robbo and leeazaa’s travel adventures

Our final weekend was spent in one of our favourite cities of our trip – Austin, Texas. Matt and Lauren (who we met earlier on our travels) invited us to stay the weekend and see some of the nightlife of Austin.

First up was a bit of sight-seeing at Mount Bonnell – kind of like the Kings Park equivalent of Austin. We got there just at the right time too to watch as the sun set. The river is lined with mansions and we were forever trying to spot Matthew McConaughey or Lance Armstrong – but alas, no luck.

How's the serenity

Robster and I

Matt and Lozza

After some dinner we headed out to the Warehouse District of the city. Since we hadn’t been to that part of town before it was great to see what else Austin had to offer. First up was a bar with 100’s of beers available – and even an Australian beer besides Fosters woohoo!

Rob seems to be a magnet for bums bumming money. And this night was no exception. We somehow managed to have a bum serenading us – and he just would not shut up. Finally Rob flipped him a buck and told him to work on his pitch.

Awkward moment with the bum

The next night we were lucky enough to go to Lauren’s dad’s place for a premature birthday celebration for Matt. The food was incredible and we had air hockey and pool to entertain us. We had so many laughs it was ridiculous – Laurens brother in particular was pretty hilarious.

Me being schooled at air hockey

Doubles

Linda, Matt, Lauren and Marty

A big thanks to Matt and Lauren for letting us intrude for the weekend. We had a great time and would love to repay the favour sometime.

So we are off to Japan tomorrow – should be a bit of a cultural change. Lets hope we don’t get lost straight away.

Leeane

PS> I bought an iPod touch (an early birthday present from Rob) and it is awesome!

Tags: austin, texas

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