel. We approached the front desk receptionist and asked who was staying in the room next to us. “Two lovely honeymooners” was the response. Kim whispered, “They don’t have children?” and the receptionist said, “No, guests under the age of 21 have not been allowed to stay here in years.”

Further Information

Must see/do at this place: Explore the voodoo and dark side of New Orleans. Its scary and interesting!

You should avoid here: Maybe dark alleys late at night.