So many things happened this weekend! I know I just posted on Friday, but this weekend has been crazy.
Because we didn't have class on Friday, Jenna, Hope, Diana, and I all decided to head to the coast for the weekend. Asturias has three big cities (Oviedo, Gijón, and Avilés) and we wanted to see all of them. We have been to Oviedo (obviously) and Gijón, so we took the morning train to Avilés. We walked around the city, but it was raining. We sat in a café and talked for a while, hoping the rain would stop, but eventually just pulled out our "paraguas" and toured the city.
Because we didn't have class on Friday, Jenna, Hope, Diana, and I all decided to head to the coast for the weekend. Asturias has three big cities (Oviedo, Gijón, and Avilés) and we wanted to see all of them. We have been to Oviedo (obviously) and Gijón, so we took the morning train to Avilés. We walked around the city, but it was raining. We sat in a café and talked for a while, hoping the rain would stop, but eventually just pulled out our "paraguas" and toured the city.
We found a rainbow bridge and an egg. It was an interesting city, but very cute. We also wanted to go to Salinas, a beach, but didn't know how to get there. After asking at a couple bus stops, a nice lady personally escorted us to the beach.
We found another beach, that ended up being a nudist beach. There weren't any people there so it was fine. We climbed the huge rocks and just relaxed in the beautiful weather (with all our clothes on).
We then headed up to the mirador (lookout) that included a lock bridge and many pieces of art.
We started walking toward the train station, but had a hard time finding it. We eventually asked some old people, and were again walked to the train stop. So many nice people! Somehow we only ended up paying 45 cents each for the train (we might have squeezed four people through the door). So worth it. We made it to Cudillero before it got dark, and after settling into our hostel, walked around the pueblo a little.
The hostel owner was from England, but somehow we ended up taking to him in Spanish for a while before we figured out he spoke english. It was so helpful when he gave us tips for the city and our hike the next day in English. That night we went to bed early after a typical Asturian menú that included fabada, french fries, and meat.
The next day we decided to walk around the city before hiking along the coast for a little. After a run-in with the police at the lighthouse, we decided it was time to leave Cudillero. Whoops. But it was beautiful that day and we had great views.
Our hike was supposed to be a short 5k, but ended up being about 10k. My pants and sweater and boots did not prepare me for the humidity, but the hike was so worth it. We got such a good work out because I wanted to make sure we made the earlier train. We might have run a little bit up and down some mountains to make sure we got there in time.
We finally got back to Oviedo and I went to bed early in order to prepare for our next hike: Ruta del Cares.
Sunday we met up at the bus at 7am with the Calvin group and headed over to Spain's biggest national park, Picos de Europa. Because we were walking at 6:30am to get to the bus we saw all the people walking back home from going out Saturday night. Classic Spain. We made one bus stop in Cangas de Onís and saw the classic bridge.
The weather was beautiful for our hike and the scenery was so amazing. The mountain was pure rock and so steep with a clear river running at the bottom. It was so pretty. The hike was about 12k.
There was a lot more hiking this weekend than I thought, but it was so great. We probably walked/hiked over 20 miles in three days! So crazy. Dad, you should be very proud of me.
This week will go by so fast because Spring Break starts! Oom Doug and tante Christina arrive Thursday afternoon and we leave for our European tour on Sunday morning. I'm so excited to start this part of the trip, but I'm also sad because it marks the beginning of the end. We only have about 50 days left in Europe. How did time fly by so fast? I don't want to leave, even though I miss so many people back home. I guess I'll see you soon!
Beso, beso