the happiest place on earth?

Walt Disney world. The very mention of it can bring pure hyperactive joy to any kid and a sense of impending dread to any parent. The inner child in me was actually jumping for joy on the plane from New Orleans to Orlando while the adult in me still trying to shake a hangover and wanted him to shut the hell up, stop making noise and sit still. You can't help but have a big cheesy grin on your face as you board Disney's Magical Express bus from Orlando International airport direct to Walt Disney World. Still in backpacker mode, we booked the moderately priced family value resort- Disney's Pop Century. Oh great, families and screaming little kids everywhere. But who cares, in reality how much time would we actually spend in our hotel room. We spent at least a day at each separate park and I could write for days about how much magic it was to just walk around and inhale the fairytale. The list of stupid things I did was surprisingly low on this leg of this trip. Lets start with a fine example of my (sober) decision making skills. Firstly, for those that know me, I'm lactose intolerant. I grew drinking milk like I now drink beer. Loved the stuff. After one particularly boozy night at a backpackers on Bondi Beach I got my usual morning-after iced coffee to get the taste of Irish lass out of my mouth.  Cue half an hour later and me stuck on the toilet, giving a valiant effort to sonically recreate the end of the world as we know it. Ever since then I have been unable to drink any sort of milk based drink. Thankfully cheese and yoghurt are fine, so is most ice cream. So while we were lining up for the tower of terror ride I decided to add my own terror to the ride by skulling a root beer float. Thankfully my stomach was able to maintain its staunchness.

The well known Epcot drinking challenge was also on our list to do. On paper it seems quite easy, 12 countries with aim to have a drink at each country. So pretty much like a 1st year uni 12 stop pub crawl, without the paddling, putting things in your mouth you really shouldn't and recanting stupid pledges to people with god complex who, later on in life, will become low level managers on a permanent power trip. We started at the England Pavilion. It was raining and ever body was cramming in under the beer garden at the Rose and Crown pub, waiting for the pub to open.  First drink down was a nice pint of Bass Ale, a perfectly ok English Bitter. Then we moved on to the next country (Canada?) and started on a refreshing Molson. I cant really recall much from the alcohol haze, but the pictures of me get progressively worse as the day goes on. I do remember stopping just about half way through challenge just on lunchtime. After downing a Rumple Minz shot in Germany (Prost!) we ambled over to Test Track, the fastest ride in all of Disney World. After a lengthy delay in which I sobered up considerably, we were finally in front. Another exhilarating thrill ride and once again my stomach held! Spurred on by this feat, we went on to Mission: Space next. For those in the know, this ride is essentially a giant centrifuge, subjecting its riders to 2.5g. Once again my stomach held!! Great Success! After that it was back to the challenge. I think I stopped just short of the end. In Norway I drank another fine beer and decided to have a little rest break.

Scott managed to finish at Mexico, the final stop and ended the challenge with a nice frozen margarita. Highlights in terms of beer would have to be Casa Beer from the Morocco Pavilion. Most pavilions had "local" beers but most of them were just license brewed macro lagers, easily available anywhere in the world. Casa Beer was slightly more rare and exotic in my eyes and luckily it wasn't too bad. Still a lager but with enough malt and hop in body to put it in a league above the watery adjunct lagers we drank elsewhere.

Walt Disney World also has a nice little escape for the beer loving parent. It's not widely advertised or promoted but believe it or not, there is an actual micro-brewery on site. I'm talking stumbling distance from Epcot and most of the hotels. Conveniently tucked away on the Disney Boardwalk, most people would just walk past and not even realise there was some brewing afoot right under their noses. After all, at Down Town Disney, Captain Jack's Oyster Bar does not even feature the famous Disney pirate nor any $@!^$ oysters. My curiosity drove us inside the ambitiously named Big River Grille and Brewing works. We ordered the standard beer tasting tray and sat down to figure out just what the hell we had walked into. Well let me happily tell you that Goofy nor any other other Disney character was working the mash-tun. Any sort of obsequious kid-oriented Disney branding was thankfully absent.

