May 8: 6th Street

When I moved to Austin, everyone was telling me about 6th Street. They told me that if I wanted to truly experience the city, going downtown was a must. This was the place to be to listen to music, dance, drink, and just get plain silly.

I had been looking for an opportunity to get down there up until two days ago. Because of my work schedule and other obligations, the opportunity had eluded me. I suppose there were times when I could have gone alone, but how fun would that be? Now that I've been, however, I could do without going for quite some time.

They were right. 6th Street is crazy. I'm not exaggerating when I say it is simply a street with bar after bar after bar for what seems like at least three blocks. Once the night really gets underway, the city closes the street to traffic and the college kids take over.

Not only did people tell me that I had to experience the scene, but people also told me that it was bad news. I had heard story after story of people blacking out and getting lost for hours on end. I heard stories of people losing wallets and cell phones yet finding drunk girls to take back home with them. After spending the last two nights down there, I can definitely see how one could get into so much trouble.

It seemed as though every bar we went into was having some sort of drink special. Two dollar beers, shots, and mixed drinks were the standard. Five dollar pitchers of liquor. Not beer, but liquor! There were bars that were bringing their bottled beers down to a single dollar. At one point last night (which was a Friday by the way) free bottles of beer were being passed out. I had never seen or heard such madness! Cocktail waitress made the rounds in each club passing out shots as patrons decided whether or not another drink at the bar was a good idea. Sure each bar had bouncers and doormen that were trained to spot an intoxicated individual, but once in, one could easily go nuts.

What really amazed me about the downtown scene was how people acted as the night progressed. At one point, I literally stood in the middle of the street and just observed. Girls wearing tiny skirts and dresses and high heels stumbled along in each others' arms as meat head guys undressed them with their eyes before going in for the swoop. The streets were also littered with the city's homeless enjoying the chaos. Cops were at every corner just waiting to pounce on drunks.

Simply writing about my two nights on 6th Street doesn't do justice to what the scene was actually like. One has to see it to believe it. They were right. 6th Street is crazy. I'm glad I experienced it, but I don't think I'll be going back anytime soon.