While in Austin, Texas for the National College Media Convention, I had a chance to roam around the city with a few of my fellow editors from The State Hornet. It was all on-foot.

Yes, we could have caught a bus, rented a car or flagged down a taxicab. We probably would have seen more of what the city looked like.

But I’m thankful we didn’t, because walking around the city really let me get in touch with the people who live here.

People like Kevin Prafford, a street musician; a man whose music manages to give the entire city of Austin a classy, film noir-ish vibe.

To say he played his trumpet isn’t quite right. Kevin played the city; his trumpet was just a physical embodiment of the tone and feel of the urban environment around him.

It seems overdramatic, as I look back on those 45-or-so minutes, but at the time that’s how I really felt.

And later, during Halloween, I got to see a side of Austin that offset Kevin’s vibe.

An estimated 80,000 people practically packed shoulder-to-shoulder on the street. Mostly costumed – except for the women.

It wasn’t so much a party as much as it was a hive. Constant noise, constant motion. Men and women joined in drunken happiness. Children – yes, children – standing next to inebriated parents, overjoyed at the possibility of seeing their favorite Disney character molested by frat boys.

It’s a side of the city that I’m still not sure if I like, or not. But it’s engrained in my mind, and it’s an experience that never would have wandered to the window of my car.

In the end, my fellow editors and I perused Austin, and after four days still had not found everything.

And in this middle of this exploration was a journalism conference – which almost seemed to function as a commercial break from our wandering – where we went to workshops and lectures to learn how to make this paper better.

Oh, and by the way: we won a few awards while we were there.