While we were in New Orleans we stayed at a hotel called Hotel Provincial in The French Quarter. When we got there mum looked the hotel up on the internet and found out that it has the most documented reports of hauntings out of all the hotels in America. We were all scared - especially dad (although he denies it). The hotel was a military hospital twice, including during the Civil War. It was also used as slave quarters for a long time. People have seen lots of ghosts in the hotel as well as things such as puddles of blood on the bed or the floor, hearing voices and horses hooves and objects being moved from one place to another. One staff member took the lift up to the 5th floor and when the doors opened he could see back in time. The room was full of sick and wounded soldiers and nurses tending to them. When he stepped back into the elevator the vision was gone. People have also opened the doors to their rooms and seen soldiers writhing in pain that disappear when the lights are turned on. One man who stayed in the hotel said that a nurse kept coming into his room to check his ear during the night. About a week after we left New Orleans mum told us that in our hotel room when some people stayed they heard someone crying in the bathroom and one of the drawers opened by itself. I'm happy that I didn't know about this while we were staying in the hotel!
In New Orleans we went on a tour to St Louis Cemetery #1. The lady told us all about how they bury people above the ground in tombs so that when the water rises the bodies don't come out of the ground. This has happened before, many years ago when they used to bury bodies under ground in New Orleans. Because the town was built under sea level when the water table rises or if there is flooding it can float the bodies up and through the ground. The tour guide said "imagine seeing your Aunt Emmy floating by!" 
Some of the tombs or crypts in St Louis Cemetery #1 have the remains of the whole family in them. When a new member of the family died they would open the crypt and the push the remains already in there to the back of the tomb or put them under the slab which was like a small basement in the crypt. People believe that the crypt has to stay sealed for a year and a day before it can be opened again. If someone in the family died in under a year and a day they were put into a rented tomb until the year and a day passed, then they were moved into the family crypt.
This is the tomb of Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen. Marie Laveau was born a free woman of colour in 1794 and died in 1881. She was famous for her powers of Voodoo magic and she was respected and feared by all. This ladies job is to remove the graffiti from Marie Laveau's tomb every day. Some people think that if you draw three x's on the tomb, then spin around three times and kiss the tomb and then make a wish it will come true. But people are actually just wrecking the tomb which is very bad because some of the graffiti can't be removed.
This is Nicholas Cage's tomb that he had built for when he dies. It is shaped like a pyramid and has latin writing on it "Omnia Ab Uno" which means "Everything from One". While the tomb was being built it caused wreckage to two really old tombs opposite it, the workers would sit on the two old tombs and eat their lunch and would leave building materials on them. The local people are very upset about it because the old tombs can't be replaced.
The tour guide explained how the crypts are made - with bricks that are porous (breathable) covered in a lime wash. This helps to make the bodies not smell because the lime works to break down the body and the wooden coffin quickly and also acts as a deodoriser. St Louis Cemetery #1 is still an active cemetery today, the last person to be entombed there was only a month ago. To help stop graffiti and damage from March this year people will only be allowed in the cemetery with an approved tour guide. The above ground cemetery wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, it was more factual than telling ghost stories. Hannah
Some of the tombs or crypts in St Louis Cemetery #1 have the remains of the whole family in them. When a new member of the family died they would open the crypt and the push the remains already in there to the back of the tomb or put them under the slab which was like a small basement in the crypt. People believe that the crypt has to stay sealed for a year and a day before it can be opened again. If someone in the family died in under a year and a day they were put into a rented tomb until the year and a day passed, then they were moved into the family crypt. This is the tomb of Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen. Marie Laveau was born a free woman of colour in 1794 and died in 1881. She was famous for her powers of Voodoo magic and she was respected and feared by all. This ladies job is to remove the graffiti from Marie Laveau's tomb every day. Some people think that if you draw three x's on the tomb, then spin around three times and kiss the tomb and then make a wish it will come true. But people are actually just wrecking the tomb which is very bad because some of the graffiti can't be removed. This is Nicholas Cage's tomb that he had built for when he dies. It is shaped like a pyramid and has latin writing on it "Omnia Ab Uno" which means "Everything from One". While the tomb was being built it caused wreckage to two really old tombs opposite it, the workers would sit on the two old tombs and eat their lunch and would leave building materials on them. The local people are very upset about it because the old tombs can't be replaced. The tour guide explained how the crypts are made - with bricks that are porous (breathable) covered in a lime wash. This helps to make the bodies not smell because the lime works to break down the body and the wooden coffin quickly and also acts as a deodoriser. St Louis Cemetery #1 is still an active cemetery today, the last person to be entombed there was only a month ago. To help stop graffiti and damage from March this year people will only be allowed in the cemetery with an approved tour guide. The above ground cemetery wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, it was more factual than telling ghost stories. Hannah
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