The beers brewed are the standard spread offered by most micro breweries hoping to appeal to every ones tastes. An amber ale, a pale ale & IPA, a stout and the standard light mainstream lager. The beers stood up on their own, all competent non offensive examples of their style and all apparently brewed onsite. The Rocket red was a smooth easy drinking amber ale style beer, good amount of hop and nice malty red colour. The other surprise highlights were their darker beers, namely the sweet Magnolia Brown and Iron Horse stout. Both beers displayed surprising depth with the american brown ale having the classic smooth sweet malty aftertaste. The stout had an interesting cocoa-buttery sweetness but still finished satifiyingly dry.  All in all a pretty good find and definately dads little secret at Disney World.

'Nawlins, the big easy, and a streetcar named detox.

So our travels brought us to New Orleans, in the beautiful south. A destination for the uninhibited tourist on a mission, the party centre of decadence and lack of restrain, of which the French quater prides itself upon. So amid all the fluro slushy cocktails of sugar and artificial flavour, (deliciously easy way to get a hens party drunk) the native and historic cocktails that spawned many poor imitators, what is the beer like? Well, when ones taste buds get tired of all the sugar and near frozen giant novelty 24oz millers (pfft in Australia, thats a breakfast serving,)  that bourbon street has to offer , there is an alternative. The
aptly named Beer Fest 1 and a Beer Fest 2 a little further down bourbon street are the apparent antidote to the sea of neon excess and copycat bars and clubs that dot bourbon street.

At first glance these identical bars are a mecca for the beer lover as well as the tourist trying something different. 40 beers on tap? Well this is gonna take awhile to drink through! In keeping with the proud tradition of street drinking, all beers are served in a take-away cup, for sir's convenience. There is a wide range of beers, Craft beers from across the US, british beers (speckled hen, and a few other mainstream british bitters) and the usual euro-lager (becks on tap? must be premium! hahahah) But I was more interested in the local popular Lousiana brewery, Abita, located outside of New Orleans. Their beers are easily available through the city in bars and shops. I managed to try the Andygator, a maibock style beer. Very malty sweet and smooth and at 8% the good times were indeed rolling. The only real downside to Beer fest is the price. For an Australian, being charged $10 for a cup of beer is nothing new or outrageous, but for many locals and tourists its not a cheap night out. I found the bar staff to be
lacking in knowledge, and couldnt even reccomend me something local, instead pushing me towards an overpriced stella artois. Luckly there was a local beer-hound occupying a corner of the bar. He reccomended I try and track down a few of the seasonal offerings from Abita, in particular the purple haze rasberry wheat beer. He also told us to pay a visit to the Crescent City brewhouse in the area the next morning to sample some local fare.

We woke up a little worse for wear, still buzzing on sugar. A bacon sandwich later and we were good to go. Crescent City brewhouse brews German style beers and does them with a great kitchen pumping out fantastic meals. Cant This place is a popular restaurant with the locals and tourists alike, ok prices and good local produce. I do enjoy when a brewpup manages to get pubgrub right, as it is a bastion of Australian drinking culture. So good food but are the beers on par? Well yes they certainly werent too bad. We went for the typical tasting tray to sample everything. The weiss beer was ok, satisfyingly cloudy colour with a nice smell of dry banana and clove. Little to no head and minimal lacing but still pleasant. Black forrest was their dark munich style dunkel lager, an improvement on the last beer. Rich and dark with a good malty palette and hints of coffee. Being a fan of a good pils I had to try their version. Aromas of dry hops yet a slightly sweet taste, still crisp but no real hop presence like the original. This would apeal to the drinkers of mainstream lager as its not too far from it.

I finally managed to track down the elusive Abita purple haze, in a cinema of all places. Totally worth the effort to seek it out. It was almost like a fruity lambic beer, the real rasberry pulp used gives of aromas of fresh berry combined with the tartness of the wheat beer base left me licking my lips in anticipation. The taste was not overly sweet thank god, but still pleasantly crisp and dry. A real winner and definately worth seeking out on a typical hot Louisiana day.

We spent memorial day in the hostel pool area, tossing around a football and drinking Budweiser ($10 a 12pack from the pharmacy, gotta love the USA! )  with some swiss guys. Next stop on our trip was every kids dream and every parents nightmare, Disney World, Orlando Florida. Could we find good beer and a party? Lets hope so!!