After spending the first part of the trip in the picturesque town of Boulder, with the solemn view of the mountains and the quasi-romantic walks through its idyllic streets, it was kind of a culture shock to when I got to wake up in the busy city of Austin, with its unrelenting traffic and the hectic feeling with some people due to preparations for SXSW.

We were received by the city with a nice fast-food burger, which was bigger than what I am used to, already a sign that we were indeed in Texas. After a well deserved night of sleep, we departed early the next morning to our first meetings in the city, starting at ATI, where we met with Mitch Jacobson and then to Tech Ranch, where we met Kevin Koym. The day was sadly cloudy, but we enjoyed it nevertheless, the temperature was great. We drove through the suburban hills of Austin. Eventually, that night we went to meet the founders of LOVOO, fresh off the plane, coming from Germany. We had Mexican food and chatted with them; then to spend the night at the hotel.

On thursday, we had our first glimpse of downtown Austin. After a constructive meeting with Marc Ott, the city manager, with a nice view of the city, we went to have lunch with Jason Black. Jason had a special lunch prepared for us. We ended up going to the a cemetery in the city, where we were to a walk around looking at the tombstones and eat. We stumbled on the grave of Christopher Kyle (on who the movie American Sniper is based on), which was very exciting and unexpected. After that we met with Kenneth Cho at People Pattern in the East side of Austin (very cool area by the way). When we were done with our meetings we had the chance to wander around downtown.

Now, I am a fan of spontaneity and surprises, and what I lived while wandering through the city that day just serves to prove why. Some of us ended up going to the startup crawl, hosted by several companies, one of them being Capital Factory, where we spent most of our time. We met a ton of different people and later got to see the lively night life of Austin, specially in East 6th Street. Food trucks are a source of great and savory food that you can’t miss, I depended on them for my afternoon cravings; I was not dissapointed.

I had also the chance to visit the event of SXSWesteros with Adam, where they had an interactive game of swords and free beer. We took pictures on the iron throne and played as the rest of the crowd also enjoyed the fighting and the “Game of Thrones” themed venue. After that, we ingested more great food truck food, to the pleasure of my stomach.

The following days, most of the group took advantage of the events going throughout the city, especially in downtown. SXSW provided a great way to meet interesting individuals and to see what the world technology is up too. SXSW is like the land of tomorrow, but in the land of today. SXSW Create and SXSW Gaming offered overwhelming activities that helped get involved with the event. One of the coolest parts was the fact that we could talk with developers of various indie games and vote for awards that were to be given to the winners. Some of us even tried Oculus Rift with a minigame of Star Wars, where you used lightsabers to deflect lasers shot at you. Awesome right?

Later at night, I had the chance to ride in one of the Petty cabs that cover the corners of the city of Austin. I signaled one that had huge boomboxes and whose cart was modeled after the iron throne of “Game of Thrones” (you should be getting the hint already that it is a must-see show). The rider took us to the Capitol, which was shiny against the black night sky, like a whole new building different from the one you see during the day.

And finally, like all things, the trip ended unfortunately, bringing us all back to the routine, real life. But I am happy to say that we had a great last evening. We bought dinner and ate at John’s farm, watched the sun set, some drove a tractor, some fed cows (and got a bath of saliva on the process), and a bittersweet night surrounded us at the end.

Richard Linklater’s film “Slacker,” filmed in Austin.

Chris Kyle’s grave in Austin.

Outside Mexican restaurant.

Seen at a random coffee shop

The Capitol

Goodbye dinner in Austin.