26.07.17 — Travel

Gijón

One of the days in Asturias, after landing and meeting Kevin in his home city, was spent in Gijón after just a short train journey from Oviedo! We were soon winding our way from the train station down to what promised to be a gorgeous shoreline, but not before we stopped for a pincho (a small bite to eat) in a bar on the way.

After one of the most delicious sandwiches I’ve ever eaten in my life (seriously), we were soon down by the harbour in all it’s sunny glory!

This rabid pigeon wanted our food
This rabid pigeon wanted our food

We wandered first around the bay to the site of the old city, where a big green tree sculpture revealed itself to be made of hundreds of empty cider bottles – only in Asturias! From here, we went back on ourselves a little as Kevin wanted to show me another section of the shoreline, and so we wandered through the gorgeous little streets of the center of Gijón.

The cider bottle tree
A closer look over the bay
A very pretty facade
Through the archway

Once we’d made our way down the centre street in the above photo, a very unexpected and awesome sight greeted us – a huge golden beach! It was full of people enjoying the hot and sunny weather, and I was quite surprised as I hadn’t expected to see sandy beaches in the north.

A view over the beach

Instead of heading out onto the sand however, we took a left turn, wandered past a coastal church, and wound up beginning our way up an incline. As we crested the views over the sea just kept getting better and better – I hadn’t realised we were heading onto a high natural jetty which gave nearly 360° views over the coastline!

A kooky little resort on the coast
A view from a little further up
Three lamp posts and the sea

As we hit the summit of this piece of land I suddenly became aware that I had managed to let my arms and face burn in the sun – the cool coastal breeze had tricked me into thinking that the sun wasn’t as hot as it actually was. I pushed on anyway and it was worth it, as a big sculpture loomed into view which is aptly named Elogio del Horizonte, or “Compliment to the Horizon”.

Where the sky meets the sea

After this we descended back down to near where we’d began our exploration of the coast, and I picked up an ice cream on the way. We were soon back in the square by the harbour, where we’d arranged to meet our friend Sara who was also in England with Kevin during their Erasmus year! It was lovely to all be reunited again after all the evenings we’d spent in England drinking and talking about how we were going to meet up in Spain one day – seems like that day came quicker than we all expected!

Back down the harbour
The troublesome trio

To take it easy and chill out, we all headed back on to the harbour to grab some cider (no surprise there) and I had my first go at decanting it from the bottle into the glass from a height of a meter or more – it’s not as easy as it looks!

Here we go...
A lovely place for a cider
Some colourful stairs along the way

After this we headed to check out Semana Negra, a literary festival dedicated to dark crime mystery and noir stories. Accompanying the celebrations were a huge market, a fully-fledged amusement park on the coast, and plenty of stalls to grab a quick beer and soak up the atmosphere – something we sure as hell did!

Traversing the fair

All too soon it was getting late and the time came to bid Gijón and Sara goodbye, but I have a feeling it was more of a “see you soon” – I was enchanted by Gijón just as I was with Oviedo. Next time, however, I’ll bring suncream…