Mass amounts of drinking, crazy costumes, and of course lots of flashing.

Mardi Gras is everything you’ve heard about and more, providing you have the tolerance and the wherewithal to make it so.

My friends and I, all respectable drinkers who tend to get a little out of hand on momentous occasions such as this, made a last minute decision to make the road trip to New Orleans.

We were able to find a hostel at the last minute due to a cancellation, and that was all we needed; as long as we had a bed or relatively comfortable floor space, we were good to go.

We left Thursday night from Clemson, SC and arrived in New Orleans around 2 AM and the boozing began immediately. Being the broke college kids that we are, we purchased 4 handles of cheap bourbon and vodka before we came down. I’m talking $12.99 for a 1.75 liter bottle; the kind of liquor that if you drank it with any regularity would take 20 years off your life. The beauty of New Orleans (among other things) is that the open container law does not exist within the city limits so long as you do not carry glass, but I’m sure this rule was broken pretty frequently. We took full advantage of this and set off on foot as soon as we got unpacked, proudly wielding Kentucky’s finest liver annihilator, some blue PowerAde (highly underrated chaser in my opinion), a two liter of some other drink, and of course more beads than a NYC cab seat.

Obviously the main attraction for college kids is Bourbon St.: a narrow street lined with more bars than you could even begin to count, numerous strip clubs, and religious nuts who use the holiday to let us all know we’ll be going to hell.

Little did we know, Bourbon St. was a good 20 minute walk from our hostel, but it was easy to navigate even when near blackout drunk. We would walk for about a block, take a shot, grimace, throw up on occasion, and continue walking. This routine proved to be quite effective; by the time we got to Canal Street (where most the parades were held); we were already 7 or 8 shots deep and ready to mingle. Canal Street is fun, but you are more inclined to run into families that would rather not deal with your drunken escapades, so I wouldn’t recommend spending too much time on Canal Street during the day.

Bourbon Street on the other hand was one nonstop party; we met kids from all over, though mainly from Southeast colleges. I was a little surprised I did not see more people using our economic method of carrying cheap handles of liquor around with them, but we did get several shout outs from other college kids who knew the glory of Kentucky Gentleman all too well.

The first time I saw Bourbon Street in full swing, I could not have been happier about my decision to come to New Orleans; the nine hour drive was completely worth the experience. Picture an entire concert, or football game crowd spilled out into the streets and that would be a pretty accurate depiction of the scene. Not only is the number of people who attend Mardi Gras enormous, but nearly everyone goes for the same understood reason(s) and that is to get drunk, make bad decisions, and have the time of their lives.

Friday night was complete and utter chaos, we’d already had a day full of drinking and exploring the city, so we headed back to the hostel for a quick nap/loss of consciousness and dinner and then were ready to go at it again.

Nighttime is a completely different experience; it is what immediately comes to mind when one thinks of Mardi Gras: mass amounts of drinking, crazy costumes, and of course lots of flashing. We would find ourselves under balconies for long periods of time, chanting in unison with other drunkards the famous three word command of Mardi Gras (I don’t think this needs further specification).

It was under these balconies that we ended up losing other people in our group. I recommend having a set meeting place in case you get separated from your group, it is nearly impossible to find people once that happens.

Mardi Gras is certainly not for everyone but I think it is something everyone should experience at some point in their lives. In my opinion college is the best time for this experience. A carefree attitude combined with the ability to binge drink for hours upon end is the perfect recipe for an unforgettable experience at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

I won’t lie, the ride home was pretty awful; it was probably the worst hangover I’ve ever had and we could hardly even say a word to one another until we hit Mississippi. The entire car ride home was filled with ridiculous stories and jokes we would tell forever from one of the best college road trips I’ve taken.