Austin - Texas State Capital

For some reason the Austin Greyhound Bus Terminal is nowhere near the city centre, and I had to cross a motorway and take a local bus to the Downtown area. Thank goodness for Google Maps! I was staying in hostel accommodation in a converted fire station, and was glad to arrive there and enjoy the air conditioning due to the searing Texan heat outside. I got a very warm welcome - would you like a free ice cold beer? Would I! My room mates were Mitch from Australia and Karl from Sweden - both very polite and here to sample Austin’s famous music scene. I managed to bag a comfy bottom bunk this tine. (I forgot to mention that my last experience of being in a hostel was in San Luis Obispo when I was in a mixed dorm and had the top berth of a very squeaky and shaky bunk bed. As I tried to creep into my bunk in the darkness, the old lady in the berth below cried out ‘well, it’s been a long time since I had a man climb on top of me!’ If only she knew).

I enjoyed a walk round Austin - signs everywhere saying ‘Keep Austin weird’. I visited the State Capitol Building - the biggest in the country - well, it is Texas. Then Austin’s next top attraction - looking out for 1.5 million bats flying out from under the Colorado River Bridge at dusk. (I told you Austin was weird). Hundreds of tourists waited in vain but the bats were clearly having a long lie in tonight.

Live music seemed to emanate from every bar in this music city, but I headed back to the fire station in case any one else stole my lower bunk.Read more