SxSW 2008 in Austin, TX - Day One
After a pretty bumpy plane ride and what seemed like a descent into nothing but grid-like farmland, I touched down in Austin. The weather here is awesome - got to make the best of it before I go home to Boston.
I met up with molecular buddies: Brandon, Paul and Mac. We picked up the hire car and headed into town for some Tex Mex food and Margaritas. What else would you do first in Texas? Brandon went to college in Austin so he knows the place pretty well. As we drove down the highway to our destination, Chuy’s, I noticed a few things. Everything seems much bigger here. The roads are huge. The land around property is huge. Even more so than New England. Also, what is it with all the Piñata stores? There were loads of them. How many of these things do the people here go through?
Chuy’s was very cool, friendly service, massive portions of authentic Tex Mex and cheap booze. We headed off to the Austin Convention Centre in a lighter mood.
The Convention Centre was pretty busy, we joined the first line to pick up our badges. All around me I noticed a lot of different people, some drinking beer whilst waiting, others sat on their laptops geeking out. All just generally waiting in line.
30 minutes later, badge around my neck, I picked up my free stuff (it came in one of those cloth shopping bags with a huge Adobe logo.) I headed to my hotel to check in and relax before the first evening party: Friday night mix at six.
Like the newbies we were, we arrived too late to the party and the line was massive. Instead we explored downtown Austin. There are a lot of laid back bars here, all clustered together in a relatively short space. A bar crawler’s dream.
