"Where y'all from?.. I just luuuuuurve your accent"

The minute I arrived at the airport in Texas, I knew I'd made the right decision. The people there are just SO friendly- the minute you open your mouth they immediately say "where y'all from? what a pretty accent... i love it!" and fall over themselves to be helpful! Having taken a combo of buses I got off at the hostel stop and walked down a hill towards a supposedly "stunning lake view". I actually thought I must have got off in the wrong place as it looked like the hood- rusting barbed wire fences guarding old factory plants and a nasty view of building work at the lake beyond! However, I soon relaxed when I arrived at the hostel to be told they were giving free massages to promote National Massage Week! To make things efven better, the hostel was fab and friendly (SO much nicer than the hold in Denver!) and my friend Holly from Vegas was there!! We chilled out at the hostel and then went for some texan BBq food with an Aussie called Alex who i'd met earlier before heading onto 6th street to check out some of Austins famous live music scene (it is reportedly live music capital of the world!) The music seemed to be mainly blues and jazz and was completely excellent- i could have spent all night there if we hadn't been so tired!

The following day Hols and i checked out the rest ouf what Austin has to offer, from the Capitol building where much of the important business is conducted, to South Congress, a quirky area which reminded me a bit of Brighton on acid! We then made our way to TGI Fridays restuarant as i had been told by the air steward o9n my flight that it was the besrt place to see the famous bats colony that fly out nightly from under the bridge whilst holding a nice cold beer! We got there at 5, only to be told that the abts didn'tfly til 7 so we settled into some serious cocktail specials and chatted to an american woman who was visiting on a girly break. We also had good banter with the staff, including the maitre d' Derek who had a badge stating he was the "bat master" and to be fair, he got the timing spot on! By the time the bats came, we were a little squiffy but it was still pretty cool to see about a million of them fly off into the night to begin their hunt for food. We spent the evening in at the hostel chilling with new friends and drinking more wine until the small hours.

The following day we didn't feel like doing much so i did admin stuff for Argentina whilst Holly slept , then we took advice from the hostel and headed to the nearest Target store which we were told waas a bit out of town (I wanted to get toys from the boys i was visiting and buy a laptop and Hols needed credit so there was no choice but to head off!) 3 Bloody buses and an hour later, we had to cross a hugely busy highway and finally found the target! By this point we were knackered and barely managed to get our shopping done before collapsing for lunch/dinner combo.

That evening we really wanted to go to one on Americas famous haunted houses but we found that the bus would take over an hour to get there! Luckily we were saved by a fab german guy called Andreas who had a car and said he's take us. On the way we persuaded him to come in with us and, although he said he doubted it would be scary, he agreed. Actually it weas VERY scary and amazingly professionally done- there were lights, sound effects and visuals and actors were constantly jumping out on you and following you round! Hands reached out of walls to grab you and floors tilted precariously when you least expected it.. all in all i think all of us, including Andreas screamed like little girls at several points whilst walking through!

After the drama of the house, we headed up to South Congress for some more live music which was again very good before heading back to the hostel for some much needed sleep before my 5am start to get to Denton (near Dallas) on the greyhound to see my uni friends the next day.

I spent a great 6 days in Denton with Emer, Gripper and their 2 kids Nick and Robert (6 and 4) Most days had to revolve around the kids- school drop offs, pre school pick ups etc but we got to catch up and do lots of gossiping anyhow as I haven't seen them for 4 years. I certainly didn't realise how much work 2 small kids are!!! They are both pretty good and v nice kids but i never realised that they don't sleep through the night until they hit 5 or so or that they get up, full of beans at 6am!!! ug!! it made me realise i'm not ready to go down that road just yet..far too much world to see first!

One of the highlights of the time there was Halloween. The Americans go crazy for it and everyone decorates their houses for the trick or treating kids- it looks fantastic! We went out with the kids who were dressed up and looking uber cute and managed to collect a huge ammount of candy and chocolate before collapsing in a sugared up heap at about 9pm. After that, I went out with Gripper to the pub with his rugby friends and had a very good night sans kids!

On the Sunday we went to a city called Fort Worth which is a real cowboy town. We went to the old stockyard where they used to trade the cows and horses and, although it does feel like "Dallas does Disney", apparently all the buildings and saloons are original so it was very cool to see them. They did a cattle drive with the long horn cattle which was fun to watch but it wasn't really the stampede i expected- more of a slow stroll through town!

the 6 days went by so quickly and, before I knew it, i was being taken to the airport by Gripps early on November 4th for my flights to Charlotte and on to New York. From there I stayed the night at an airport hotel, and flew with good old Mexicana to cancun, Mexico city and finally, after a 6 hour layover, on to Buenos Aires.