Big "D"

This was the third time in last 2 years that I have spent an entire week in Dallas, but I still cannot get myself to like this city. However, its always been a funtime in Dallas, as I have always been on training, which translates to 1 great week of hostipatility on company account. You also get an opportunity to meet and interact with people all over the world and learn new things. There are some crazy adventures and stories to tell from my first trip, but most of my other trips have been rather uneventful.

They have a saying in Houston which goes "If you don't like the weather, just wait 5 minutes". This probaby applies to Dallas too. Monday was a record high of 84F, whereas the low on Tuesday evening was 34F. A 50F (27C)differential in a day - truly incredible! But the extreme weather range of Dallas, 32F in Winter - 105F in summer, results in a very non-green, brown landscape which serves as no relief to the eyes from the concrete jungle.

On the face of it, Dallas is not very different from Houston or many other US cities, with its biggest claim to fame being the "Kennedy Assassination". It is flat, tall buildings dot the landscape, and the city is filled with strip malls lining the service roads by the freeway. Like most of Texas, you see a plethora of ugly huge pick-up trucks and massive restaurants serving twice the normal portion of what you should be eating. The city doesn't exude any special personality to impress first time visitors and things dont change much as you travel from one part of the city to other. The Dallas downtown skyline does boast of some impressive towers.

But in many ways, Dallas looks like a very white collared city with a lot of high rise offices of big companies. Infact a lot of big name companies have their headquarters in Dallas - must be some weird tax benefits. Combined with the cheap standard of living, this does make the city wealthy and some parts pretty upscale. This has resulted in the city boasting of 4 professional teams, one in each sport, with the Cowboys and Mavericks definitely close to the top of their induvidual league. Combined with Fort-Worth metro, it is definitely a big city, proven by its huge airport serving as American Airlines lines hub.

On my first visit to the city, I had made a valiant effort to find all things touristy and explore and learn more about the city. Soon I realised, the futility of that endeavour, and resigned myself to enjoying what Texas doles out best - Steaks! This time around, I got an opportunity to enjoy this bovine pleasure at probably one of the finest restaurant I have ever visited. The cheque at the end of the day was a record setter, but I should have seen that coming from the complimentary plates of caviars and ribs served to us. This also gave me a chance to add another delicacy to my long list of strange edible creatures!