Destination Unknown: Part 11

Keep Austin weird is their slogan. We say: keep Austin green! Austin was a lot more green and lushious than we had expected. We expected just another run of the mill big city. 

Our entry to the city was a bit eventful. We took an early flight from Albuquerque. We were waiting for the driver to return to the bus so we could enter the bus and pay the fare. When they returned they escorted the passengers off the bus and led us to the next bus. Getting on the next bus we tried to pay the fare but the driver told us to just get on as they were running behind schedule. Purrrfect! Another dollar saved to our Disney savings jar! Soon we will have enough money to visit Disney again! On the bus another passenger informed our butler that a disheveled lady had gotten on the bus with a suitcase. She opened the suitcase and started rummaging through the contents. It soon became apparent that this suitcase did not belong to the lady. The lady had walked up to the carousel and snatched a random suitcase in hopes of coming across something valuable. The driver called security and the police and that is why we had to take another bus. As we listened to the story we felt an almost gleeful vindication. We had always been worried about someone snatching our suitcase from the carousel as in most airports for domestic flights the baggage carousel is outside the security. You do not need a ticket or go through security to get from outside the airport to the carousel. As we have voiced our concerns over the years, and thus avoided checking in baggage for our flights within the US, people have only claimed that we were overly paranoid. Now we know we were right about this. It is not surprising however, as we rarely are wrong about anything. Mjau!

We stayed at another hostel again. This one more run down and rickety than the previous hostels. Our butler was about to put the bag in one of the lockers in our room. The locker was already occupied! By a dead cockroach! Our butler immediately decided to sleep with the bag up in our bunk bed, safely secured with a bike lock. 

Delicious lunch at June's All That.

We enjoyed the shops along the South Congress Avenue the most. Colorful vintage stores and independent shops you cannot find in every mall. We had lunch at June's All Day. We could not resist as we saw they had pastrami salmon on the menu. Just as delicious as we remember it being from Disney's Yacht Club Resort. We also ordered a Polynesian Mai Tai that tasted just like the one they serve at Tambu Lounge at Disney's Polynesian Village Resort. It was refreshing with a cocktail as it was extremely hot in Austin.

Si enjoying a delicious cocktail.

Another cocktail for Si.

Speaking of cocktails. One evening we went to Codependent Cocktails + Coffee. They had really nice cocktails and nice relaxing music. Later on they had live music that was a bit too loud to our liking. 

In Austin we mostly just ate at Whole Foods. Mjau, so many delicious foods to try. Shrimp and grits and fried chicken and other comfort foods.

Shrimp and grits, fried chicken, plantains and a key lime cupcake.

More snacks from Whole Foods.

We also visited Texas Military Forces Museum while we were in Austin. The museum had free admission of course, mjau. The bus stop was fairly close to the ID check point. Mjau, it would have been quite a long walk to the museum. Thankfully one of the workers drove us there. The walk back to the bus stop was much shorter. Just a short walk down a driveway. The museum was interesting. We especially enjoyed the different helicopters and planes that were showcased there. When our butler mentioned they were from Finland one of the workers immediately mentioned Leningrad Cowboys (a Finnish rock band). Mjau, we usually have to explain where Finland is, so it was quite impressive for him to have known a fairly obscure Finnish band.

We also visited Texas Capitol, well we mostly walked around the garden. They had nice sculptures and memorials but nothing especially remarkable. We enjoyed walking along the Colorado River a lot more.

After spending a couple of days in Austin it was time for us to head back to Dallas for our return flight. We took the Flixbus from Austin to Dallas as our butler wanted to save some money. The ticket was around 25 USD and the duration of the journey was a bit over 3 hours. We stayed at the Crown Plaza Downtown again. We took a day trip to Fort Worth and we must admit we wished we had stayed there instead of Dallas. It was cleaner and felt more like the Texas we had imagined. Our butler insisted it was better to stay in Dallas as the trains to the airport ran earlier in the morning than from Fort Worth. Last time we listen to our butler!