Austin TX, 18th-22nd June

We awoke that morning in absolute AGONY! What a mistake it had been to relax by the lake in the night in Texas…we should have known better! For unknown to us, Texan fire ants had been eating away at us all the night long, and in the morning we paid the price. Red sores totally covered our legs and Immie’s ankles and feet had swollen so much so that she could hardly walk. But walk she did, as we went to meet Will our cousin in downtown Austin at an Irish bar for lunch. How crazy fortunate that we all just happened to be in the same city at the same time in the whole of America?! Very weird, but very cool. He showed us around 6th street, the road with all the bars and live music venues, and we showed him waterloo and whole foods and got a couple of ice creams too. Lovely. After persuading him to buy a ticket to Daniel Johnston that evening, we all went back to the hostel to meet up with the others before setting off for the show. The gig was absolutely awesome and there were 4 support bands and a stand up comedian before Daniel came on - well worth the ticket price. When Daniel finally came onto the stage, the audience went absolutely mental! He is Austin’s local treasure after all. It was his first concert showing new material for 20 years and it was fascinating to watch this genius at work. The next morning, the bite situation did not go down, and Immie stayed inside in the cool while Will and I explored some of Austin’s political history with a tour of the beautiful capitol building. In the evening we had dinner at Chili’s with John and Will and ate some brilliant burgers. That night around midnight, Immie’s feet had become so painful and walking became impossible, so we took a little trip to Austin’s ER and walked out with antibiotics and painkillers. In case you were wondering, American hospitals are a lot scarier than English ones…especially the woman dealing with the insurance! Monday was our last day in Austin, and it was spent recovering in the hostel and taking full advantage of the free pastries and cakes they had! After a lesson in Spanish guitar from a professional 'guitarista' who arrived at the hostel, we flew on Tuesday for Nashville TN, changing in Atlanta, Georgia and meeting a lot of very chatty soldiers to talk to on the plane.