After a short little period of gloom and rain, the weather has turned to being absolutely beautiful! Ya estamos en primavera (It’s already spring!) How exciting! This past weekend I took advantage of the sunshine and explored Asturias. On Friday, my Spanish friend and me took a little road trip to the most northern part of Asturias. We stopped at the lighthouse on top of a cliff and took some awesome pictures of the coastline and the Atlantic. Of course the pictures don’t do it justice, but I’m going to post them anyways. I took a picture of me waving, looking over the ocean facing the west toward the U.S.A. Later on we photo-shopped a little American flag in there and I sent it to my dad for Día de Los Padres (Spanish father’s day)…Hi U.S.A! Afterwards we went to Luanco, a cute town on the shore with lots of boats and cute restaurants to eat. It was nice just to walk around, enjoy the scenery and wonderful weather :]
The next day, Amy, Emily, and I went to Gijón, a big city on the coast to enjoy the second day of awesome weather. I’ve been to Gijón a few times before, and each time I love it more and more! It’s a fun, energetic and beautiful city with a beachy feel. There is a big boat dock and its cool to watch the sailboats going through. I can’t wait to take my parents there when they visit because it is definitely a place they’ll love, they both love the ocean and my dad loves sailboats.I know this sounds weird, but it was a wonderful thing to be in a place that smelt like the ocean AND spring. Two of my favorite smells, mixed. Amy, Emily and I got some ice cream and sat on top of the cliff and just talked and watched the sun go down. This day in particular it really hit me that I was sitting literally on the other side of the ocean, watching the sun go down. I can’t believe how lucky I have been to have this experience. Afterwards we met up with some other girls and went out for Mexican food. I didn’t realize how badly I missed tortilla chips and guacamole! Maybe it was a bad idea, because I have been craving them ever since.
After two relaxing days beside the Ocean, Amy and I went on a real adventure—Kayaking down the Sella River of Asturias! We went with our Irish friend, Justine and he brought a friend from work named Chloe from Belgium. I love kayaking, but I have to admit that I was a little nervous at first. Although the website said beginners welcome, I was worried because a lot of times (pretty much all of the time) Spanish people have what my friends and I call the “No pasa nada” attitude about everything. Which basically means that sometimes too frequently, they are very easygoing and “whatever” about things, and kinda with the attitude that nothing can ever, or will go wrong. So it may have crossed my mind that maybe this river was not what I was used to kayaking at all and I might see my life flash before my eyes a few times. It is, after all, kayaked by people from all over the entire world in August for a massive festival. Why would people come from all over the world to kayak a beginner level river?! Luckily for me I survived, a couple of the people in the group tipped and Amy and Chloe got stuck in a tree once, but no pasa nada@ I felt like I was in Colorado, kayaking down a crystal blue river with the scenery of beautiful sky-high mountains on either side. This was another day when I had to pinch myself, because I couldn’t believe where I was. And believe it or not, it got even better. After successfully kayaking 10 MILES down the Sella River and jumping in like a mad woman at the end (the water was ICE COLD, but it felt awesome), the four of us decided on whim to go to Covadonga.
A long, long, long time ago, pretty much all of Spain was constantly back and forth in possession of the Muslims and Christians. At one point of history, all of Spain minus parts of the northern coast (like Asturias) was controlled by the Muslims. Covadonga is the location of the first time the Christians defeated the Muslims and began a long repossession of Spain. It is this beautiful church in the middle of the mountains and a little chapel built into the side of a cliff. Beneath it is a waterfall and a fountain with 7 spouts which you’re supposed to drink from if you want to get married within a year, or some kind of superstition. After that we drove up through the mountains, and honestly it was probably one of the most breathtaking scenery I’ve seen in my life! We were literally walking through the clouds. Unfortunately, my camera died right before this part. But, on the bright side, my parents are coming in less than two weeks!!! We will definitely be making another trip to Covadonga, so hopefully I will post some pictures of that!
