The railroad I've been riding since Los Angeles is called the Sunset Limited. It goes all the way to New Orleans, taking about 48 hours to do so, but of course I've been hopping on and off at shorter intervals. New Orleans is hosting the Jazz Fest and the trains are full of ancient black musicians making the trip east, often providing vocal accompaniment to the (instrumental) piped muzak in the lounge car, and occasionally even offering up a few close harmonies a cappella. Sometimes you don't mind it when the train goes slowly.
I've now taken a little detour away from the Sunset Limited, with the Texas Eagle train taking me up to Austin. It's the fourth most populous city in Texas, after Dallas and San Antonio and Houston, but it's the state capital and undoubtedly it's the cultural capital too. Austin was always one of my main priorities for this trip and has certainly lived up to expectations. It's friendly, sunny, full of open green spaces; the traffic is light, the food is great, and the chief leisure pastime for the local womenfolk seems to be jogging round the lake wearing next to nothing. (Before the Sexism Police get on my case, let me assure you there's even more male flesh on display.)
My hostel has a piano with all of its keys functioning and in tune, which is rare indeed. After listening to a couple of my fellow guests take turns to bash out 'Chopsticks', or whatever, I felt obliged to raise the tone a bit with a few Bach preludes and the slow movement from the 'Moonlight' sonata. As you do.
On the whole Texas is a place where all of your preconceptions and prejudices can be confirmed or confounded with equal ease, depending on where you look. Yes, everyone drives pointlessly big pick-up trucks (although if the wife needs a little runabout then they may have a Range Rover too); but on the other hand there are feminist bookshops and plenty of vegetarian restaurants. Also, I've been in this state well over a week, and I haven't seen a single firearm other than in a police holster.
My main tip to anyone visiting in the future is Kebabalicious, a little stall on the corner of Congress and 7th, serving utterly divine Turkish kebabs. The queue was halfway down the street, and deservedly so.
Incidentally, the squirrels here are very tame. I saw one actually being fed by hand, but I didn't quite manage to get it on camera.
 |
| Austin, from the south side of the river |
 |
| The Texas State Capitol. As any Texan will tell you, it's actually taller than the federal version in Washington DC. |
 |
| Another view of the Capitol, from a few blocks down Congress Avenue. Kebabalicious is on the right, a few blocks further up. |
 |
| 6th Street, where it all happens. A few too many souvenir shops, but the interesting stuff is still there too. |
 |
| Have I left the gas on...? |
