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Well, I really lucked out in Austin, Texas! I started the day in San Antonio in my hotel room, taking my time to get up and ready, knowing there were a dozen buses to Austin and therefore no need to hurry, for a change. Checkout was at 11am and at exactly 11am there was a knock on the door and two members of staff reminded me it was checkout time. I pointed at my partially-packed bag and managed to get a five minute reprieve. They are keen there!
The bus journey to Austin was a mere 90 minutes so I didn't mind that the bus left 20 minutes late. My Austin cab driver between the bus station and the hostel blamed the heavy local traffic on the Texas Democratic Convention taking place. Later that evening I spoke to a middle aged man in my dorm room and found out he went there - he was an 'alternate delagate', which means that if a 'real' delegate doesn't turn up he gets to speak. But they all made it so he was left listening to everything. I thought it still sounded cool to be involved in the process of picking the delegates to send to the National Democractic Convention.
The hostel itself was pretty good and its location is spectacular - it is on the bank of the river at a point where the river is very wide. It offered views of the Austin downtown skyline. Being out there did mean I needed to get a bus into town but it was only one dollar for a 24 hour pass so it was very cheap.
On my first evening I decided I had to find out what Austin was like on a Saturday evening. I caught the bus in and recognised two girls that got on with me as being from the hostel so I struck up a conversation with them. They were two 20-year-old Swedish girls on a several week trip around the US. Since none of us really knew where to go we explored together down 6th Street, which is the centre of the nightlife. It's a section of road lined with bars, many of which had live music, which Austin is famous for, and, from the cries of the guys out front of each of them, I could tell lots of them did cheap drinks like two dollar beers and dollar shots.
Since the girls were under-age and everyone was checking ID we didn't go in anywhere (I felt I couldn't abandon them and go in alone - it's a hard life being a perfect gentleman, or is that kind of attitude now chauvinistic?). But you didn't need to be indoors to enjoy the live music, or the strange cabaret show in one place where there was a large window to the street at the back of the stage so everyone outside could see what is going on and, thanks to the speaker outdoors, hear it too. The girls said it was a shame they were under 21 - alcohol aside - because they wanted to see the countryside and were too young to hire a car. I had an idea.
So the following day I hired a car and we split the costs three ways. After getting advice from some Texans at the hostel we headed out west to the Hill Country. I had expected the area to be flatter (that was before I heard its name, obviously!) and more arid but it was bumpy and there were trees everywhere. We stopped by a lake for a picnic lunch. It was very sunny and hot and, being a Sunday, several people had brought their boats and jet-skis down to the lake for a play.
Later in the afternoon we went to an outlet mall - I'll let you guess who you think wanted to go there. Here's a clue: I sat outside Starbucks the whole time with an iced coffee updating my journal. We went to Ikea for dinner and I was persuaded to try Swedish meatballs, and I can report that they are delicious.
The car we had was a much more sensible one than the Chevy Malibu I had on my own for a week at the start of this trip in April - which seems so very, very long ago now. We had a Chevy Aveo, which is in the 'compact' rental class. I calculated the mileage after gassing up and it was actually worse than the Malibu! Plus it had no power going up a hill. However, the steering actually felt connected to the road, so I could tell how it was handling. In the Malibu it was looser than a cheerleader on prom night.
I also learned a valuable lesson after programming into my GPS the address of the hostel and then ending up nine miles away in west Austin. There's a big difference between "Lakeshore Dr" and "Lakeshore Blvd". From now on once I've programmed the GPS I'll do a quick visual inspection of where it's sending me. Although as we doubled back to the real Lakeshore road we came over a hill and got the most spectacular view of the downtown Austin skyline from above the treeline.
On my second full day in Austin the Swedes left so I headed into town on my own to do the one thing that really interested me - to see the Capitol building. I had read it is taller than the Capitol building in Washington, DC. Although it was impressive it somehow looked smaller - my theory is that the dome is narrower and that gives it an apparent diminished stature.
I went inside for a free guided tour, which was okay if a little short. The building is very nice inside and the tour guide was quite knowledgable, except for one funny moment. She had explained the history of the ownership of Texas and ended by saying it was the 28th state to join the Union. Someone on the tour asked if any other states joined at the same time and, rather than saying "I don't know" the guide said "they could have". That made me chuckle, as it did a grumpy-looking girl on the tour opposite me.
At the end of the tour the guide left us deep within the building for us to continue exploring. As I started to walk back out the grumpy-looking girl asked if I could help her find the way out because she admitted to having no sense of direction. To be fair we had gone down a staircase, around a corner and down a corridor - that's a lot to remember! On our way back to the outside world we discovered that both of us were in town on our own and at a loss for what to do next. So we hung out together. (Plus, still being a gentleman, I had to help a damsel in distress.)
It turned out that Lauren (that's her name) wasn't really grumpy, she'd just had a bad taxi ride in. In fact, because I know she's going to be reading this blog entry, she was incredibly nice, smart and interesting, and delightful company. (That should make up for me pointing out her lack of sense of direction and grumpiness.) She was from Philadelphia and visiting Austin with a friend who was down for a couple of days for work, leaving Lauren two days to fill with the joys of Austin.
We were both disappointed in downtown Austin. We did the only other thing that had appealed to me from the guide book, which was to explore the Texas State History Museum. There was a quite good multimedia show of Texas history told from the perspective of people of the times which is fine, unless you prefer actual historical figures rather than invented characterisations based on real accounts. The main exhibits couldn't have been of much interest because we were out in under half an hour after the show.
In the evening I met her friend, Holly, once she escaped from work. She was also nice, and funny too. We had a friendly rivalry going on because 'my' baseball team, the LA Angels, were playing the Tampa Bay Rays, which she tenuously supported. I took great delight in seeing my team go ahead by the time we left the restaurant. I was equally disappointed to find in the morning that the Angels had been thrashed in the end. Luckily I never had to face her again and be laughed at. (Although the Angels played them again the following day and beat them soundly!)
On the way to dinner we had crossed the Congress Avenue bridge around dusk, at the moment in time when 1.5 million bats emerge from under the bridge to go off and... do whatever it is that bats do at night. Maybe there's a big bat rave in the forest. It was an impressive sight as swarms (flocks?) of bats were visible going off into the distance looking like flocks of birds. Check out my photos from Austin for a picture of this sight.
The next day I hung out with Lauren again. I'd looked on the internet and found a book shop - apparently the largest in Texas - a little way out of downtown but walkable. So I was finally able to buy a book, after not finding one book store in San Antonio, to read on the bus.
So, once again, an otherwise average place was made more enjoyable for me through randomly meeting fun people. I had a really great time in Austin although I'm not sure I'd ever go back. And it continues my experience that you meet the nicest people in the South, even if they've had to come from Sweden or Philadelphia!
After two city stops in this state, it's time to leave Texas and briefly head back east to pick up a couple of states that I've skirted around before I wind northwards eventually to Chicago.
I wonder what Fate has in store for me next...
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