So here we go with Part 2 of the Great Northern Road Trip, picking up where Part 1 left off! Me and Kevin had just had a quiet evening after a busy day wandering around an abandoned factory, so it was time for us to get up early and head off to the coast to explore el cabo, or “the cape”, an outcrop of land hosting what I was told would be a few rather beautiful sites. After swinging by my beloved Mercadona (a supermarket chain here) for a big bag of cherries, we hopped in the car and headed northwards, with me throwing cherry pips into the bushes as we sped along.
After getting a little lost along the way, we arrived at out first destination, el Faro de Cabo Peñas. Faro being Spanish for lighthouse meant that I was expecting a lighthouse, and indeed their was one, but it wasn’t particularly pretty next to a modern radar tower, so we headed down to the cliffs to see what we could see down by the water.
Once I’d found a jut of land which was sticking out into the sea, I decided that I wanted to risk life and limb in clambering out to explore its tip. Kevin (rather sensibly) decided to stay behind a little bit, as in the end I wound up getting rather lost and stuck in some bushes, upon which I decided that the views weren’t that much different from the safety of the shoreline, and so made my retreat.
Once we’d had a coffee to refuel in a little coastal bar, we headed a little further along the way, stopping when I noticed an old industrial looking structure. On further instruction it looked like it held a series of siren horns, and we speculated that, with the cape being a strategic position, it may have heralded from the civil war era. I haven’t been able to find much about them online, so if I ever do I’ll come back to this post and drop that in.
Eventually the two of us became quite tired, and so we abandoned a plan we’d had to walk further along the coast and to a neighboring town. Turning back, we hopped back in the car and made our way to our next destination, another small town along the coast called Luanco.
The patterned façades of Luanco were gorgeous, so I took way too many photos along the way.
Luanco proved to be yet another gorgeous location in the running series of pretty Asturian coast locations which Kevin has taken me to (with the last one being Ribadesella.) The buildings, as you’ll have noticed, were adorned with quaint colourful patterns, and the gently sloping streets lead to floral plazas and plenty of spaces to sit and take in the sea views.
Eventually we found our way to the town’s little beach, and took a peaceful stroll down the front, chatting away about all kind of nonsense like we usually do. Once we’d reached the end of said promenade, we turned back and headed back to the car, for we still had one place more to visit before the end of the day.
The next little coastal stop along the way was Candás, a town which sits just north of Gijón. Here, and after a small nightmare trying to find somewhere to park, we were greeted with a street festival which was in full swing. Snooping around the various cheeses, bakes, natural ciders and artesanal wares, we slowly dropped down towards the docks, stopping for a fresh cojito (like a coconut macaroon, literally meaning “little coconut”).
Soon we’d perched ourselves on the sea wall which separated the open ocean from the docked boats, and the sun began to set. This created a rather spectacular display, as the warm light of the setting sun illuminated a formation of clouds which had clumped together in the distance, making it look as though the apocalypse was upon us!
Once the sun had fully dropped beyond the horizon and the cold began to set in, we headed back through Candás and hopped in the car back to Oviedo. That night we’d planned to go out for drinks with a Andrei and Andre, but had decided to keep it chilled and early as we had plans to go out and explore Cantabria the day after – but as you can imagine, in the end that didn’t quite go to plan. After a couple of quiet drinks in a neighbourhood bar, we noticed a German-style beer festival was picking up momentum in a tent nearby, and so we went to investigate.
After my initial doubts about it, due to having been to a real German beer festival in the past, I soon downed myself a pint of rather strong beer found myself happily singing away to all the cheesy Spanish music that they’d put on. Quite a way from the real thing, but a lot of good fun nonetheless!
Needless to say that Kevin and I were a little worse for wear the next morning, and so our plans to explore Cantabria were a little decimated. Kevin whipped up a delicious hangover lunch of fried chicken with chips and egg –completely from scratch I might add– and by 5 o’clock we had to pack our bags and jump back in the car ready for Part 3 of our journey, which you can check out here. Check out Part 1 too if you haven’t already.
Picking back up from where I left my last blog post, I guess I should now get into the juicy details of what I’ll call the Northern Road Trip! Forming the first half of my summer holidays, me and Kevin planned a trip along the northern coast of Spain, making good and proper use of his mum’s car which she had so kindly let us borrow for a few days. This post is followed up by Part 2 and Part 3.
