Disclaimer: We don't actually think any of this stuff is all that weird...







But then, we live here. So we're accustomed to watching shrieking bats fly overhead, sipping avocado margaritas, and attending secret underground wrestling leagues in breweries. It's all part of the cultural fabric that makes Austin, Austin. They say "From the outside looking in you can never understand it, and from the inside looking out you can never explain it," but we'll give it a try anyway. Here are some of the Weirdest Things You Can Do in Austin.





By Rory Jones













Photo Credit: Courtney Goforth

Chicken Shit Bingo at Little Longhorn Saloon

5434 Burnet Rd

Yes, Chicken Shit Bingo is a real thing, and we love it. There's just something downright beautiful about a bird's completely random pooping pattern defining the outcome of a high stakes parlor game. As an added bonus, it confirms the rest of the country's strangest suspicions about what we get up to for fun.







Photo Credit: Courtney Goforth





412 E 6th St







If you possess any interest in the strange, peculiar, or supernatural, the Museum of the Weird needs to be on your radar. For the $12 price of admission, guests have the opportunity to feast their eyes with enough weirdness to last a lifetime. A walk through the museum features terrifying props from mostly forgotten B-Horror movies, pirate skeletons, Fiji mermaids, medical oddities of varying sizes encased in glass boxes or entombed in formaldehyde, shrunken heads, an assortment of wax figures, a photo-ready King Kong replica and the exclusive privilege of getting to view what is perhaps the holy grail of cryptozoological artifacts, The Minnesota Iceman. Resist the urge to Google that one, it's more fun to go in blind. Suffice it to say, guests are strictly forbidden from taking photos of whatever lies in that final back room.















4422 Lareina Dr.





This one's an Austin original. The Cathedral of Junk is exactly what it sounds like - a cathedral made of junk. That doesn't make it any less impressive, though. Scraps of all conceivable origin have been painstakingly assembled into what is probably the most astounding collection of bric-a-brac ever. Find out more about the Junk King right here.









Photo via Buda Lions Club Facebook







Various Locations in Buda







If this event isn't the most perfect blend of weird and cute that you could experience in or around Austin, please feel free to prove us wrong. The idea of watching several rounds of dachshunds race throughout the day is the exact strange event that you never knew you needed in your life until you began reading this. And now you know, so we'll see you there.











Photo Credit: Roger Ho









Living in a bubble typically gets a bad rap. But how about playing soccer in one? Austin Bubble Soccer has turned that notion into a full-blown mission, and we can happily report that the activity is safe, silly, and super fun - probably all in equal measure. The game basically mirrors the mechanics of actual soccer, except you're in, you guessed it, a giant bubble. This allows for fun things like front and back flips, as well as high speed, bouncy-but-painless collisions with other players.













812 Airport Blvd





Be honest, you've probably never really thought about throwing an ax. Short of ruminating on an inner Viking fantasy in which you conquer an unsuspecting coastal village... why would you? Having now chucked a handful of hatchets through the air ourselves, we can field that question with a simple answer: because it's really, really fun. How does competitive ax throwing work, exactly? You throw a 1.5 lb hatchet at a large wooden bullseye while drinking beer. For the record, the beer part isn't a necessary part of the process, but Urban Axes is BYOB and boy does it make for some nice company. Essentially, the game closely mirrors the rules of darts, but with well, axes.















Weird Wednesdays at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar



1120 S Lamar







Weird Wednesdays at the Alamo Drafthouse is kinda like the equivalent of that weird friend you had in college who played Magic: The Gathering and was a little too into Captain Beefheart. Okay, maybe you didn't have that specific friend in college, but the point we're making here is that Weird Wednesdays showcase the kind of fringe elements of cinema that would otherwise never find a wider audience.













313 E 6th St







You may have heard of Midnight Cowboy… then again, perhaps not. Nestled in a small space on 6th Street and with no discerning physical qualities to attract passersby, it's easy to miss--unless you already know what you're looking for. The space itself is infamous, existing in its prior incarnation as a "massage parlor." Okay, that means a brothel. With 6th Street's well-deserved reputation for rambunctiousness, the weirdest thing about Midnight Cowboy is how downright dignified it feels. This old-school style speakeasy requires you to ring a buzzer to enter and have your cell phone kept firmly in your pocket for the duration of your stay. Not being allowed to check your phone every five seconds? Now that's weird.















1100 Kingsbury St







Eeyore's Birthday Party certainly attracts a varied crowd. You've got hippies, weirdos, furries, responsible parents, dogs, and all other manner of folk attending this adored annual tradition. It's a perfect harmony of the people who make up Austin, Texas. It's held annually on the last Saturday of April at Austin's Pease Park.









525 E 6th St





You know you're a true weirdo when they make a documentary about how weird you are. "Crazy" Carl Hickerson has been a fixture outside of Esther's Follies for a while now. Step inside Esther's, and you'll find nightly shows that run the gamut from sketch comedy to modern-day vaudeville and everything in between.













7000 Comanche Trail





It doesn't get much weirder than Hippie Hollow. The fact that it's the only clothing-optional public park in the entire state of Texas actually makes it legally weird. So yes, if you come to Hippie Hollow, you're going to see people in their birthday suits. Don't be shy. A landmark Austin hangout since the 1960s, Hippie Hollow has weathered the storms of change and remained an idyllic microcosm of the Free Love Generation.



Photo Credit: Instagram / Toddwhite

The Museum of Natural & Artificial Ephemerata 1808 Singleton Ave



The first weird thing about the Museum of Natural & Artificial Emphemerata is that it's located in a house in East Austin. The makeshift museum hosts weird bits of esoterica like jackalopes, pickled critters, and a wide array of artifacts that fall squarely into the "Huh?" category. Be sure to check out their four-legged duck while you're there.









Party World Rasslin' at 4th Tap Brewing

Party World Rasslin' brings body slams, laughs, and beer to 4th Tap Brewing in North Austin. "Wrestling is ballet with violence," former professional wrestler and muckraking god Jesse Ventura once remarked. While Ventura's aphorism may seem like nothing more than a pithy joke, an implication lies underneath his irony that begs further exploration: Wrestling—in all its forms—requires focus, meditation, and planning. Like ballet, wrestling is not a sport, but an art; a craft to be studied and perfected. But if ballet dazzles audiences with grace and beauty, then wrestling, or at least professional wrestling, dumbfounds spectators with action and excess. Find out when PWR's next event is here.





Photo Credit: Instagram / fwootbat

Carousel Lounge 1110 E 52nd St



Carousel Lounge is the definitive answer to a question nobody asked: Where would Hunter S. Thompson wet his whistle in Austin? With its disorienting cascade of brightly colored lights and baffling commitment to a distinctly tacky, circus-like aesthetic, Carousel Lounge feels exactly like the kind of Vegas bar Thompson would stumble into in a debauched fury and then write about later.





Photo Credit: Alamo Drafthouse

1120 S Lamar Blvd





The Highball might just have the strangest karaoke rooms in the United States. In fact, Spin Magazine enjoyed the weirdness enough to do a whole story about them. One room looks satanic, another is themed after David Lynch's cult phenomenon Twin Peaks, and yet another is modeled after Super Mario Bros. It's an amazingly strange place to belt out your favorite tune.







