2 for 1 - Day Trip to Gijon and another one another day to Luanco

So one weekend I decided to visit two beach towns, the first of which was Gijon, a seaside city 40 minutes north of Oviedo by train.

We thought we could lay out on the beach and have a relaxing afternoon but the sand was actually wet and cold. Also it was quite windy and not that warm, probably about in the mid 50s lows 60s.

So we decided to walk a little farther down to the right of the beach where we saw people laying down, hoping it was at least warmer there.

It was warmer, and dryer, so we rested a little. After a bit we were bored and decided to explore the beachfront businesses. After a but of walking we were tired and wanted to sit down and have a drink to relax so we stopped in this Indian bar to end the day.

The next day I felt adventurous and walked to the bus station myself and got a schedule for the little pueblos nearby. I asked my host mom Helen where the best photo opportunities were of the various little villages around and she told me either Luanco or Candas, but that Candas was the best option. So I hopped the bus for Candas and Luanco because they were close to eachother and went along for the 40 minute ride.

Getting close to the destination I kept my eyes open for the bus station in Candas. The bus continued into the town and stopped periodically letting locals off at random corners. I kept waiting for the bus station. Then we left the town and got on another highway and I realized there was no station in Candas and now we were headed to Luanco. Oh well, I guess photo op in Luanco it is. So, without an idea of what to see or where to go in Luanco I got off at the bus station, that actually did exist there.

This was the first thing I saw that was interesting. The church was situated right next to the water.

This is the view if you look to the right of the church from the previous photo.

If you continue to turn right from the previous photo this is the view of some houses that once were owned by fishermen at some point probably but now with the way waterfront property goes I'm sure no fishermen live there now.

I then turned around and decided to walk down this side street. As I walked a little old lady approached me and started talking quickly in heavily accented spanish about something to do with transportation and young people today and I couldn't really understand so I apologized and said I was foreign and she laughed and said something else I couldn't understand and walked off.

A little ways down the street was this bell tower. It's not a church, nor part of one, just a tower, with a clock, and some bells. It rang shortly after I started to walk away from it but not long enough for me to catch a video as I tried to capture one.

Here are some of the fishermen that probably don't live in those nice waterfront houses you saw earlier. Fishing is apparently this town's biggest income however as tourism is not really their thing here. This town was described to me by my house mother Helen as more of a working town.

I tried to get somewhere in time to take some photos of sunset but not knowing the town and being on foot kept me from achieving that. So here is a photo of a random street in the dusk. Most of the town's buildings were in this style.

I soon after this walked over to the bus station, which I found by accident on my way back. This town is really, really small. I didn't even know where I was walking the whole time and I still found my way back without even trying. Next post is going to be Madrid, which I visited the following weekend with some friends from a program from Iowa that study here.

Barcelona - el tercer parte

To finish up the Barcelona experience here are the photos of the Gaudi park that I took on my last day there.



This is a quick video clip of a random performer in the park, he was all by himself and there was no one else even near him except for me, which I think is kinda weird that he was playing anyway. Not that coming across a man dressed like the 1600s isn't weird either but hey. Also, sorry, the clip is sideways so you have to turn your head to see.





This is a mosaic fountain that you see when you first enter the park and walk up the steps leading to a stucture composed of large columns.

This is a side view of that structure. All of this was designed by Gaudi whose influence mainly came from natural forms found in plant and animal life as examples.

This is inside the structure looking up at the ceiling. The whole ceiling is coated in mosaic.

This is another house designed by Gaudi that I came across as I walked beyond the columned structure a bit. It might betough to see in the reduced size format of this picture but the orange trees out front were actually bearing fruit.





After continuing the ascending trail that wound around in a very non-linear manner we came out into this clearing. To the right is a view of the city below that lets you realize just how high up you are at this point.




And here is that view. Directly in front you can also see two other structures that were of course, also designed by Gaudi.



On my way back from the park going to my hostel I passed by these two street performers and decided to watch for a little because the music was actually fascinating and at the same time completley unexpected for I did not think that there would be performers playing music like this in the streets. By the way I took the video in the taller aspect ratio by turning my camera because I thought it'd look better but then I didn't realize that I couldn't change the rotation until later so unfortunately you have to tilt your head to the left to watch this clip.

Barcelona - Parte Dos

After settling and taking a much needed nap we got back up and decided to walk around and explore the city around our hostel.

The beach we found was not very far at all and so we headed down to check it out. This is one part of it.

After relaxing on the beach bit, because it was actually quite warm, low 70s F approximately, we were there long enough to see the sun start to set. Below is another photo of the other end of the beach right before then.

