Austin

Austin is probably my favorite city in the United States. I think the city is the perfect combination of nature and civilization.

I have been to this city several times but just in passing for a few hours. This time I was here for 2 weeks. But the only bad thing is that these 2 weeks were the coldest weeks so far. It was so cold that it snowed for the first time in years.

Because of that, I didn’t get to explore as much as I had hoped. The first night I got into town was going to be the warmest, so I decided to go out and walk through 6th Street. There was a lot of closed places but most restaurants seemed to be opened. It was fun walking through the streets late at night.

I spent a lot of time in the hotel because of the rain and the cold. We would get an hour where the sky would clear up before it started pouring down again. So I took plenty of photos inside the hotel. After taking some self portraits, I would use the telephoto lens and take photos of the sky and some trees. Not my favorite things to do.

Eventually the day came where I got the opportunity to go and take photos. I had to be very careful of where I decided to go shoot because I was only going to get a few hours. I went tot he highest point that overlooked the city and sat there and waited for blue hour.

I knew that the sunset was going to be blocked by the clouds so the blue hour would have to do. It was worth the wait. I took some pretty good photos of the cityscape with the 300mm lens. I even took a Time lapse. As soon as blue hour ended it got really dark.

As soon as I got to the car I turned on the heater and sat for a while to warm up. It began to pour down and with so much darkness around me, I got a little worried. But not as much as when I looked at my gas gage. I was riding on empty and the closest gas station was 20 minutes away.

I must have made it with a few ounces to spare.

I went outside of the city the next few days. There a few roads that seem like they don’t get much travel. Long and empty grasslands with nothing but trees and grass for miles on end.

I came across a field with a lot of donkeys. Spent a few hours with them taking photos and petting them. They were all so nice. I was freezing but I couldn’t get enough of the donkeys.

I had a lot of hamburgers this time around. There were so many amazing restaurants that specialized in them so I had to try them.

On my last day it stopped raining, but the cold never left. It followed me all the way to the airport.