La Espicha and the excursion

On Friday night we all went to “La Espicha” which is basically a big party with the purpose of socializing. I became friends with 4 boys in my class who are from the states and 3 other girls from the states who were in a different class. It seems that when I’m here, finding people who speak English is very rare. This part of Spain doesn’t have many English speakers, so we were all sticking together.

La Espicha was in a huge restaurant called “Tierra Astur” There were many long tables filled with different kinds of cheeses, meats, and of course lots of bread! These were “tapas” which are big plates of food for everyone to share. Throughout the restaurant they had barrels full of La Sidra, which is the cider. When I wanted to get some, I had to give the man my glass. He turned the handle on the cider and it shoots out of the barrel. La Sidra is caught in the cup and you have to chug it before it settles. When it settles the taste changes because it is not activated anymore.

It seemed that many of the people were from the US and almost everyone was speaking English. I met so many people that night who were all really excited to hangout and see the world. It was refreshing to see so many people with motivation and real goals for their lives. Living in Spain for the summer is really seizing the moment and I’m so happy that I am taking advantage of the time I have and doing something truly amazing.

After La Espicha, we all got o the buses to take us back to Oviedo.

Because I had to wake up early the next day to go on the excursion, I decided to go back around midnight. I decided to walk home because I didn’t think it would be that long of a walk and it is all downhill. Surprisingly, I felt pretty safe walking alone even though that would never be the case in the States.

The next morning I forced myself to wake up at 8:00 so that I could make it to the excursion. I went to the campus and the bus picked us all up at 9:30. Surprisingly, the guy from the night before who I hadn’t heard from since he walked off was there along with the girls from Missouri that I was slowly getting closer to.

Our first stop was to Cangas de Onís which is a small town with a lot of history. The bridge there is the most famous and made completely of cobblestone. The view was even better from the bridge at the town below. After we got back on the bus and headed to Los Lagos.

It was about a 45 minute bus ride up the mountain which is the highest I have ever been. The views were insane going up the mountain. It really seemed like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie which was just unreal. The roads hugged the mountains and were very narrow. It was crazy to me how two cars could fit into this little road.

Finally when we reached the top, we started out hike. We decided to take the scenic route which actually happened to be a lot longer and steeper, but still worth it. From the tops of the mountains all you can hear is bells that are around the cows necks. There were so many cows every and with all their bells, it sounded like a constant wind chime which definitely went along with the atmosphere and beauty of the mountain.

When we finally made it to the second lake, the view was unreal. In the background there were snow covered mountains, which the lake sat in the valley in between huge mountains. We had coffee at a small restaurant in the mountains and continued our hike.

We got back on the bus again and this time headed for Covadonga. This was another town which was fairly close to us. Here there was a church which was n the side of a mountain. It was supposed to be a very sacred place and for this reason, we couldn’t talk while inside the church. It was very beautiful and historic which you don’t see very much of in the US.

Unfortunately, on the way down from the mountain, our bus side swiped another car. We did have to wait for a few minutes on the bus and when we got to the bottom, the policia arrived. It didn’t take much time, and after a few minutes we were on our way back to Oviedo.

 

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My name is Ashely Sirna. I am a junior at SUNY New Paltz and am double majoring in Spanish and psychology with a minor in disaster studies. This summer I am studying abroad in Oviedo, Spain for two months. I am very excited to learn about the culture and improve my Spanish!

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