Viva Asturias!

I recently returned from a trip to Spain in the region of Asturias in Northern Spain, Pepe lives in the pretty city of Aviles. English people generally think of Spain from what they know of the TV show 'Benidorm', fat, bald men in England football shirts and orange faced ladies looking for a cheap getaway on a last minute deal, or 'The Inbetweeners' style lads looking to loose their virginity with scarcely clothed girls determined to top up their tans, added to this, flamenco dancing and bull fighting would be pretty high on the stereotypes of Spain list. Asturias, on the other hand, is like it's own country, it's green, there are big mountains and tall trees, historical architecture, cider, and instead of bulls they have friendly-looking cows and it's own unique cuisines!




The trip consisted of delicious food, trying the famous local dish('Cachopo' could be my new favourite food), Spanish 'Sidre', generally Pepe treating me like a princess, eating out late in lovely authentic restaurants and observing my surroundings in this whole other interesting and wonderful Spanish culture. strolling around beautiful quaint streets of 'old town' Aviles illuminated at night, and visiting the charming town of 'Oveido' and also the quiet and pretty seaside village of Salinas where I tried a yummy 'Helado de limon'! and saw some amazing scenery and big waves (and also a very tanned Spanish dude walking his dog along the beach in speedos very funny sight for me)





One of the many things I loved about Aviles was how calm and pleasant the atmosphere there is, just casually walking around the streets and soaking it up, there are very few cars in this part of the town which makes it even more pleasant to walk around and gawping at the fascinating buildings without fear of getting ran over. There is a rich history to the town too, and lots of sculptures , they have sculptures for everything, even one for the seal that once visited Aviles! The shops have unusual opening times which is normal in Spain 10:30 - 1:30 then 4:30 till 8:30, apparently in between this time workers or who ever will have a siesta or go and chill out in one of the many delightful plazas with a cafe con leche!




One of the lovely cafes we visited which seemed almost a secret hideaway you could go out the back of the building climb up some steps to a sweet little patio terrace with trees and bird houses and a little pebble garden with gnomes in it! The other interesting thing for me was unusual eating times one night Pepe and I went to a restaurant called Casa Paco where we tried one of the best food I've ever ate, a Cachopo, I thought it was kinda similar to the Teesside 'Parmo' layer of meat, covered in batter or breadcrumbs with a layer of cheese and Spanish ham on top, but obviously this is more 'Spanish' than a parmo and probably ten times more healthy,it is the most famous local dish of Asturias, we also had a jug of Sangria Sidre! (cider sangria) very unusual for me but extremely delicious! We were the first and only people in the restaurant, as an English person, I am used to eating at around 6 or 7 so by the time 9 o' clock came around I was feeling extremely peckish so we went for an 'early' dinner, the other people didn't start coming into the restaurant until we had finished our 3 course meal at about 10-10:30pm!!





Friday came, we took a day trip to Oviedo which is the capital of Asturias and also the location which the Woody Allen film 'Vicky Christina Barcelona' is mostly filmed! The city even has a sculpture of Woody with a plaque in which he describes the town *translated by Pepe, thanks!* " Oviedo is delicious, exotic, beautiful, clean, pleasant, and kind to pedestrians. It's as if it doesn't belong to this world, as if it doesn't exist ... Oviedo is like a fairy tale". Very nice. There I saw lots of beautiful buildings, there are fountains everywhere and lovely clean bright streets, lots of nice little shops, cafes and restaurants, the beautiful San Salvador Gothic cathedral, some cool horse sculptures and a wonderful park!


We drank sidre in a Plaza served by the traditionally dressed waiters, every time we finished a part of the bottle a waiter would come over to re-fill our glasses in a unique way by holding the bottle high above and holding the glass low with their other hand and letting the cider pour down from a height into the glass!






On our return to Aviles at night we went to the new building called the 'Niemayer' which is a really cool modern building which has a cinema, a theater and is the cultural centre of the town. We went for cocktails in the spirally building, some might call it pretentious, but I'm not gonna lie, I totally loved the place. You walk up this big windy white path to the cocktail bar which is a round shape, and it feels like you're in some strange, romantic modern utopia, the smell of scented candles fills the room, there is nice traditional Spanish guitar music playing (Pepe HATED that kind of music but I thought it was a nice addition to the atmosphere :)) and the colour theme is dimly lit velvet red and purple and you sit on these low comfy red sofas, very romantic, and there is a gorgeous view of the estuary and Aviles lit up at night like little twinkling stars! so pretty! My cocktail was a mojito (classic!) and Pepe's was called 'Don't be so sweet, be a man" heheh





On the Saturday evening Pepe and I went to the Aviles football stadium which is right around the street from the hotel where we were staying and just a few streets away from Pepe's parents flat. We met his friends, we did the whole two kisses Spanish greeting which I'm still getting used to and we proceeded into a different stand of the football ground (his friends had a sneaky way of getting in free to the football ground by doing their own handmade passes stating that they were referees , and it worked). The atmosphere in the ground was probably the most exciting atmospheres ever, even more so than some Boro matches when they were in the Premier league! Spanish people are very passionate and patriotic, there was consistent noise and support for their team the entire way through the match, people brought flags of blue and white and drums to make a noise with and the supporters were supporting throughout from kick off to the end.

After a great win 3-2 to Aviles, now at dusk, Pepe, myself and his two friends Adrian and Pablo headed off to a cool bustling restaurants in one of the plazas which I can't remember the name of.*EDIT:I have just been informed the plaza is simply called 'La Plaza'* The concept, you took a table and you got a leaflet with a list of lots of options of mini baguettes, and you pick all the different little baguettes you want to try, tick them and write your name (Laurita) and hand it in at the bar. We had little hamburgers, squid, chorizo, and some other tasty things I can't remember the name of. I really love Spain's way of enjoying food! Throughout the meal drinking red wine and being stalked around our table by an adorable and persistent pug puppy, we chatted mainly about the English and Spanish cultures, lots of laughing and joking and talking about the stereotypes and the language differences, his friends are really good at English. It was a great time! After this, was quite drunk at this point and my attempts at poor Spanish were getting more frequent, we headed off to an Irish bar and I drank vodka&coke from a strange test-tube looking glass (alcohol there is cheap and generous). And finally we headed to a crowded nightclub/bar and sat on the terrace enjoying more drinks (which I bravely ordered in Spanish!)until morning, Next day I was hungover obviously.


We wandered around Aviles a bit more, into the Ferrara Park which has these pretty french gardens where the park scenes in the Woody Allen film 'Vicky, Christina, Barcelona' were filmed and finally on the last day I went for a meal with Pepe's Parents and his brother Enrique i.e. the mutant, senor Suarez cooked a very tasty meal for us, then Pablo picked us up and took me to the airport where I headed back to grey, cloudy London after having a magical and amazing time in Spain!!

FINITO!






adios espana!