Walking back on the boardwalk we decided to get lunch at an outdoor cafe that was actually an Irish pub as well.

After leaving the pub and heading back into the direction of the heart of the city we heard what sounded like Bob Marley playing in the distance and came upon these street performers.

Getting near the center of the commercial district I recognized a seemingly familiar logo, that is until I got close enough to read that it actually said Dunkin Coffee, not Dunkin Donuts. I wonder if Dunkin Donuts is aware of this, and if it's their spanish branch, why the name change?

Once we were in the older district near our hostel we came out into a small plaza where we found this little outdoor market.

The market was directly in front of this church and I didn't even notice till I looked up randomly and was surprised I hadn't immediately noticed it, I found it kind of funny that something that large could surprise me like that.

After walking a bit further towards our hostel I heard the sounds of instruments playing in the distance, and as we came upon yet another plaza this is what I saw.

After that we arrived back at our hostel and went to bed. The next morning we went and got breakfast at a little crepe restaraunt that only serves crepes.

After breakfast we met up with the others from our group who were still in the city and proceeded to walk to the famous Gaudi park where everything in it was designed by the famous architect. On the way there we walked through an open air market sheltered under a giant metal roof. In it we found all the local food and ingredients one could purchase to cook authentic Spanish food. Also note the spelling of some of the words here and there on the stands, it looks almost like Spanish but it's not quite, it's actually a dialect called Catalan which actually is it's own language more than a dialect. It seems to be French mixed with Spanish. And yes, in the beginning of the video that is rabbit you see in the butcher's.

Here is the entrance to the Gaudi Park.

There are a lot more pictures I took at the park however so I'll upload the rest tomorrow in part 3 of my trip to barcelona.

A Spontaneous Weekend in Barcelona - Parte Uno

So, a couple weekends ago everyone in the various groups of American students was planning a trip to one local or another. Some people were going to Barcelona, some to Lison Portugal, and others to not as distant locations such as Gijon or Aviles. Myself and some friends included were deciding upon either Portugal or Barcelona. Portugal would be interesting but the travel time by train was about 20 hours due to the fact that for some reason the route there backtracks almost to France first. So we decided on Barcelona. One friend and I decided to get our plane tickets online one night and as we went to buy the tickets the price jumped within that minute from 80 euro to 122, this is a large difference and I was only going to fly somewhere because 80 was relatively cheap for a last minute booking.

Thinking that we would be going no where this weekend after all, my friend and I decided to check out the train station to see if anywhere cheap and interesting was available. Upon reaching the train station we learned that within the next hour a train to Barcelona was available for about 35 euro each way, so we decided then and there to go for it and bought our tickets and ran home and packed within the hour of time we had to make it to the train. Upon returning to the station we found the rest of all the others who had been mentioning going to Barcelona over the past week standing there waiting for the same train haha. The ride took about 11 hours and went overnight. We had to sit in little cabins of 8 people at a time, 4 by 4 facing eachother, seated mixed with strangers. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't exactly comfy to say the least.



So finally we reached Barcelona! Here it is at 9:30ish in the morning as we wandered from the train station, map in hand, and no plan for where to stay or what to see.





This is the harbor we walked to, about 30 min from the train station.


Near the harbor is a rotary where in the center is a large statue of Christopher Columbus pointing seaward, dedicated to the fact he left from this city on that fateful day back in the late 15th century.




Here's a close up at the top. It's a little weird that in Spanish, Christopher Columbus' name is actually Cristóbal Colón. Which is why it looks like it says Colon in the red portion below the column cap.

And here's a close up of the bottom.

And this is a large cat sculpture, obviously. I do not know who created it nor what it stands for but I thought it rather funny to just have a large cat randomly in a park I was passing though.

This is the entrance to the hostel we got. The first one on the beach was full of course so we had to go look in the city itself to find another. This one had room and we were both exhausted so that's how this choice was made.

Here is the main entry to the hostel, it had Aborigonee digiredoo music playing when we entered, all in all a bit different than we expected.

This is the hallway where the bathroom was, yep, the bathroom, as in singular. The whole floor shares it.

And here is a shot of the room itself. What you see are 4 bunk bed style partitions on each side, totalling in 6 people sleeping in a room with you that you do not know. For not having reservations I guess this is what you get.

And lastly for now, this is a shot of my luxurious private quarters, and private as in I had a curtain to pull across the front part so no one could watch me sleep. For about $15 american a night I couldn't complain however.

Tomorrow I will post more pics and some video clips of what I saw as I went through the city.