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Published: March 5th 2010
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Its late I know.
It started out as another one of those "Jonno what are you doing in November" and due to work obstacles hampering efforts by both of us to get away we eventually end up in Austin Texas the first weekend of December 2009. Now not one to enjoy the cold AT ALL, I figured Texas equals warm, good steak, and just as notably Austin would equal warm, Tex Mex and live music. The day I leave its freezing in Jacksonville so I figure Im looking at a nice warm weekend away. I get to the airport and my flight has been cancelled. No warning, no phonecall or email, just a sorry you're flight is cancelled because Houston got 3 inches of snow. Now Im not from here but Ive never heard of Houston getting 3 inches of snow and apparently the last time it happened I was trying to break 2 molars , but in all her efficiency the lady cheerily informed me that I could leave tomorrow. Fat lot of good that will do considering Im only staying 2 damn nights. Lucky for me I remained calm (unnatural I know) and the lady offered me a
Downtown
Avoiding being run over. different flight. So in the interest of American efficiency I flew 800 miles north to New Jersey where I was at that time 50 miles away from my soon to be travelling companion and then flew 1200 miles south west to end up at my destination Austin TX......anyway
Austin is a college town and is known across American for live music, Tex Mex Cuisine and good college drinking spots. After being stuck in Newark airport and its drab 1980 interior design I decided a few wines were in order so hitting Austin with a relaxed attitude and a "where will I drink now" peace of mind I checked in and began walking around this funky little town. I bar crawled for 3 hrs, got the important info off the locals (where to drink/eat), and before I knew it Jonno had arrived it was 1am and time to settle in for the night for our adventure to Texas. The next morning we figured we would wander around aimlessly for the day. It hadn't warmed up much but the sun was out and we wanted to get out as much as possible. It was at this time that Jonno mentioned a
Hats
Time to Dress Up Xmas exhibit that was supposedly being held at the exhibition centre just a few streets down. Now not overly into the Xmas spirit I was somewhat dubious but figured why not? So we arrive at the exhibition centre, Jonnoarmed with his large touristy camera and me carrying my digital. Our first thought upon entering was that for some reason there are a lot of adolescent girls around. Not really thinking anything of it we continue our journey through looking for anything Xmasy and the more we walk the more girls we see in cheerleading outfits. Not only was there no Xmas exhibit we had stumbled across the regional cheerleading finals for middle schools in Texas. Frantically putting cameras away and trying to look like we were there for the business conference upstairs we hightailed it out of there to the looks of curious parents...Jonno swears he had no idea.
After swiftly removing ourselves from the cheerleading meet, we headed to the river area took photos of anything and everything and headed to the state capital building where we proceeded to ride on civil war antiques 'unintentionally' and then sneak away from security looking for people causing a scene. Inside
Lunch
8 Dollars for a meal that probably stays 8 days. we were greeted by Xmas carolers and a building full of grandeur and scenic architecture. After walking around and building an appetite it was beer o'clock and with Jonno not yet having tried real American BBQ we headed to the Ironworks building where for 8 bucks you would struggle to get through 2/3 of your meal. Armed with a beer buzz college football and bars beckoning we began our pub crawl through Austin in the cold which just facilitated more bars and shitty trinket shopping resulting in a parade of hats glasses and anything silly we could find. That night we met up with a mate of Jonnos and we dined on Tex Mex more beer and then a quick tour around the University of Texas. After leaving his mate we were still eager to head out so we ended up at a place recommended to me which was the dueling pianos. A group of guys 2 pianos, old catchy tunes, humour, and drinks flowing until early morning ensured a really good night out.
Slow to rise the next day we decided brunch was in order so we headed to a place recommended to me by a guy I
had met while gulping wine in Newark. The Moonshine brunch did not disappoint and we ate from a very impressive southern buffet until nothing else would fit...oh except a few pomegranate mimosas of course. After taking a liking to the jar type water glasses I shoved one at Jonno and put the other in my jumper, it wouldn't fit so one of us (not I) ended up clinking our way out of the place but leaving a tip that would cover at least one of them...that and our server was cool and said he broke them all the time.
Faced with scattered rain we decided to finish our journey by heading to the shopping district recommended by the concierge. It wasn't anything decent although we did get a laugh at the pet store where you could take your pet in for a pic with santa and we pretended we were interested in buying overpriced ergonomic ugly furniture from a store so that entertained us for a while. On the walk back it was time again for funny hats bad trinket shops and before we knew it another adventure was over. We saw some steers and some queers, but trust me Texas has more than that.
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