Now I know that I said that Sunday was going to be my "one day of leisure" before kicking things into high gear, but it's important that you understand that I take my "leisure" very seriously. It means doing nothing. Seriously, the most I "did" on Sunday night was drive down the street to sample In & Out Burger(Double Double, Animal Style, for those of you wondering) and then returning to the hotel for a long night of nothing but sleeping. I didn't even end up getting a continental breakfast, I opted to sleep in instead.
Monday, however was a very different story, even though the average person might also consider it "leisure".
First off I took care of some big-boy business and bought myself a gym membership. I'm not just going to be bettering my career path on this journey, I'm going to be bettering everything else about my life as well.
The rest of the night/next morning was spent exploring the actual city of Austin and checking out the nightlife. Well... the Monday night version of their nightlife, but it was still a lot of fun.
After securing parking, my first stop in the city was an artisan hot dog/sausage restaurant called "Frank". Now, as it stands, I'm not much of a hot dog or sausage fan. I don't dislike them, I just rarely choose them when there are other options. However, when passing in front of "Frank", my eye was caught by the first special on the menu: the Jackalope. I read over the copy a few times before determining that I had no idea what this particular food item was going to taste like, and I really needed to find out.
So how was it? It was glorious; spicy, sweet, and savory all at once. Between that and the fries(that was a small order by the way) I was stuffed for hours. The orange soda was also quite good; very light and sweet.
I asked the bartender where I should venture next to get a feel for the city. He suggested the dive bar "The White Horse" on their other side of Rt 35. A quick glance at my GPS told me that this would take me about 7 minutes so I started walking.
Turns out, when you're in a city, and walking, you need to change your trip settings from "the little picture of a car" to "the little picture of a shoe", otherwise you'll end up doing what I did and walk for about 45 minutes through the bad part of town. Granted, it was still a lot better than say: Camden, a city I'm very familiar with, but it was still not the short, pleasant, walk I was expecting.
The White Horse was the quintessential dive bar. Poorly lit, sparsely furnished, and cheap: very cheap. I ended up sampling two cans of Lone Star(which was about the quality you might expect). It might have been better on another night of the week, but on this particular Monday it was dead. Once I finished my beers(matched with waters, don't worry mom) I took a cab back to the other side of Austin. By this time it was dark out and I didn't feel like chancing the walk... Or walking in general...
I explored a bit before settling on "Halcyon" as my next port of call. Halcyon is a gorgeous little coffee bar/bar/lounge. I was feeling a little beleaguered from my travels, so I opted for a simple cup of coffee. A half hour later, I decided that my body could easily handle more caffeine and I ordered a second cup. They weren't anything fancy(although there were many more creative options on the menu) but they were exactly what I needed at the moment.
I spent another hour or so chatting up the bartenders and patrons before deciding it was time to check out what food they had available(I believe this was about 30 seconds after the bar began to smell strongly of cotton candy from the make-your-own s'mores a few tables over).
The Hawaian Ham Sliders seemed like the right course of action for me to pursue, so I ordered them, a shot of Jameson, and a glass of water. The sliders were a tad less pineappley and a tad spicier than I expected, but I rather enjoyed them regardless.
Austin has a great gay bar scene, so I spent another hour or so at Halcyon before deciding it was time to check one of them out. I asked the bartender which gay bars he recommended, but his suggestion involved quite a bit more walking, and at that point I had about two gallons of liquid in my belly (mostly water and coffee) and decided to ignore his prefered locations. Instead, I went to "Rain" which was across the street.
Rain is your stereotypical gay club. Bright, loud, dance floor in the center, etc. If you look up "gay bar" in the dictionary, a picture of Rain probably parallels the paragraph.
And I had an awesome time there.
Monday night at Rain was a good ol' fashioned drag show. Drag queens, drag kings, the whole shebang. Now, Drag isn't really my thing. I don't dislike it, I just don't really "get" it. That said, though, seeing it live made me appreciate it a whole lot more. It was a really fun time and a highly energetic show. The winner of the drag king competition was super convincing, BTW. "He" totally deserved the win.
After the show I decided it was time to head off to bed. I still had a bit of energy, however, so I ended up back at the gym(24 hours; yay!) and rode a stationary bike for a half hour, or so, before bringing the night/morning to a close.
Today has been a very different type of day. No exploring. No city. No artisan foods. Instead I've been focusing on the job and apartments hunts. I'll keep that all vague for now until I have something more concrete.
Next? Who knows?! I'm excited to find out too!
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