Austin, Texas or Awesome Texas as I would like to call it, is located in central Texas. Austin is also the capital of Texas, named after Stephen F Austin, the Father of Texas. To me Austin is a city with distinct personality, where people are encouraged to be themselves – hence the slogan: “Keep Austin weird”, that you’ll see pretty much everywhere. The people are unbelievably friendly, the outdoors are awesome and there is always something going on when it comes to entertainment.

Music and Nightlife :

Austin is known as the Live Music capital of the world ,with more music venues per capita than any other city in the US. The annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival is held in March and is one of the largest music festivals in the US. Check out SXSW.com for more info. Most pubs and music venues are in and around the famous 6th street, which is seen as the centre of entertainment in Austin. The cool thing about 6th street is that the street is blocked from traffic on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Just ask anyone and they’ll be able to direct you there. I can honestly say that if you love music you don’t have a choice, but to visit Austin and attend a live music gig.

University of Texas at Austin

UT Austin has approximately 50 000 students, making it one of the largest campuses in the entire US. This huge student population definitely adds to the energy and vibrance of the city .UT  Texas is known for its excellent academic program and of course the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns have won 4 National football championships (as of 2010/2011), making them a true football powerhouse. The fact that Austin does not have an NFL franchise ,has added to the huge support the Longhorns receive , with regular crowd attendances at the Darrel K Royal stadium in excess of 100 000 people! If you in Austin during football season you’d better not miss the opportunity to attend a game! See TexasSports.com for official Texas sport event information.

Outdoors

When walking around Austin, you’ll very quickly realize that an aggressive effort is made to keep Austin green. Zilker Park, located south of downtown, is a great place to go for a jog or bike ride after work or to just go and relax on a Sunday afternoon. The Austin City Limits Music festival (ACL Festival) is held annually in Zilker park and attracts upwards of 70 000 people daily. This is usually held at the end of September. See AclFestival.com for more info. Lake Travis is located on the Colorado River and about a 30 minute drive by car from Austin. I would really suggest taking a loved one for a romantic dinner at one of the many great restaurants on the banks of Lake Travis.

Transport

Downtown Austin is pretty small and you can easily walk around. For me  Austin is a relatively big city, but still maintains that small town feel. That is something I undoubtedly love about the city. If you stay close to downtown you could very easy walk to most places. Alternatively you could use Capital Metro buses that go from downtown to pretty much anywhere. But if you intend to stay say more than 5 miles from downtown, I would rather drive. Austin is served by the Austin-Bergstrom International airport, which is located about 5 miles from downtown Austin. It is a nice sized airport that makes navigation really easy.

Personally I would classify Austin as a beautiful and modern city that is a little different from the rest of Texas. One thing to note is that Austin gets unbelievably humid during summer , so between Feb and April would probably be the best times to travel there.The official travel website of the city of Austin can be found at AustinTexas.org. When initially arriving in Austin the plan was to only stay for a week or two. After my second week I realized that I had fallen in love with the city, its people, the beautiful landscape and the great food. I ended up staying for almost 3 months!

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