As I mentioned, I left on a Wednesday, but it was not until mid-afternoon as I had some important business to attend to first! That Wednesday was to be my last chance to see Heidi before she became the last member of Cake Club to return to her country of birth, as she was to leave whilst I was lolling around in Asturias. As she was also to graduate in my absence, her mum had also come to visit, and as she’d spend a lot of her childhood in the north of England, it was decided that we’d all meet up for a spot of lunch at a legendary Spanish food spot.
We gathered at Casa Dani in the north of the city, grabbing ourselves a drink and getting chatting away, which soon led to hilarity as jokes were flying around and we were being attended by the world’s cheekiest waiter! I think me and Heidi’s mum may have confused poor Heidi a bit though with all of our references to things back in the north of old Blighty. On top of all this, the food that we were presented with was downright delicious, with everything from tortilla (Spanish omelette) to pisto (like a thick ratatouille) having been cooked to perfection.
As with all good things though, I did eventually have to leave, as I didn’t want to be missing my 3pm train to Oviedo. After saying my farewells to Heidi and hurrying off to the train station, I was soon zipping up through Castilla-Leon in what was proving to be a rather dull train journey, for in order to keep things light and easy I’d not packed my iPad or anything.
Upon arrival I was greeted by the familiar grey skies and sticky humidity of Asturias, and hung around the train station until Kevin rocked up in the car. After a quick stop off at his to dump my things, we headed straight out to meet up with Camila and Samuel for a delicious slap-up Mexican dinner.
After we’d had a good catch up over some food and then a cheeky pint at the local Irish pub, it was time for me and Kevin to call it a night, but not after we’d discussed in great detail Camila and Sam’s new pet dog, Luke – a very important topic of conversation for me.
Once we’d enjoyed a decent lie in the next morning, Kevin and I once again hopped back in the car and made our way uphill, to the summit of a large hill which overlooks most of Oviedo. Once we began to ascend, however, it became pretty obvious that the views that we thought we were going to get would be nowhere to be seen, as we found ourselves navigating the winding road through increasingly heavy fog.
After having lunch in the car in the form of a couple of salads that we’d picked up at Mercadona, we soon got a bit weirded out by our surroundings and decided to head back down and out of the clouds. On the way we made a few stops, as it turns out that Asturias is dotted with pre-Roman architecture dating from the 7th to the 11th centuries, with the couple of examples we went to visit taking the form of ancient churches.
In the fog we had no chance of enjoying the views over Oviedo.
Once we were back down where we could see where we were going, we headed then to a spot which Kevin had been wanting to take me for a while, and it definitely wasn’t your typical tourist attraction! We headed out to a relatively small town in the Asturian countryside, whereupon we were presented with a huge abandoned ceramics factory! Of course we had a look around, and I took plenty of photos, but I’ll have to save them for an upcoming blog post because there’s too damn many to edit and upload in time. For now, make do with this teaser photo which shows a tiny bit of what’s to come in the background…
After wandering around the factory for hours, were both pretty tired, and so headed to the local shopping centre to have a snoop around the sales and grab some quick and easy sit-down food for the evening. Once we’d filled ourselves on ice cream and croquettes, we headed back to Kevin’s flat for a relatively early night and to brace ourselves from what we didn’t realise would be a crazy day ahead…
But it’s here where I must cut the story short, for this blog post represents the first in what shall be a three-part series documenting our travels along the coast. You can now check out Part 2, the next installation, or skip ahead to Part 3 if you’re feeling crazy.
With this post I’m back in Spain after two weeks of absence, as mentioned in my last post – and all this means that I’ve to bring you all up to speed with what’s been going on over the past crazy fortnight! After returning from Murcia and working my final week at work before my summer holidays, I was joined in the city by Luisa and Woody, who’d come over principally for the MadCool festival.
The night they arrived, though, I was sure to grab hold of them to watch England get kicked out of the World Cup and take them to one of my favourite spots for a drink and some croquettes. We had a lovely catch up as I introduced them to cañas, and the not-so-sophisticated Madrid tradition of mixing beer with lemon Fanta…
The two of them then spent the next few days in and out of the festival, but I was sure to meet up with them after work a couple of times when possible in order to show them some cool areas of the city. We checked out Malasaña, Lavapiés, La Latina, and plenty of the centre, all whist stopping for beers and tapas along the way of course – there’s no other way of doing it here!
