Believe it or not, I had never really seen Austin before this weekend. Well, unless you count a fourth-grade field trip to the
Texas National Capitol (which, as the tour guide informed us at the time, is a taller, more majestic, pink granite version of that other one in Washington), and I did visit for an afternoon a couple years ago for my brother's lacrosse tournament. But, as my peers at UT have been reminding me for years, you haven't
really seen Austin until you've been to
6th Street.
And so on Saturday morning, I finally packed my overnight bag and made my pilgrimage (required of all 20-something residents of Texas at some point during their college careers) to Austin. Below is the evidence that remains from my weekend trip to Houston's free-willed younger sister, located two and a half hours northwest of H-Town city limits.
The drive
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| Welcome to the Silicon Hills |
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| The sky always seems bigger in Texas |
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| Approaching downtown Austin |
South Congress (SoCo)
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| First stop: South Congress Avenue |
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| Didn't take long to spot my first live Austinite hippie |
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| Enormous costume store |
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| Free trade crafts |
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| SoCo food trucks |
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| Local wares |
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| Cooling off in the shade |
Maria Maria
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| Reunion! |
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| Kirby's crew |
6th Street
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| "This is low season" |
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| Randomly ran into a bunch of friendly Germans at Kung Fu |
Whole Foods Flagship Store
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| Austin's hometown grocery store |
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Kirby's mom made fun of me for taking pictures.
Kirby pretended not to know me. |
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Ended up choosing the goat cheese sandwich over the Korean barbecue dish
(because when goat cheese is bad, I blame the goat, but when bulgolgi is bad,
I blame globalization). 'Twas an excellent choice. |
University of Texas
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| The Tower |
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| Littlefield House |
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| View of the Capitol building |
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| Lotus pond |
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| Maybe I should have applied here... |
The Drag (Guadalupe)
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| More artists |
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| Until next time! |
Definitely coming back soon—24 hours was far too short to take in the whole city but still long enough to make me a fan. After all, how could I not love a city whose motto is "Keep Austin Weird"?
Shout-out to the Kirbster, her roommates,
die Deutschen and the hospitable residents at the corner of 25th and San Gabriel for showing me how it's done.
