Austin walkabout

With the conference concluded I set out to discover downtown Austin. The hostel is the most expensive hostel I've ever stayed in and the quiet hours start at 2am, I am partying tonight! 6th Street is right around the corner so that won't be hard to do with all the live music there.

I check out the architecture from the 1800s that is still visible all around the city despite the recent surge in skyscrapers forming a brand new city horizon.

I walk to the new library right on the Colorado river, not the one most of us know, this one was sometimes called Rio de Los Brazos and the names for two nearby rivers were confused for a long time. The library is amazingly modern and has a superb deck overlooking the other side of the river.

After a snack on the river side I rent a kayak and float around. The bridge is a bat sanctuary, a habitat was created specifically for them and between 750,000 and 1.5 million bats reside there. A flotilla of crafts is stationary below the bridge and the walkway above is created work people awaiting the spectacle of the emerging bats.

In the evening I hang out on 6th Street listing to live music, a blues open mic session.Read more