Austin Photo Recap / FFU Is Now On Instagram
FFU On Instagram
All the young kids these days keep talking about Instagram, so I caved and created an FFU Instagram account. I currently have all of 4 followers so if you would like to follow me, please feel free to add me below!
I remember back in my day where we had this thing called film and if you wanted to get your photos developed you had to take them to Walgreens where you inevitably found out that the “great” photos you took on your vacation turned out terrible. Oh the good old days…
Austin Photo Recap
Now that I have Instagram, for Trip Reports I am going to try something new and just do a photo recap of the trip.
Hopefully this will satisfy my friends who say I don’t post enough photos!
Friday
Friday afternoon I was greeted at Midway (MDW) with a long security line and this humorous sign.
I’m sure TSA Agents just hanging out and not opening new security lines has absolutely nothing to do with long lines…
As someone on Twitter said, TSA = Thousands Standing Around!
I couldn’t agree more!
My Southwest flight to Austin was fairly uneventful.
To get from the Austin Airport to Downtown Austin, I took the $1 Airport Bus which was an absolute deal!
Based on his expressions, I am fairly certain this elderly man reading The Onion on the Bus did NOT know it was a fake paper…
After my Cousin arrived in Austin, we hit up Pelon’s for some Tex-Mex.
We had to start off the night right with some margaritas…
After Dinner we hit up 6th Street, which is the main bar strip in Austin.
Literally the entire street is just all bars and they actually shut it down to cars at night.
To make things even better, almost all the bars were playing live music!
We ended up meeting my neighbor who goes to University of Texas – Austin.
Oh the joys of being in college!
Saturday
Saturday morning we decided to walk down South Congress Street to visit Home Slice Pizza.
After eating we wandered down South Congress Street and checked out all the food trucks and shops.
To anyone visiting Austin, I highly suggest talking a walk down this street as it is full of so many interesting shops and restaurants.
We were really surprised to see a Indian Dosa Food Truck since you typically don’t even find dosa’s at Indian Restaurant Buffets.
What is even funnier is that the dosas were being promoted as vegan and gluten-free. Gotta love hipsters!
After spending a few hours wandering South Congress, we stopped at Amy’s Ice Cream and got some Mexican Vanilla Ice Cream.
It was so delicious we ended up coming back on Monday…
South Congress Street also had some pretty cool graffiti!
You can never go wrong with a little Texas Flood!
After South Congress, we decided to try out Rainey Street where they have taken old run down houses and converted them into unique bars.
It was definitely one of our favorite parts of Austin because every establishment was different.
Many of the backyards of these bars were turned into mini-concert venues.
For Dinner we went to Iron Works BBQ. I am not really a huge meat eater, but this place was endorsed by George W. Bush and that was all the proof I needed.
Let’s just say Mission Accomplished because this place was delicious and we had no problem liberating our entire plate of food.
After Dinner, we headed back to Rainey Street for some live music & libations.
We even got to visit the White House!
This neon sign was in one of the bars / houses.
It sums up Austin pretty well, “Everything Is Good Here”.
Sunday
Sunday and Monday, we used my Cousin’s Zipcar account to rent a car in Austin for $50 for 5 hours.
We used the car to drive around Austin & the surrounding areas.
Although it wasn’t a convertible, Mini Coopers are really fun to drive!
We heard about a Kite Festival in Zilker Park, so we headed on over to check it out and were blown way (no pun intended) by what we saw.
There were literally thousands of people flying thousands of kites! It was unreal!
After Zilker Park, we visited Mount Bonnell which is the “highest point” in Austin.
The houses in the valley below were fairly spectacular!
Monday
On Monday, we again rented a Zipcar and this time used to it trek out to Driftwood, TX to visit the world famous Salt Lick.
This place is a good 25 miles outside of Austin and is literally in the absolute middle of nowhere, yet still has 1,400 Yelp Reviews…
Texans will apparently go any distance for some good BBQ!
Even though we were stuffed, we made reservations for a late dinner at Uchi, which is known as the best sushi restaurant in Austin.
It was a bit pricey but a very relaxing end to our trip!
Tuesday
My flight coming back to Chicago on Tuesday afternoon actually got canceled due to a Chicago snow storm so I took a gamble and rebooked for a 6AM direct flight.
Unfortunately boarding was delayed because there was a small colony of bats in the jet bridge. The plane actually had to back away from the jet bridge to let them out.
It was definitely one of the most unique flying experiences I have had!
In spite of the bats, luckily my gamble on a 6AM flight paid off because as soon as we landed in Chicago, the majority of flights in and out of Midway were canceled.
Recap
Visiting Austin was the first time (with the exception of Houston for the SMD4), that I have visited the South as an Adult.
For some reason or the other I just have never had a strong desire to visit the South, and honestly was a bit skeptical when my Cousin suggested that we visit Austin, Texas.
In hindsight, I am 100% thankful that I threw caution to the wind and ended up going to Austin because it quickly became one of my favorite U.S cities.
The people there are all very polite, it is extremely quirky, and is full of great restaurants and bars.
A lot of people think that you have to go to a different Country or Continent to experience a different culture but truth be told, you can get a similar experience in the United States.
If it wasn’t 115 degrees in the Summer, I’d probably strongly consider moving to Austin.
For anyone that has never been to Austin, trust me that it is definitely a place you want to visit. You will not be disappointed!
-Parag
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