American Travelnotes 4/7 - Austin, Texas

Texas, much more dry, much more hot than the East coast :)

Austin is located in the center of the state (which is bigger than France) and is around 1 million people.
Every local told me that it is much more confortable than other cities like Houston or Dallas, and indeed it is quite relaxed. The HI where i was is along the river, not far away (american scale) from downtown.
Nice stay, quite different form all the clichés i had about Texas. No cowboys, no guns everywhere ...
I took time to visit the state Capitol and found a guy really passionated about the history of the state. In fact, Teas used to be independant during 9 years after their separation with Mexico, and the people there seems quite proud of being the 'lone star state'.
The state museum is small but nice ... it seems that a french boat sank along the Texas coast in 1685 (Cavelier de la Salle) and the museum present some remains of the early explorations of Texas by the French and the Spanish expeditions. Oh, and there is also a complete room about 'Dallas', the TV show ... now, i know who tried to kill JR ...

State Capitol of Texas

The UT Austin Campus is also downtown (well, in fact, it's like one half of downtown) ... i arrive there the first time completely sweaty (i mean, really wet) ... the campus is really nice and full of students. A good place to study and work, i would bet! Jia You!!!

UT Austin, near Guadalupe