The weekend also signalled one of the last opportunities to hang out with Heidi, the last member of Cake Club to abandon me in Madrid after Megan and Loredana left a few weeks back. On Saturday night we headed out for drinks at Sala Equis, a converted adult cinema, and then found a lovely Asturian restaurant to stuff ourselves on chorizo cooked in cider and other northern delights!
Sala Equis
Around the Prado Museum
The day after, exactly two weeks ago today, the festival was all over and so I met up with Luisa, Woody and Heidi for some drinks down in Lavapiés, before we headed out to Chueca to spend their last evening together.
The next day, Woody had to leave back to Manchester, but Lu had planned to stay a few extra days at mine. Once we’d waved Woody off on the metro, we dropped Luisa’s stuff off at mine and spent a couple of days wandering, exploring, and eating plenty!
During those mere 48 hours we got up to all sorts of nonsense, just wandering around and eating and drinking and taking photos of whatever we felt like, and so I can’t honestly really remember exactly what we did. What I do remember is that come Wednesday morning it was time to wave Luisa off on the metro too, just hours before I had to leave my flat myself!
Where I went next though will have to wait for the next blog post, as I’m having a day of rest and there’s so much to report back on from my road trip of the north and week in England that I’ll have to break the whole trip down into sections and post them as and when I get the time. Prepare yourselves for plenty of photos!
As mentioned in my previous two blogposts (which were all about catching up), I spent last weekend down in the south of Spain, meeting up with my mum and sister in Murcia for 48 hours of sun, pool and relaxation in my auntie’s flat. It promised to be a rather different trip to the last time I visited back in February, with the temperatures soaring and a lack of car meaning we’d be confined to the pool – but having come down from the heat of Madrid, I definitely wasn’t going to complain about that…
I arrived late on Friday night, having gotten a train from Madrid Atocha at about 5pm, and with a plan in place and a generous dose of luck, my mum and sister landed perfectly on time and we were able to coordinate the taxi to pick me up from the station just after it had picked them up from the airport. I do love it when a plan comes together!
That night we took it pretty easy, cracking open some beers that my mum had left in the fridge just 24 hours before – which I shall now have to explain! Literally less than 24 hours before flying out to Murcia, my mum had been at my auntie’s place with my auntie, uncle, and dad. When she’d found some cheap flights and a hole in her work schedule to return with my sister the day after flying back to England, she jumped on the chance, and I also hopped on board with the plans as I had a free weekend too.
After I laid out an aperitif and we’d had a good catch up, we all headed to bed, rising relatively early to make the most of my only full day with them. After a trip to the shop with Ellie for some fresh bread to make pan con tomate, a typical Spanish breakfast, we slathered ourselves in suncream and headed out into the Murcian heat.
After splashing around, sunbathing, and getting through quite a lot of a book I’d brought along, it was eventually time to head indoors to rest from the sun – and what better excuse for some indoor time than an England match! I was tasked with the job of cooking up a late lunch whilst Ellie had the game on in the next room, but I managed to catch the end once my courgette carbonara was finally ready.
My favourite part of the match has to have been when my dad, all on his own at home in England, sent us a photo of his dinner which he had decorated in support of England. I treasure the photo because everything about it is so English – from the decoration to the food cooked and even down to the fact that we put tomato ketchup on mashed potatoes. It had to be the most British photo I have ever seen in my life:
Once the game was over, and we’d lounged around the resort some more, it was time to put our glad rags on and head to the resort’s lovely restaurant for dinner. Me and Ellie decided that we’d stick to tradition in having a photo shoot under a lovely floral pagoda, and this year we were in luck as the bright pink flowers were in full bloom.
Once up at the restaurant we enjoyed a lovely meal, although we didn’t go too overboard on the food after our rather late lunch. As we ate we had a good catch up and indulged in plenty of cheeky gossiping, all whilst enjoying the ambience of a Latin band who were playing quite a few songs that I knew.
