Hot Hot Hot
June 23rd, 2008 by Zofia
For at least two months before arriving in Austin, Texas the friends we would be staying with had warned us that the weather was currently “hot as hell” and that we should bring only our coolest clothes, so stepping out of Austin Bergstrom Airport I couldn’t really exclaim surprise about the heat, except for the fact that it was 8.30 at night and was still sweltering! This hot temperature was something that I got used to though over the course of the week and when it came time to fly back to London I was really sad to be leaving because it really was so nice.
We were greeted at the airport by Trevor’s smiling face, which Mum and Lynsey had seen only 6 months before but I hadn’t seen for two whole years! When he got us back to the house we were greeted by Amiel’s smiling face which I was equally pleased to see. It was nice to arrive in a new land but have something familiar in it to make it feel instantly like home!
It was dark when we drove into Austin from the airport so I didn’t get to see much of where I had arrived but the next morning, with the sun shining and the sky a lovely shade I blue I got to appreciate the beautiful periwinkle blue house we were staying in as well as the nice feel of the surrounding area.
We had a very busy schedule planned out for us over the next week, taking in places mum and Lynsey wanted to re-visit, places none of us had ever been too, and plenty of people to see, I was looking forward to it. So, Sunday morning began with brunch and some friends of Trevor and Amiel’s. It was a nice way to start our visit, all very relaxed, just like we were at home. After brunch Amiel took Mum, Lynsey and I on our first shopping trip, we went to DSW Shoes which is this amazing bargain store full of designer shoes at warehouse (and cheaper) prices – AMAZING!!- I walked out of there a little while later with 2 new pairs of shoes, oh dear I can see this trip is already going to bad on my luggage weight allowance for the trip back to London!
We had lunch that day at a Mexican Restaurant, the first Mexican meal of many on this trip. The food was great and only got better as the week went on!
After lunch we hopped back into the hot car and drove off to Central Market, the most amazing food store ever! It is better than any supermarket I have been into and was full of so much fresh food as well as packaged food – plus all the free samples of things made visiting this market an experience to be remembered, not your typical trip to the supermarket for supplies. I think if I lived in Austin I could quite happily go to Central Market on a regular basis!
Sunday ended with a lovely home cooked meal with another friend of Amiel and Trevor’s. Day one in Austin… I am loving this place so far!
Monday morning I had a slow and relaxed start to the day and the first trip out of the house was to have more Mexican food for lunch, this time it was at Hula Hut, this incredibly kitsch restaurant on Lake Austin, I absolutely loved this place – there should be more places like this in the world! Lunch today was with some of Lynsey’s friends whom he met though his blog about gardening.
Lunch was again delicious, here they served freshly cooked tortilla chips with salsa for everyone at the table to munch on and they re-filled the basket of chips when they got low, the problem was they were so good that you kept eating them even after you had finished your actual lunch because they were sitting in front of you asking to be eaten!
Later in the afternoon we were taken to Barton Springs for a refreshing swim in cold water! With temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius, the cold water of Barton Springs cooled you down to the core and made the heat much more bearable. Barton Springs is a natural spring which has been fenced off at one end so that it can be used like a swimming pool, but there is still a current flowing through and the natural slimy rocks under your feet. There was even the odd fish and turtle swimming along beside us! What an amazing place. It was relatively inexpensive to get into as well which was handy.
Another amazing dinner cooked by Amiel and more of her friends to meet… I am really beginning to feel like I could live here amongst all these great people, in this lovely climate! The evening ended with our very own screening of Trevor’s film “Drawing Closer“, which is based on his experiences of visiting children with cancer. Mum and Lynsey are in the credits of the film as they were there when it was being filmed 6 months earlier and helped out with it. It was an inspirational film and the star of the show, Cambell Westmoreland, was brilliant, that boy has a great career ahead of him I am sure!
We had a relatively early night that night as we were off on a day trip to San Antonio on Tuesday.