Austin is weird. That’s not an insult or offense, it’s something Austinites have fully embraced. They’ve even adopted a slogan – “Keep Austin Weird,” their way of encouraging support of their small local businesses. We’re talking about the city that has chicken shit bingo (no lie), a Cathedral of Junk which has become an attraction in someone’s South Austin backyard, and a festival to celebrate Eeyore’s Birthday (yes, the donkey). Austin is a blue star in a very red Texas. It’s a city whose people are passionate about breakfast tacos, live music, and preserving their city’s funky past. It’s like no other. I only had the chance to spend twelve hours in Austin, but here is what I accomplished in my weird twelve hours.
Texas State Capitol
My first stop was a tour of the Texas State Capitol building. The capitol is the centerpiece of the city and an architectural marvel. I took advantage of the free tours offered every day there, which allowed me to see both the Senate and House chambers and make connections with a lot of the Texas state history that I had already been learning on my trip to San Antonio.
Looking up into the massive dome of the building is breathtaking and it’s cool to see the letters T-E-X-A-S spelled out way up there – one of many hidden Texas motifs to be found around the building. I also walked the grounds, which consume a beautiful green 22 acres and house various monuments.
Hope Outdoor Gallery
From the Capitol I headed to my next stop, the HOPE Outdoor Gallery, which was about a 20 minute walk to the west of the Capitol. What people don’t tell you about Texas is that it has hills. Don’t believe everything you ever thought about Texas being a big flat wild west. Parts of the San Antonio and Austin areas lie in what is known as Texas Hill Country. Even right in the heart of Austin, there are some serious hills. So what looked like an easy walk on a map actually had me laughing at how out of shape I was. But it was a pretty walk nonetheless, taking me past the Governor’s Mansion and through a nice neighborhood.
I finally came to find the HOPE Gallery situated – guess where – on the side of a major hill just past a main boulevard. This gallery is a graffiti park which developed out of an abandoned construction project that left three stories of blank concrete slabs behind. Unfortunately, the land has been sold and as of early 2019 this masterpiece will no longer be there, although the HOPE nonprofit organization that manages the park has secured a new location for a planned graffiti park. It was eye-popping to see the collage of colors of so many people’s artwork that is ever-changing. It had rained that morning and although it was cleared up by the time of my visit, the park was full of mud puddles. I explored what I could, caking my boots with mud along the way. I wanted to get to the upper levels, but only found steep muddy paths and determined with my clumsy track record it wasn’t the best idea.
Before I left, I decided maybe I would walk around the block and see if there was any way to get to the top that way. So I trekked up the steep hill and, welp, there was no way to get through. The castle that you see from the bottom is fenced off and private, and the only view you get of the city skyline is through an overgrown chain-link fence. Oh well. So I started back down the hill and, ironically, took a spill out of nowhere on a sidewalk that apparently was slippery from the mud and rain.
Museum of the Weird
After a stop at the city’s visitor center to clean some of the mud off of my boots and jeans (I looked a hot mess), next on my hit list was the Museum of the Weird, located on famous Sixth Street. This museum started out as a collection of oddities for sale in the back of a gift shop. The owner realized that by selling these items, some of them extremely rare, he would never see them again, and that’s when he decided to establish the museum as a place where all could enjoy his bizarre collection.
The museum consists of a few small rooms lined with curiosities such as a Fiji mermaid, shrunken heads, and medically deformed animals. Perhaps most interesting is the freezer in a back garage where you can view the “Minnesota Iceman,” a humanoid creature frozen in ice that made rounds at carnivals and sideshows throughout the 1960s and 1970s before vanishing for a number of years. At the time of its original public display, it stirred up questions about the existence of Bigfoot and a link between humans and Neanderthals. After being probed for investigation by a primatologist, the original owner and exhibitor of the iceman Frank Hansen removed the iceman from public view and submitted a new latex replica iceman. Whether or not there was ever an actual iceman other than this latex version has been a debated mystery ever since – hoax or not, this display at the Museum of the Weird is something to see for a fan of the unknown.