The next day we continued our relaxation marathon, with plenty more lounging, chatting, and a few intense games of Uno along the way. With my train back to Madrid departing at 6:30pm, however, it was soon time for me to repack my backpack and grab a taxi to the nearby town to catch the Renfe. I had planned to arrive an hour before the train was scheduled to leave just in case the taxi was a bit late, but in the end it was bang on time, and so I grabbed a drink in a bar and then meandered around the small town for a short while, taking photos of the lovely pastel aesthetic that it had going on.
I quite enjoyed just wandering around small-town Murcia for a moment.
Once I’d arrived at the train station, I got chatting to a family from Madrid who were heading back home from their holidays, but eventually the train arrived and we had to part ways to board our respective carriages. The journey back was used to finish up my blog post on my time spent in Asturias a few weeks ago, but it was quite a late and tiring journey, made worse by a half-hour delay which we suffered just as we were reaching the southernmost outskirts of Madrid.
I eventually rocked back up in Madrid at about half past midnight, with the only saving grace being that the walk home was relatively rapid and mostly downhill. Once I’d starfished on my bed and pretty much fell straight asleep, I woke up to the sound of my alarm believing that it was way too soon and must be a nightmare – but no, there it was blaring, and off to work I had to drag myself.
Work this week has been as much fun as ever, however, and so I honestly can’t complain – I just really dislike early mornings! It’s been busy too, with a lovely little party to celebrate Erretres launching a Master in UX Design alongside the Universidad Europea. It’s bittersweet, then, that yesterday was my last day for a few weeks, as I’ll miss the vibrant atmosphere of the office, even if a couple of weeks of lie-ins are most desperately needed.
My holidays start today then, with the most exciting thing being that my friends Luisa and Woody are here in Madrid for the MadCool festival! We’ve managed to meet a couple of times for a quick drink and small wanders through the city, but tonight is the last night of the festival, so tomorrow we’ll be sure to have a good snoop around and I’ll be back with updates on what we get up to very soon!
The plans for the rest of my summer holidays after that include a meal to celebrate Heidi’s graduation with her mum next week, then a train straight up to Oviedo to meet Kevin and head on a little road trip of the northern coast, all before heading back to England from Bilbao to spend a week with friends and family. In England, naturally, I have plenty more little day trips lined up too, but I’ll leave the details of all those until after my return to Madrid.
As you can probably tell, it promises to be a crazy couple of weeks from now onwards, so today I’m going to take the opportunity to catch a few rays in the park and spend some alone time. I’d like to tell you when I’ll be back with more photos and updates, but it seems like I’m going to be AWOL for a short while – but on my return there’ll be plenty to share.
So here we go with part two of a series of blogs which attempt to catch up with what’s been going on over these past few crazy weeks, but I begin with the good news that the technical problem with my blog has been resolved, and so I should now be back to the usual programme of annoyingly frequent updates on all my everyday shenanigans.
I’m afraid that I have to start the blog on a rather sad note, as the arrival of summer has also hailed the end of a few of my friends’ stays in Madrid. We all knew the day of their departure was coming as they were working on finite contracts here in the city, but it hit us quite hard nonetheless. As optimistic as ever though, we resolved to spend their last weeks and days doing as much fun stuff together as possible.
Our friend Kitty, who I rather unfortunately only met for the first time very recently, was the first to leave one Thursday morning, and we could think of no better send off than a special farewell edition of our traditional Taco Wednesdays. As per usual we spent the evening munching our way through multiple orders of tacos, getting gradually tipsier on frozen margaritas, and laughing our way through all the week’s anecdotes.
The only thing different that week was an emotional farewell as I headed home, wishing Kitty the best of luck as she heads back to the USA to study medicine – quite the change from the relaxed pace of life here in Spain!
The next day me and Megan arranged to meet up for dinner at a spot I’d been told about but had never tried, Nap Pizza. This place sits in the heart of one of my favourite of the city’s districts, Lavapiés (check out an ode to it a few blog posts back), and served us up probably the best pizza I’ve had since I moved out to Spain. I would up feeling a little bit sentimental, as it reminded me of the many days spent at Belgrave in Leeds, eating delicious half-price pizza and drowning our sorrows in student-price pints.
