robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

We decided to take a Greyhound bus to get to Austin from San Antonio which was a 2 hour bus ride of kids kicking the back of our seats and people talking overly loud on cell phones. For 2 hours though, it was easily bearable and gave us a chance to see the intercity landscape. Turns out there wasn’t that much ‘landscape’ as there’s always a fast food outlet in sight.

After arriving in Austin and catching a taxi to our hotel, we went for a bite to eat down the infamous 6th Street area. The street is lined with pubs and eateries and has a young, alternative feel to it which is not surprising considering the University of Texas in the vicinity. I had the pleasure of trying a local burger called ‘The Coronary’ which lived up its name with its deep-fried pickle filling and general artery clogging goodness.

The following day after doubling my cholesterol medication we took a tour through the Capitol Building

Capitol Couple

It’s a deceptively big building that also contains an extensive underground section.

View from outside

Looking up at the dome

Looking down from the top of the dome

After checking out the capitol building we moved onto the University of Texas campus and the main drag of shops that line the campus perimeter. The campus itself is more like a smallish city and although we spent about an hour within the campus we only saw about a quarter of it.

UT Tower and me

Leeane pointing to where the tower is in case you don't see it

We also checked out the UT Coop shop which is basically a shop that has everything branded with the ‘Longhorns’ logo. Garden gnomes, ashtrays, wedding bands, hammers (yes, longhorn hammers!) and even shoes. It’s crazy, but for some reason I would really like a Longhorns hammer!

While we were checking out some largely abandoned foodhalls on the strip of UT, we passed by an Army Recruiting office, when we passed by again on the way out I told Leeane that if we loiter around long enough then I guy will come out and try to recruit us. Sure enough, within about 5 seconds a grunt came out of the door and introduced himself and tried to persuade me to enlist. Attempting to get out of it I mentioned that we were Australian and he shouldn’t waste his time, instead he said that we could enlist as ‘registered aliens’ if we wished. The guy was pretty persistent but we were able to get away with just a business card that we promised to pass onto someone that looked like a promising recruit. Although I didn’t enlist, I passed on Braden’s details and signed some blank document on his behalf which the recruiter said he would type up later…. don’t know what that is all about.

We met some local friends at the park behind the Capital and we managed to snap a few shots. This is the first time we’ve seen squirrels up close since we’ve been here, we should have seen some at Uncle Bobs but apparently Duffy has chased them all away.

peek a boo!

scratching his butt against a tree....

We also finally got around to trying out the Subway alternative Quiznos and just like Uncle Bob said, it is loads better than Subway. We’ll definitely be hitting that up again a couple times before we leave.

Also we bumped into some Aussies staying at our hotel, they are the first Australians we’ve seen so far and likewise for them. They told us that they came over from Iceland flying Iceland Air and they had an engine explode and catch fire just after take off! Note to self, don’t fly Iceland Air!

Rob

Tags: austin