The Chronicles of Adriana: Gijon & Oviedo

Beach of San Lorenzo in Gijon

GIJON
Gijon, located in Asturias, was not part of my original itinerary. I only added it on the night before leaving Madrid when I got together with Marelys and Luz for dinner and Luz (who is from Gijon) suggested that I visited this coastal town, visit her mother and have her cook lunch for me. Since I never say no to a lunch invitation I accepted gladly knowing it was also going to be very interesting to talk and share some time with a true Spanish family. This is one of the coolest parts of this trip. Getting to know people from the city or country you are in, visiting their homes, eating their food, learning about their culture, and sharing about your experiences, your life and your background with them. I truly believe this is how you gain the most knowledge and a better sense of the culture and the life of the place you are visiting. So I got to Gijon sometime around 1 o’clock and went for a walk around town since my lunch meeting was at 3 o’clock. I walked around the old part of town, which in this case does really hold true to its name of Old Town, with some of the ruins found in this are of town dating back to the 2nd and 4th centuries. After you walk past the Old town you end up right next to the beach of San Lorenzo. The day was once again gloomy but it was however very nice to just sit and watch the sea. There were not too many people by the water except for a couple of older folks walking on the sand and a handful of surfers. I was really surprised by how big Gijon is: it has 275,000 inhabitants. I loved the whole area of the beach of San Lorenzo. I can only imagine how nice it must be during the summer!!!

The Port of Gijon - Casco Viejo

Beach of San Lorenzo

At 3 o’clock I arrived at Maruja’s apartment. She lives together with her husband on the 7th floor (8th floor when you convert it to American floors) of an apartment building very close to the center and close the train station. I got there, called the elevator and no signs of it coming to get me. “Oh God no…please don’t let it be broken” – is what I said to myself. I called it and once again there were no signs of it showing up. I waited a little bit longer and decided to start my journey up the stairs. When I got to the first floor I called the elevator again and it still did not show up. So I just gave up and went up the stairs all the way to the last floor. Mind you I was carrying my backpack with all of the things I had taken to the trip. I got there exhausted, introduced myself and did not talk for a while. After catching my breath I was finally able to start talking to the lovely Maruja and Stella, the nurse that comes everyday to her house to take care during a couple of hours of her ailing husband. Maruja is originally from Galicia and she still has a heavy accent (gallego) which took me some time to get used to. She had prepared a lot of seafood a la gallega: gambas, mejillones and some others which I don’t really remember the name. The food was delicious and between her and me we almost drank an entire bottle of red wine. Stella had to leave early so she only accompanied us during the first 30 minutes of the lunch. I then stayed chatting with Maruja until 6 o’clock in the afternoon. We chatted very pleasantly and she told me a lot of stories about her life as a little girl in A Coruña (Galicia), about when she moved to Gijon, about how things were back then, about her kids, her grandkid, her work when she used to work, and how she spends her days nowadays. She cracked me up. She is a very positive, optimist and joyful person despite the current situation with her husband’s illness and just for that alone I have to admire her courage and her attitude in life.

Lunch

We ended lunch with a “Chupito” which is basically an after-dinner shot of liquor which you drink little by little to help you digest your food. Chupitos tend to have a sweet taste to them and this one was really good. I don’t remember what it was called but it was made with the residual of the grape. What remains from the grape after everything that is needed to produce wine is extracted is then cooked very very very slowly and that produces another type of liquor which is then mixed with a cream to produce the “Chupito” I drank. It tasted similar to a Bailey’s and following Maruja’s suggestion I not only had a shot of it but I also mixed a little bit of it with the coffee we had afterwards.

OVIEDO

At 7 o’clock on Wednesday night I took the one hour train to Oviedo. To make a long story short I ended up buying a ticket for the train that was not going directly from Gijon to Oviedo and thus I had to change trains at another town. I missed that stop and had to get off at the next little village (Bendicion, that is the name of the village) and wait about 40 minutes for the train going back to the city where I needed to catch the direct train to Oviedo. I ended up getting to Oviedo at around 9 o’clock at night with no hostel reservation and actually no address for one. I figured once I’d arrived there I would either go to the tourist information desk to inquire about hostels or just walk until I found one. Well, the tourist information office of course was closed at that time so I walked outside of the station and just went walking towards the city center/old town looking for a hostel. As I walked towards the center I was surprise to discover what has now become one of my favorite cities in Spain. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen many places in Spain. Some of them are places that I loved because of their history, or because of their architecture, or because they are next to the water and they have spectacular views, or because they have nice beaches and a good ambiance to go on vacation during the summer. But that is what they are: places that I love to visit for a couple of days on vacation and that is it. However Oviedo is a city where I said: now I could live in a place like this. It is a big city, it is clean, organized and quieter and calmer than for example Madrid. People wait for the green light before crossing the streets, the traffic did not seem chaotic, you feel very safe walking around the city, and it has some nice green areas and parks. But is not as calm and laid back as for example most of the beach towns are where you sometimes feel that everyone is on vacation; not only you but also the people who live and work there.
I was delighted walking around town and in this walk I crossed a couple of hostels. I finally stopped at one that looked more like a hotel from the outside, but since there was a sign showing it was only a one star hotel I walked in and inquired about the availability for a room and about the price. I hit the jackpot!!!. The price was 30 euros and they only had available a quad room so I ended up staying in a room with actually 2 bed rooms, 4 beds, and 2 TVs. Yes, how ironic. Here I am with no TV in Madrid but I had 2 in Oviedo. I dropped off my stuff in the room and went outside for a walk.