Austin

Perhaps no other city on this trip has made me think "I want to live here" as much as Austin. Immediately, I could feel the hipster vibe from this place, with its cute restaurants and boutique art galleries. It was like an entire city had been converted into Williamsburg, but with prices that are more Texas-friendly.

My first night was especially boozy, with an amazing sausage place called Banger's. I met up with some Twitter followers--people from Hellfire Games. After a rousing conversation about N64 games (it's sort of my specialty), it was time to grab more drinks at The Buzz Mill... and then pass out.

The next day, we pursued some art, looking at awesome movie posters at Mondo. Afterwards, we were going to get some ice cream with JC Fletcher, but we ran into a place called Donut Taco Palace 3. Obviously, we had to drop everything and go. But unfortunately, they close at 2! That's terrible! What kind of business model is that? Don't worry, we would return...

After chatting up JC about his Tiny Cartridge empire, we grabbed dinner at The Salt Lick. Wow, what a stunning venue, with eye-exploding amounts of food. It was delicious, too. We ate until it hurt...

Finally, the next morning, before we left Austin, we made a return visit to Donut Taco Palace to get none other than a donut taco. It's pretty miraculous, if you ask me. But, why have the hours of operation from 6am to 2pm? If this were New York, we'd flip it around: 6pm to 2am--to get the stoners and drunkards walking out of bars. The crispy donut bread and taco proteins would make for amazing drunk food.

Austin, I'll be back. Maybe to live in you one day.

Banger's - http://bangersaustin.com/
The Buzz Mill - http://buzzmillcoffee.com/
Magnolia Cafe - http://themagnoliacafe.com/
Mondo - http://www.mondotees.com/
The Salt Lick - http://www.saltlickbbq.com/
Donut Taco Palace - http://www.donuttacopalaceinaustin.com/

Bangers has a lot of beer. I should've taken a panorama shot.

My beer flight of porters. Yum!

The Buzz Mill offers both coffee and alcohol, making it perfect for morning and night.

It also has a bear wearing a sweater.

And a beaver. So it sort of wins.

Sorry, we're open.

Apparently, all of Austin is decorated interestingly.

Open 24 Hours a Day / 8 Days a Week

No trip to Austin is complete without Mondo Gallery

What is this. Yes.

Such vanilla. Very chips ahoy. Much marshmallow. Wow!

We're going to eat all of this.

See? We did it.