Stevens in the States

What a superb place!

I went to Austin for the weekend with my friends Rach and Alex... and it's awesome. I was always intrigued by it since the South By South West festival that was covered in depth by my previous radio station, and also because of the Austin City Limits festival that happens there in a month from now. Of the 200 or so acts, Keane, Coldplay and Oasis are performing. Not a bad line-up really.

Anyway, Austin. My first real trip outside of Dallas, and it was great. Here's some photos...

From left to right it's Alex, me and Rach. I drove, Rachel did make-up (not on me) and Alex had our schedule perfectly worked out. At least, it would have been if we'd not been lured by the power of alcohol now and then.

This is a breakfast, Austin style. Kinda beats a dodgy continental brekky somewhere. This sandwich is from "Katz"... a Jewish restaurant where we had cocktails at midday. It's open 24 hours a day, as much of Austin seems to be.

A musician's dream... a lane where only musicians can park! This was on 6th Street, one of the main centres of attraction, particularly for music and drink. We spent some time in a pub where a tradiional folk/country group were playing. And talking of signs...

...here's another great one. No kids allowed out at night. Superb. There were enough people out at night anyway, the place was packed on all streets. Great bars though, great pubs, and the club was pretty good as well.

We also saw the bats flying out from under congress bridge at about 8 o'clock on Saturday evening, which was pretty amazing. There's tens of thousands of them that fly out each evening (where? no idea) and as they do so, they look like puffs of smoke on the horizon. Flying smoke.

Lots more to tell you, let's do it down the pub.