Northern Spain: Asturias & the Cantabrian Sea

This week's entry is probably more appropriately titled: Whirlwind - because just as I returned from my AMAZING 3-day weekend, I only had 3 days of school before I'm off again! That's right, just three days of class this week and tomorrow afternoon I'm leaving for a 4-day weekend in Brussels, Belgium! (Gotta love national holidays!)

Alas, I will try to update you as best as I can on the previous trip so I can get packing for the next one!

Last Friday (July 17) my study abroad program left for Asturias, the autonomous community (more or less Spain's version of states) located on the very Northern coast of Spain.

We stopped first in the capital city of Oviedo, known for its impressive amount of statues, including one of Woody Allen! Afterward we drove a couple of hours to our hotel in the medieval town of Cangas de Onís. We had the evening free to eat tapas at a local restaurant and try "la sidra" (alcoholic cider) that the town is known for! I didn't care for it too much, but it is definitely an art here!

 The next morning we trekked up to the top of the mountains in the Parque Nacional de Los Lagos de Covadonga. Never have I experienced a landscape so breathtaking - such a shame that the pictures don't quite do it justice. Didn't take me too long to start singing "The Hills are Alive" - and it was so true!

On the way back we stopped at a quaint little beach town to eat lunch before heading back to the hotel. This night (Saturday) we had been warned about an insanely loud and popular annual music festival that would be happening literally right outside our hotel. Our director suggested we get earplugs, we decided to join the party instead! There were 2 dueling stages with bands that alternated hour-long sets. What a BLAST! Arguably one of the best nights I've had in Spain to date. We even made friends with one of the bands and they let us up on stage after the show to take pictures! We didn't get back to the hotel until after 4am but it was SO worth it.

The last day we were lucky enough to get to stop in the city of Comillas for several hours to soak in the sun. Comillas is on the coast of the Cantabrian Sea and had perfect weather that day - such a relaxing way to end the trip after such a wild night. We returned home several hours later, exhausted but so incredibly thankful for the opportunity to visit such an amazing part of Spain that we probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Can't believe I leave for Brussels tomorrow, I feel like I just got back! More pictures from this past weekend on Facebook and more to come from the upcoming one. Thanks for reading!

-Evan