After nearly two weeks in California, we decided to mix things up a bit and headed back inland to the mid-west with particular destination Austin, Texas. You might ask yourself why on earth we would go there out of all places but we had heard from one or two of the lucky people that had been there that it's a have to go there and see for yourself kind of place.

Upon arrival to 40 degree heat and blow-heater winds, we took a bus ride to a small downtown that seemed more dead than alive and there were no signs of this being the self proclaimed "live music capital of the world". We were definitely getting skeptical. We arrived on a Friday as we were recommended to spend the weekend there and managed to find a Chabad to go to to rekindle our Jewish spirits and celebrate the Sabbath properly. We joined Rabbi Yosef Levertov's service and he kindly invited us back to his house for a fantastic Shabbos dinner. Meeting everyone there and being part of the community for the night was a great experience and the excellent home cooked meal reminded us what good food really is.

When we got back to 6th Street we were hit with the reason that we were told to go to Austin. The street was closed off for about 4 blocks and there were just people everywhere. Bars were packed, bands were playing, people filled the street and we were literally shocked by the transformation from what we had seen that afternoon. This IS the reason to go to Austin and we had arrived! What a jol! The only problem is that it stops at 2am but we got to repeat it in all its glory on Saturday night. We can only imagine what this place must be like when varsity is in as 6th St is on the doorstep of the biggest university in the US, University of Texas.

There isn't a whole lot to do in Austin during the day, especially in the kind of heat we were in. But we went past the Capital Building, built in similar fashion to the one in D.C. and also found the local "beach" - Barton Creek Springs - a natural spring that stretches for a couple hundred of meters that was full of swimmers and is lined on both sides by grass and trees for chilling.

Definitely go spend a weekend in Austin! (But it must be over a weekend and not midweek.)

Trek on…Brett and Darren