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You know it's a bad one when a hangover lasts 2 days...still not feeling entirely right, we left Austin and drove in the direction of Galveston on Texas's Gulf Coast - who knew Texas had a coast?! (Every so often I shock myself how ignorant I can be.) It was a 202 mile drive (meaning that we hit the 5000 mile mark too), but the sun was shining and we were just pleased to be leaving Austin - home of much debauchery (and many mosquitoes.) Part of the reason we had decided to go to Galveston was because it was listed as having a Hostelling Internation hostel, which we found relatively easily as it was on the beach road. The guy behind the reception was really friendly - the place was divided into a hostel (for scuzzy backpackers) and a motel (for normal people.) Still suffering the after effects of the money pit that is Las Vegas, we opted for the hostel room, only to discover that we were the only people who up to that point had checked in...and so being the kindly man that he was, Kevin (as we discovered he was called) allowed us to "upgrade" to a motel room - not that there was much of a difference, but we appreciated the gesture. Kevin recommended that we go to have something to eat in a place called 'The Spot' a bit up the road and so off we headed. I had a Texas Chile Bread Bowl, which was chile con carne served in a hollowed out loaf of bread (morbid obesity here I come!) which was delicious. That evening we spent a quiet night in (again!)
The next morning, after a lie in we headed out in search of one of the famous restored Victorian houses that the Rough Guide suggested we visit. They run guided tours around them, so we - along with a load of annoying Texans - wandered round the Bishops Palace, being led by a mental old woman (with an accent that appeared to be a cross between Texas and somewhere in the Czech Republic.) It was relatively interesting, but the sun had come out and we were a bit fed up to be stuck in a dark old house, when we should have been enjoying the weather. Once released, we got into the car, took the roof down and drove into downtown Galveston which is really nice, it reminded me of somewhere - I'll let you know where when I've worked it out! - and we mosied (don't know if that's how you spell that word) in and out of souvenir shops. In fact this is where a shop assistant, intrigued by my accent, asked where I was from - I told her the UK, guessing that she would never had heard of Wales. She asked how we had got to Galveston and I told her we had driven...at this point she looked dumbstruck and said, in all seriousness..."You can drive from the UK to Texas??" Great. This is why I love Americans! Finishing up, we headed back to the hostel and lay by the pool which was "strictly for use by the motel guests" - we are kerrrrrraaaazy! Of course it wasn't strictly hot enough to be sunbathing, but we put on our stiff upper lip and lay there in a determined fashion (and I still managed to get a bit burnt!)
We spent the following day in a thoroughly insignificant place called Lake Charles, where we went to see the Kirsten Dunst film, Marie Antoinette. x
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