Side note: Holy hell, I can’t believe the linked blog post about one of Belgrave’s many Street Feasts is well over four years old. Am I getting old?
That Friday, and to start Loredana and Megan’s final weekend off with a bang, we’d planned to go for a big night out in a club in Chueca. With all of us being old and tired, however, those plans were soon scrapped in favour of a more tranquil evening, as we decided to have a picnic in the park to make the most of the weather. Such a laid back evening would also allow us to pursue our plans for Saturday, as we’d agreed that we wanted to go for another mini hike up into the Madrid mountains.
As I returned home on the Friday I immediately set about making things for the picnic, with a special inclusion that I had been thinking about making for quite some time. The picnic setting provided the perfect opportunity for me to try my hand at making one of my favourite British savoury snacks which I have been missing like crazy, and which just so happen to be a picnic staple: sausage rolls!
I don’t want to call myself Greggs or anything, but I was quite pleased with the results, even after it seemed that the whole thing would end as a soggy puff pastry disaster when the Madrid heat had the dough sticking to everything literally minutes after I’d taken it out of the fridge.
Once I had them rustled up, and I’d thrown together a pesto pasta salad and a huge box of fruit salad, I traipsed the lot in my trusty backpack and fold-up grocery bag up to the park. Once I eventually managed to find the three of them – I was late as usual – we pooled together all our food and the outdoor feast began.
It would seem that Loredana is a big fan of Nutella on the right there.
Once we’d worked our way through as much as the grub as possible, and collectively eaten 3/4 of a jar of Nutella pretty much straight off a spoon, the sun began to set and it was time to call it a night. We arrived home relatively early to get rested for an early start the next day, as we were scheduled to convene at the northern bus station in order to catch a bus up to the mountains.
We had decided to once again pay a visit to Manzanares el Real, after last time we had such a lovely time relaxing up by its cool river and clambering over its rocky terrain. This time we’d decided only to spend half the day there, as indeed we hadn’t forgotten to schedule in a good night out – and I really wanted to get some kip in before having to face a late night on the town!
This time we followed the path in reverse, opting to head upstream rather than downstream, but regardless we didn’t actually make it very far. We decided instead to set up camp on a flat rock plateau on the shore of the river, where we cracked out some picnic leftovers and proceeded to relax in the sun for gosh knows how long. After dipping my toes in the (very cold) water for a while, and after a quick yoga session led by Heidi from which I bailed rather early on, we eventually decided to head further up the river a little bit more.
In the end we didn’t make it much further, as once we sat down in a little outpost for a drink and a pincho, we all gave each other that glance which said that we all knew that when we next moved it’d be in order to head back in the direction of Madrid. After finishing off our pincho de tortilla (Spanish omelette), we meandered our way back into the town centre and hopped on the bus back to civilisation.
Just a few hours after departing ways once we arrived in Madrid, we were once again reunited on the roof terrace of Heidi and Loredana’s flat, dancing around as we had a few drinks before we headed to the club. The location for the farewell night out was an old favourite, a cheesy karaoke bar, but we had a fabulous time there – probably me more than most as, thanks to the team at Erretres’ efforts, I knew pretty much all of the Spanish classics that came up. I was even invited onto the stage to sing along with a group of locals who were out on some kind of hen do – it was quite the experience!
That Sunday, and after having waved Loredana off to the airport in the early hours of the morning, we were all surprisingly fresh, and so I headed into the city centre for a last minute extra present for Megan and for an ice cream in the rising heat. It might not be diet approved, but I feel that ice cream is a human right in a concrete jungle in the middle of nowhere which is just slowly baking in the sun…
As the evening approached, I was joined by Megan and Heidi to head into the city centre for a farewell dinner for Megan, who was catching a flight the day after. We eventually found a quaint Cuban restaurant along the way and headed in, enjoying a delicious meal of tamales, spiced meats and all the trimmings; all accompanied with, of course, a mojito.
Another farewell ensued, as I had to say my hasta luegos to Megan, but the loss of yet another member of Cake Club was offset slightly by a surprise from Kevin – he was coming to stay in the city for a couple of evenings!
Okay, so, admittedly this had been planned a few weeks ago when Kevin called to organise a stay at mine for one night, but as any of you who know me will know, I am hopeless at remembering literally anything. As I’d neglected to mark the date in my calendar directly after, I had totally forgotten which day I had agreed to host Kevin down here in Madrid, but thankfully neither had I planned anything else for the 36 hours he was in the city!
