o bitter victory!

Wow.

Where to begin? (this is a long one, i've not written for some time)

This weekend I took my first trip out of Logrono and headed towards Asturias to see my friends Collin and Mary. I loaded my new camping pack with my costume, a pillow, socks and underwear. Oh and absolutely zero other necessary clothes that I should have brought. Typical. The ride was 6 hours from Logrono to Oviedo, and I had the luck of sitting next to a young Italian girl who had the misfortune of beginning HER trip in Barcelona. This means she had a 12 hour bus ride, and was more than happy to sit next to a peppy young lad who wanted to speak in Spanish to her. This made the trip much more interesting and fun, for sure.

The bus's first stop was in Burgos, about 2 hours from Logrono, and it had an indoor station packed with buses and hosted a phalanx of spanish men with clipboards who would yell at the bus drivers about where to park. Outside of this station, I saw little of Burgos, but it had a beautiful cathedral, and after looking at the map, I believed there to be a castle somewhere in the city. It also had a nice river lined trees boasting beautiful autumn leaves which reminded me of lying in the back of my dad's truck driving past Reynolda Gardens, and seeing all of the wonderful colors pass above me.

But this was only a few minutes time, for we had a long trip ahead.

I wish that the ride has been during the day, but I left at about 3:30pm, and by the time we had gotten into Asturias, it was dark. I found Asturias to be absolutely beautiful, and rainy. The television in the bus had a map of Spain showing our route, and would cycle through enhanced views of the highway we were taking and our current speed, etc. This drove me and especially the Italian girl (Diana) insane after hours of seeing our slow progress. More or less, we had a good time.

I got the best greeting of all time once in Oviedo. Collin walked to meet with me at the bus stop, and we walked back to his apartment, where his roomate (Sarah) from Boston, had prepared seasoned chicken, mashed potatoes, spinach, bread and drinks. I was in heaven. We all embraced, and I got the tour of their cozy apartment before dining. After letting our stomachs settle a bit, Mary and Collin took me to a bar called Mater Asturias, which was ridiculous. You walk in, and buy a little credit card (I bought one for 5euros which was 13 drinks), and the bar is full of these huge green snakes that guard a little glass holder inside of a 3 sided plastic box. You swipe your card in a machine next to the snake, after placing the glass you are given onto the tilted glass holder, and cidera (alcoholic cider) sprays out of this snakes mouth directly into your glass. The plastic box is there as a splash guard. Genious. The stuff is kind of bitter, and doesnt seem too strong, but try drinking 13 cups of it. wow. Each time you swipe the card, it tells you how much you have left too. INgenious.

After Mater Asturias I was shepherded to plaza del sol. This is essentially where all of the young kids in Oviedo go to drink and hang out and be loud and throw everything on the ground. You can get a "tocha" here, which is like a 24(deuce cuatro) of mahou beer, for 2euros. This one bar is the only place in the city where you can get them, and they look cool for some reason? After this noisy arena we went to some place called freaky, or loki, i don't remember, but at one of the places they had these neat drinks called torres, which you and a partner drink out of a straw. I began dancing sometime around then. With my eyes closed as usual. Collin and I walked forever back to his house arms around shoulders talking loudly in Englsh. It was a wonderful first night.

To kick off our Saturday morning, Mary, Collin, Sarah, and me went to Gijon: a small coastal city with a nice beach, harbour, and good seafood. We dined on croquetas, calimari, and ensalada mixta on the harbour. The bus ride there was about 20 minutes, and we happened to catch each bus RIGHT as it was getting there. It was a bit chilly on the water, and our stay was short, but it was nice to see the ocean again. The funniest thing that happened was when a kid from the table next to us abruptly left his table, walked next to Mary, and proceeded to cough directly into her face, and then get bitched out my his mom as she promptly apologized to us saying "such shame, such shame!"

Ah, Halloween. How wonderful you were. I hate/love to boast, but my costume was a friggin hit, and I had a blast in it. I dressed as an old Spanish man. This requires one to put talcum powder in your hair, wear an old cabby hat, sport a cane, a button up shirt, with a sweater tied over the top of it, and to top things off, stuffing a pillow in your shirt. I had a wicked fat belly that hung over my waist, and I looked absolutely absurd. I almost fail to mention that I had a newspaper tucked in my back pocket, and a bota (Spanish wine sack) full to the brim with a bottle of Riojan wine. It was perfect. We went to a girl named Kelly's apartment and had dinner, drinks, and a good assortment of costumes. We galavanted out into the night, and I managed to stain everything I was wearing with red wine, DJ in a bar we went in, smoke all of the cigarettes in the world, and pretty much party as hard as I could with a bunch of people I had just met. It was brilliant.

As if 2 towns and hardcore partying wasn't enough, me and the group went to Leon the following day for a bit of an lighter time. Jackson met us there, and he met all of my new friends before we headed out on the town. Leon is known for its tapas, and essentially if you order anything to drink, which is cheap, you get free food with it. We tried coquetas, pizza, salchicha, homemade potato chips, and many more while having small portioned glasses of wine. Our residence was a huge building full of students and travelers alike that costed barely nothing, but offered a stuffy room full of people that smelled like my old sweaty lacrosse pads. We woke up early to see some of the city, and after seeing the cathedral and some statues, we parted ways. It had been a wonderful time and I was sad to leave my friends, but the 4 hour ride back home had to happen. So Jack and I boarded out bus, and made it back to Ltown, where we have taken the past couple of days easy, and are preparing for another weekend of stories.

I will miss Oviedo