Gijón... finally!!

Well, I'm going to write a bit about when I went to see Carmen and Nacho in Gijón the other week. I had a totally excellent time! I had so much fun!

Firstly, I went on a sleeper train which was a first for me. The cabin had a bed in it, along with a sink and a shower! How cool! Well, the shower was like a tardis and didn't work to well, but for a train it wasn't too bad at all. I managed to sleep quite well. I woke up at some points, especially when the train was going nineteen-to-the-dozen on some tracks, and as it was an old train, it was quite bumpy. Then some nob knocked on all the doors and woke everyone up. People were going mental at him. Quite rightly I think!!

Gijón is a beautiful city and has loads of streets that you can amble around. I was lucky, as I had Carmen and Nacho who showed me around the sights of the city and we had good weather too, so I was lucky in that aspect. We saw all the buildings and we saw an exhibition about Anglo-Asturian seafaring ties, which was interesting. Carmen and Nacho have had some exams, and as my visit was just before, they had to study for half a day so I went and looked around things again, and took some more pictures. We went to a place called Parque Principado and we bought some DVDs and I got some books in Gijón from Casa del Libro. I wish we had a park like Pricipado in Castellón, but I suppose we've got our swanky new Corte Ingés, so that'll have to do.

Gijón's Town Hall

Fibreglass Don Quixote
(there were loads of variations accross the city!)

We also visited Oviedo, which is the capital city of Asturias, eventhough it's smaller than Gijón. It has some good sights too, including a massive arse in the middle of the street! Nacho, Carmen and I laughed quite a bit, it's huge!

Culo en la Calle
(Arse in the Street)


Carmen and Nacho with Woody Allen!

Oviedo's Cathedral

We visited the cathedral and bought some great biscuits from a lovely shop near the cathedral and we looked at all the buildings in Oviedo, which I thought were pretty cool too. In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant in Gijón and it was soooooo delicious!! We had a brilliant salad to start off with and a lovely pizza with a tasty base, all this washed down with the best sangría I've ever tasted and an apple chupito (1½ shots of apple liquor - yummy!!). We were giddy after the jug of sangría and chupitos, so we were walking the streets of Gijón cackling and laughing about the lame ERASMUS students that were in Salford when Carmen was there. Carmen also laughed too much and did a massive cough, right at this man walking on the street. It was funny, she didn't realise he was there when she did it, and his face was a picture!!

But yeah, all in all, it was a fantastic weekend, and I've told Carmen this, I'd love to live up there in the North of Spain. I don't like it here in the Catalan/Valencian-speaking region and the geographies of the areas are totally different too. Asturias is very like England, and has some breathtaking mountains that were snow-capped when I went through on the train, not like the desert here in Castellón!! lol :-D Castellón's not so bad. In winter it's awful, but in summer it's actually quite nice. Sandy beaches, blue sea, blue skies and it's hip and happening in Benicàssim, we just got here too late!!

Asturias - A Greener and More Pleasant
Land than England?!

¿Costa del Desierto?

Nah, ain't so bad!
Our coast is called the Costa del Azahar (Coast of the Orange Blossom)
It's actually really nice in summer!!

I can honestly say it was money well spent and it was brilliant catching up with Carmen and meeting Nacho, who is as friendly and chatty as Carmen. There a intelligent couple too, and you can have an intelligent conversation with them, which I like! So anyway, thanks guys!! I know you're reading this!!

I'm gonna sign-off now, I'm getting sleepy!

Ben xxxx