Nerve Endings Firing Away

As mentioned earlier, Ash and I spent most of spring break week in Austin. We were down there for work-related training but thankfully, we could sneak in a few glimpses of the quaint little city. Austin is the capital of the state of Texas but culturally it is far from being representative of Texas. Distinctly blue [as opposed to red elsewhere in the state] in political ideology, even the now-famous slogan – Keep Austin Weird – perfectly exemplifies Austin’s desire to stand out from the rest of Texas. It isn’t a place you can visit over the weekend and take couple of pictures and tick it off your to-visit places. I believe, the best way to experience Austin is either to live there or at least work there over the summer.

The drive from College Station to Austin is particularly interesting. Different in a way that we never touch an Interstate and considering how widespread and ubiquitous the highway system is, that is quite an achievement. Interstates are best for going from point A to point B in the most efficient manner but then all interstates look alike. As Charles Kuralt said, “Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.” Anyone who has traveled around in the U.S. knows how true that is. Luckily (or unluckily; depends on your mood and need to get there), you cannot use an Interstate to get to Austin from College Station. Now, mind you, this is Texas and even a FM (farm-to-market) road can be five lanes. But TX-6, FM-391, and US-79 are hardly your typical highways (after a point though). For most part of the journery, we went along 2-lane roads having to drive on the wrong side of the road to overtake (had done that last in India.) The roads pass through small towns whose population hardly number to a thousand and the only time you notice is when the speed limit drops drastically. The fields can stretch out for miles dotted with the occasional opulent-looking ranch with gleaming white picket fences with horses strutting around.

The larger towns are mostly industrial silhouetted by futuristic-looking grain silos complete with railroad coming right up to them. The only structure taller than these silos are the spectator stands along the football fields. Texans take their football seriously and any avid fan of Friday Night Lights will know the passion and fervor that grips an entire town for an otherwise small school team. State Championship Title banners followed by the year in which they won them are proudly displayed and you can see them right from the road. Probably such banners are the only reason out-of-towners or even other native Texans know that these towns exist.

But this drive still isn’t your typical Texan landscape. Largely green and undulating, it isn’t half as harsh and dry as those Westerns make them look. To get a look at that, you’ve to drive west for another 300-400 miles. And you’ll still be far from Texas’ west border. Everyone with the exception of Alaskans are blown away by the size of Texas. Texans may exaggerate but they aren’t lying. That said, we hardly saw any of these sights on our way to Austin because it was raining buckets and visibility was restricted to few dozen feet ahead. Flash flooding warnings were in effect (a poor old man was washed away in Georgetown, the news told us later) and thanks to emergency road closures, we could hardly take in the sights. Thankfully, the weather was glorious on our way back and we were much more relaxed.

Our days were completely occupied by the training and by the time we got out at 5pm, there was hardly any time for us to catch the sights. Ash and I are ardent foodies and love binging out on different cuisines. Ash will religiously dig up local places that get the highest reviews and are known for their history, tradition, ambiance, and good food. And being on a student budget, prices are a top priority But you would be surprised at how much choice we still have. The first day, we dined at Threadgills’, a local diner that served chicken fried steak in a small ad-hoc-ly modified diner complete with a band and shiny stainless steel interiors. I’ve had my share of southern food which after a while doesn’t agree with you as you get more weight conscious so that’s why I probably didn’t quite enjoy the experience.

The next day we went down to Lake Austin (the river dammed at intervals make a reservoir which locals call a lake) and chilled out at Mozarts’, a homely coffee shop frequented by UT students and nearby residents. We have a knack for checking out such quaint coffee shops wherever we go. Java Monkey was a favorite haunt when I lived in Atlanta and we hung out at Bongo Java while in Nashville. Dinner was had at Hula Hut, a Hawaiian themed restaurant that serves Tex Mex. Sound like an odd combination, but the food was awesome. To top it, the restaurant was located right off the pier on the lake. After refusing sidey seats which I refer to as the ‘brown section’, we got prime seats near the water’s edge. Unfortunately, I couldn’t drink since I was the designated driver and Ash made things worse by ordering a scrumptious looking mango-strawberry margarita. She let me have a little sip though.

Down the road from our training center, we were pointed out by a ‘classmate’ to a lookout point over Bridge 360. The underbelly of the bridge is known to be home to millions of bats which unfortunately were away on their winter jaunt to Mexico. No border fence stops them from returning. But the short climb atop a cliff that overlooked the bridge and the Colorado river flowing underneath was totally worth it. A useful tip while traveling – always ask locals for tips on places to visit. No tour book is going to help you that way.

We didn’t even make it to Austin downtown and nope, didn’t check out the bars on 6th Street either. We couldn’t even check out the UT campus (remained loyal to the Aggie spirit…yeah, whatever!) Some might consider that shocking but we aren’t the pub-hopping types and also, although we wanted to we just didn’t have enough time to spare. Probably a second trip to Austin is warranted. Ash on the other hand wants to move here for good. There is that little issue of getting my PhD done though.

Technorati Tags: Austin, Texas, travel, Hula Hut, Mozarts, Threadgills, travel