Meet Austin, Texas

Om Everyone,

I have been in Austin for a few weeks now. I'm having a good, relaxing time, sharing my time between doing some sadhana, some reading of good books (thanks for all of you who sent me books from my wish list), doing some work for the web site and getting some pure R&R.

You Think You Know Texas But You Don't

I wanted to share some impressions from my stay here.

Most foreigners don't realize that the state of Texas is bigger in size than France and twice as big as Germany. Consequently there are a few major climates in the state and Austin being in the middle of the state, it's influenced by all these climates and one could argue it's the best area of the state.

The area around here is called Hill Country and is full of hills with lots of trees and green all around. So while the Western part of the state is really hot, dry and desert-like, just like you visualize Arizona, it's not like this everywhere.

Wild flowers in Northern Austin - Enlarge

Austin

Yogis need to know that Austin is culturally 50% Texan/50% Californian rather than purely Texan. Most of us see this as a good thing.

Also like many modern American cities it has sprawled like crazy, but did not fill up yet. Which means there are vast expanses of nature between the neighborhoods. To connect it all together Austin has almost more Autobahns than Germany - ok, not really but it does feel like it.

The photo above which I took a few days ago on my daily walk shows an area where lots of deers live. If you walk in this neighborhood early in the morning you can see deer families in the actual streets and sidewalks, hanging out on people's front yards. Very cool.

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