The husband and I had the grand pleasure of visiting Austin for 4 nights and 5 days so I could attend the Paleo f(X) conference, which I wrote about last week. We took three days off work — like legit, I didn’t even check my email once! You should be proud! — so we could have some unencumbered fun.
The Architecture
The buildings in this town totally took me by surprise. There was such a variety of styles! Some super modern, reminding me of Rotterdam, and others so old and traditional.
We stayed in a really hip little neighborhood that featured a confusing mélange of housing styles — some old fashioned bungalows and cottages, some very run down, all mixed in amongst hyper modern geometric boxes. All of the following photos are of houses on the SAME STREET. Totally wacky and we love it!
The Green
We walked over 35 miles over 5 days, which was not only great for our bodies and an awesome way to become intimate with a city, but was actually really easy to do in Austin (some places make it more difficult).
The Character
I search out street art wherever we go, and it wasn’t hard to find in Austin. I’m also a fan of murals, sculptures, and anything a city does to make itself unique and showcase the spirit of its people.
The Food
We ate our way through this city, from the moment we dropped stuff off at our AirBNB to sitting at the airport on our way out. We didn’t stop eating or drinking, and we were able to experience the wide variety of food and culture that Austin offers. Tacos, bbq, seafood, healthy food, it was all delicious.
Austin has a ton of, for lack of a better word, outdoor food courts. This is something I think Nashville could support but we just don’t have; it reminded us a lot of our time in Budapest. There was one right down the block from our AirBNB where I had the most amazing shrimp taco of my life. (We went back to the next day for another.)
We find that one of the best ways to get to know a city is by sitting at restaurant bars and always talking to the bartenders about their favorite spots. How do they spend their free time? Where do they like to eat? What made them move to this town? Conversations with Lyft drivers also reveal much about a city’s character. We learned that Austin is a friendly, healthy, artistic, vibrant city full of festivals and outdoor activities and a chill “you do you” vibe that attracts lots of outdoorsy, liberal, creative people.
The spot Justin went alone are yellow. Green are restaurants. Red are bars. Blue are attractions or non-food/drink related places.
We hit every corner of Austin!
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[…] we need to give each other space and quiet even (or especially) on the road. On our recent trip to Austin, we came back to our AirBNB rather early most nights; Justin would wind down researching sportsball […]