After meeting Kevin directly from work, we headed back to mine for him to drop his stuff off, before heading out to have some lunch at an unassuming little bar just down the road from my flat. There we had a slap-up menú del día, as I feasted on lentils, seafood soup and the world’s most decadent orange and white chocolate cake – for a small bar which I’d never been to, we were both surprised at how tasty the whole thing was!
Kevin arrived and the two of us immediately set about eating.
After stuffing ourselves and then making a quick dash around Mercadona for a few supplies, we headed back to mine for a quick break, and then headed back into the city to spend the evening having a few drinks in Chueca.
With the city in the opening days of its pride celebrations, the atmosphere in Chueca was buzzing, and after exploring the many streets of the kooky district, we settled down in the central plaza and ordered a big jarra of beer to keep us going for the night.
After watching the world go by and having one of our usual deep chats, we decided to make our way home on foot in order to take in some of the evening atmosphere, stopping for another drink in Lavapiés before we turned in for the night.
The next morning I had to inflict a 7am start on poor Kevin, as at work we are now on our summer timetable which means my working hours are reduced to 8am – 3pm. He had to head into the city himself anyway, as the whole reason he was here was to head to an induction for the exchange programme which is sending him to the USA later this year! We parted ways as I descended into the Metro, but at 7pm we were both reunited in the city and ready to make the most of another evening before Kevin had to catch his bus back northwards at 11:30pm.
That evening we were also joined by Heidi, the last remaining member of Cake Club, and we headed out for tacos – but not to our usual place. Instead we headed to the tiny taco bar which I have been obsessed with ever since I first moved out to live in Madrid, and which I’ve dragged manymany visitors to. Kevin was no exception last time he was here, and he asked that we go again: a request I had absolutely no qualms in fulfilling.
After we’d cleaned off a couple of rounds of these delicious tacos, we headed into the city for dessert by the royal palace, a lovely spot if any to spend half an hour or so. We picked up some ice cream along the way, watching the tourist bustle around the gorgeous Oriental Gardens and Royal Opera.
The Oriental Gardens
Madrid showing its pride
As 8 o’clock neared though, we decided that we’d like to go and see how England would perform in their World Cup match against Colombia, and so we found a bar which was showing it (i.e. pretty much every single one) and prepared for the game. Some of you may wonder what I was doing watching football as it’s not usually my cup of tea, but in case you have forgotten I have attended two(!) matches in the past – one in Burnley and the other Atlético de Madrid.
Just our luck then that the moment the match actually became pretty serious, i.e. the penalties, me and Kevin realised we had actually stayed in the bar a little too long (there seems to be a running theme with the two of us and running late). A semi-sprint out of the bar and to the Metro ensued, but we arrived at the bus station with plenty of time to spare, and I had to get the results from Heidi who’d stayed behind to watch until the end. Needless to say that I was pretty much the only one buzzing on the Metro back home, as I was surrounded by the unmistakable yellow jerseys of a lot of glum Colombian fans…
And now for the last little update, taking the form of a night out with friends in the city for pride! As you’ve already seen above, Madrid is once again (after I attended back in 2016) bathed in rainbows as the pride celebrations kick off, and naturally I wanted to get stuck right in. The only issue I had was the badly timed trip down to Murcia, which I’d managed to book right over the two main nights of the pride parades and celebrations – damnit!
I didn’t completely miss out on the festivities, however, as I was invited along to meet a group of my friend’s friends on the Thursday evening for a night of watching the live music, chattering away and downing mojitos which came at 5€ a pop and were served in huge cups – my kind of night out! I had a wonderful time and met some crazy fun people, and three of us eventually wound up sat in a bar, tipsily talking nonsense and inhaling some huge sandwiches which we’d bought ourselves.
It was a lovely reminder of just how inclusive my adopted city is, and although I did miss out on the bulk of the party, I have just retuned from a fabulous weekend down with my mum and sister in Murcia. I have mentioned this trip twice now, and I promise that I’ll be back with photos from it soon, but I feel that for now I have bombarded you all with enough updates for one post!
