Austin, Texas

The official motto of this city, the capital of Texas is: "Keep Austin Weird"and it's clear that the residents intend to do just that. Austin has been one of the most laidback places we've visited, it almost feels like a small part of California has been planted right in the centre of Texas. Our hostel is situated a thirty minute walk outside of the city overlooking the Town Lake, a stretch of the Colorado river that has been dammed and is primarily used for leisure activities. The weather has been glorious for the past few days so we have spent much of our time relaxing on the veranda or strolling about town. We arrived on election day to find that the hostel's common room was being used as a polling station. It was interesting to see American democracy in action particularly the hi-tech electronic voting booths which were being used. We haven't paid a lot of attention to the exact results of the voting but the general impression we have from talking to people is that there was a marked change in fortune for the Democrats.
The city itself has a very liberal attitude, it is possible to ride the bus for 24 hours for only one dollar and you can even borrow free yellow mountain bikes to get about the place. The gigantic University of Texas makes up a lot of the north end of the downtown area and many of the shops, restaurants and bars cater specifically for students. One of the most interesting places we stumbled across is the Alamo Drafthouse Theatre which shows classic and cult movies and holds various themed nights. For example, we were very disappointed we missed out on seeing The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the big screen with an all you can eat pizza buffet. Last night we ate a place called Bouldin Creek which had a large selection of vegetarian and vegan food. This fact alone illustrates just how different Austin is to the rest of Texas.
On our first full day here we went to the cinema to see Sacha Baron-Cohen's new film Borat. It was of particular interest to us because it involves a trip across the United States. We were also intrigued to see how an audience of Americans would react to Borat's particularly controversial style of reporting. It is probably the most shockingly offensive film either of us has ever seen but it had us in stitches throughout. Surprisingly enough the whole audience reacted in a similar manner and we have since heard that there is already a bidding war in progress over who will fund his next film. That evening we went down to 6th Street with a couple of other British guys from the hostel for a few drinks and games of pool.
We spent most of the next day at the hostel chatting with our fellow hostellers, playing frisbee and board games and enjoying the sunshine. In the afternoon we hired a canoe and set out to explore the Town Lake. There are bicycle and hiking trails that encircle the water and the Texas University rowing team use the particular stretch we were on to prepare for competitions. While we were out there we saw a variety of birds including cranes, herons and swans that inhabit the several small islands that are dotted about the lake. We headed downstream roughly half a mile as far as Congress Bridge which was specifically designed to allow the vast colonies of bats that pass through this area to nest there. Unfortunately we haven't seen any bats as it is reaching the end of the season and the majority of them have flown elsewhere. However, we spent a fair amount of time viewing the city skyline from the water and watched the sunset before we headed back upstream. We hope to get out on the water again at some point when we reach California.
Yesterday we looked into hiring a car so we could drive 700 miles to Denver in Colorado. But the amount of money we'd have to pay to drop off the car in a different location and the extra fees they charge for being under 25 years of age meant that it was far too expensive. We've decided to catch a train to Dallas tomorrow and stay there overnight before catching a Greyhound bus to Denver. Once there we will hire a car for a few days so that we can tour around some of the hostels in the Rocky Mountains and take in some of the spectacular scenery.