As if the museum wasn’t interesting enough, the building that houses it is a curiosity itself. For one thing, it’s haunted by a spirit that employees believe belongs to an actual human skeleton they have on display. The house is also historic and sits on a series of tunnels under the city that supposedly run almost to the Capitol building. Oh, and Johnny Depp lived in an upstairs apartment while filming What’s Eating Gilbert Grape in Austin and surrounding areas.
Dirty Sixth Street
The east section of Sixth Street makes up the Sixth Street Historic District, a collection of Victorian-era storefront buildings that give the street a very small town Main Street feel. Known locally as “Dirty Sixth,” the street is loaded with dive bars that embody Austin’s eccentric spirit, and entertainment that makes the street a hub for the live music scene. On weekends the street is only open to pedestrian traffic and known for its debauchery.
For good food, head to Casino El Camino. This bar is a favorite on Sixth Street and renowned for its burgers. I was skeptical upon walking in because it looked like any neighborhood dive bar, although with a cool underworld horror theme, which being a fan of all things dark I could appreciate. The bartender set me up with an excellent local craft beer recommendation and I put in an order for the Amarillo burger, which is topped with roasted Serrano chiles, jalapeno jack cheese and cilantro mayonnaise. Any doubt vanished when I received my burger. Being a critical burger fanatic, believe me when I say this burger was incredible. The burgers at Casino El Camino are not to be missed.
Later on, I checked out another Sixth Street bar, Jackalope. This bar as well as its neighbor Chupacabra had both caught my eye with their giant statues of their cryptozoological namesakes. Since I was visiting on a Monday, Dirty Sixth wasn’t as hopping in the evening as I’ve heard it can get, but Jackalope was an entertaining place to hang out for a few hours and have some cold local beers before my bus back to San Antonio.
Congress Avenue Bridge Bats
Perhaps Austin’s biggest attraction is the largest urban bat colony in North America that lives under one of its main thoroughfares over the Colorado River, the Congress Avenue Bridge. The colony of about 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats resides under the bridge in the summer months, all emerging around sundown to feed. My trip to Austin was in the second week of November, just past the usual end of “bat season.” However, from chatting around with locals throughout the day it sounded like there was still a small group of the bats that hadn’t made their migration south to Mexico yet. It sounded promising enough that I decided to walk down in the cold to see if I could see any (yes, Texas just so happened to be uncharacteristically cold for the entire duration of my trip).
When I first got there, I walked downhill to the pedestrian walkway that runs under the bridge right along the water. There were some other tourists waiting down there. You could hear what sounded like bat squeaks coming from the bridge supports, so maybe we would have a good chance! We all were eventually met by the unofficial bat-man, a little deaf old man in a bat-topped cap who told us the best spot to watch the bats was actually up on the bridge, and offered us bat buttons in exchange for a few dollars. We took his advice and ventured up onto the bridge about halfway across. If nothing else, it offered incredible views of the city.
The bridge eventually became full of people waiting to see the bats (most of whom the bat-man had urged up from the other side of the bridge). As the sun fell, wind whipped across the bridge, making it impossibly cold with still no sightings of bats. In the wait time, I chatted with a few of the folks I had originally been standing around with down below that had ventured up with me at the advice of the bat-man. There was me, the girl from Philly; an older couple who were visiting from San Francisco and ended up leaving early on because they were worried about missing their flight home; a young couple from Michigan who had ironically driven down to Texas looking for a warm getaway from the snow they were getting back home; and an Israeli-born man now living in New York City who looked like he was probably in town for business. We all were laughing and making jokes about our strange encounter with the bat-man and whether or not we would actually see any bats. Soon enough darkness had fallen over the city with still not a single bat, and one by one all of us hopeful spectators on the bridge dissipated in search of warmth. I couldn’t even be disappointed that I didn’t see any bats, because I had an amazing time sharing the crazy experience with people from all over the country.
Stay Weird, Austin
Visiting Austin doesn’t feel like being a tourist anywhere else. Where else does the ideal itinerary consist of street art, dive bars, strange museums, and a flying mammal phenomenon? In my short time there I never felt like an outsider or a tourist, it kind of felt just like hanging out in my favorite neighborhood spots (I guess maybe that just means I’m pretty weird myself). I’m thinking Austin is worth another visit back to do some more exploring (and maybe actually see the bats!). There’s way more to be discovered. For now… stay weird, Austin.
C to Shining C 