Happy new year! New year, new enthusiasm for updating the blog. The last post was heralding the end of summer in Poland, and now here I am back on the sofa in Belfast wondering where the year went. So our new year’s resolution is to try and combine our enthusiasm for travelling, eating and giving opinions when no-one asked for them with a new found effort in getting those posts up!

Our big adventure for the last half of the year was a week in sunny Texas, living the good life in Austin and falling in love with the city. As usual we packed a lot into our trip and looked forward to blogging each little detail that made the city so special… But a few Tweets and a few months later and we still haven’t dared tackle the mountain of posts that deserve to be written.

So – in a bid to clear out the old to welcome in the new – we’ve decided that we’ll just have to do a quick run through of the whole week… and of course try harder next trip!

Before breaking into a bullet point list, let me mention the highlight of our trip (and the reason we were in Texas in the first place) – we were thrilled to invited to my friend Chris’ wedding to his beautiful Texan bride Jenny. It was a gorgeous day in the grounds of the period Barr Mansion in Austin – and to say the location (and the food!) was amazing is an understatement. Perfectly cooked rare steak at a wedding? Unbeatable. Oh and carrot cake? Fantastic. Jenny is very talented photographer, so check out her blog – particularly if you are in the Austin area!

Ok, let the datablast begin!

• Breakfast at Gordon Ramsay, Heathrow Terminal 5 – pricey tea, so-so food, but the peace, quiet and complimentary papers would take us back.
• Hitting busy roads of Houston, immediately following 9 hour flight, just after sunset in a left hand drive car was a little unnerving, incredibly exhausting…
• … so it was a relief to reach the very cushy (and cheap!) Hilton Garden Inn Houston Galeria
• Next day was the beautiful old houses of Galveston…
• …and the space age relics of the Nasa Space Centre
• Onwards to Austin and the Wee Cottage we were staying in – a cute and ultra cheap little house near the trendy SoCo area of the city
• Fantastic to meet up with Rachel, one half of fellow bloggers Boots In The Oven for a little tex mex before booze and bowling at the spectacular High Ball bowling alley.
• Rachel also for accompanied us to Smitty’s Market barbecue in Lockhart – how come everyone in Austin seems so skinny with this near by?!
• The Mexican Martini – our new favourite drink. We’ll post our ultimate recipe soon.
• Loved visiting Whole Foods flagship store – I don’t think there is anything like this near Belfast…
• Took a drive out to the epic watering hole at the the Hamilton Pool
• Watermelon and cucumber sorbet from Amy’s Ice Cream was a revelation… might try to replicate this come summer…
• Spoilt for choice for great tex mex spots, burgers. Oh and cheese fries made for an embarassingly great experience.
• Torchy’s Tacos made the best breakfast tacos – perfect with a hangover too.
• Of course we went to see the Austin bats! Just don’t ask how the photographs turned out.
• The Banh Mi from Lulu B’s food truck were so good, they have almost single handedly got us planning a trip to Vietnam.

Well, to say that that abbreviated list isn’t doing Texas – and Austin in particular – justice, is a gross understatement. Truly have we never found ourselves in such a green, relaxed city, packed with friendly people, amazing food options and a great attitude to keeping itself unique.

Keep Austin weird, we’ll be back!