Search

Home > The Creative Introvert Podcast > The Year of Fun #4: Visit An Obscure Spanish City
Podcast: The Creative Introvert Podcast
Episode:

The Year of Fun #4: Visit An Obscure Spanish City
Category: Arts and Design
Duration: 00:08:30
Publish Date: 2018-02-01 11:00:00
Description:

This past weekend's fun was actually pre-planned, it did not come from the almighty Jar of Fun...

It was a trip to Oviedo, a city in Northwest Spain.

You might wonder, why not Madrid or Barcelona? A more stereotypical choice for the weekend escapist Brit?

Well, here's a fun fact for you: I love obscure places.

I love that tourists are a novelty there.

I love that you're forced to speak the local tongue.

I love that the flights & Airbnb are dirt cheap.

So, my thoughts on Oviedo?

First thing I noticed was how super-duper clean it was... almost German in it's tidiness.

It was also the friendliest city I've been to, and not just in Spain... possibly anywhere ever.

Japan comes a close second, but the formality tended to put me on edge. Here, these Spaniards treated me like a curious cousin; not a local but not a scumbag tourist without a word of Spanish (which I was.)

The Airbnb was pleasant enough - and I even got the local delicacy each morning for breakfast.

Cake!

Apparently cake for breakfast is a quite typical Spanish custom. Which also happens to rank VERY highly on my idea of FUN.

And when you think about it, eating sugar and refined carbs for breakfast is still what the majority of the UK does - just in the form of toast and jam or cereal, rather than delicious homemade cinnamon cake...

I was also conveniently located next to the best coffee shop in town, (Noor coffee, if you're ever in the neighbourhood) where I found the only fluent English speaker in town too.

Oh and I love love LOVE how everyone serves a snack with your drink: from mini-croissants to churros to a tuna empanada. All that for €1.50... crazy when I come back to Brighton and pay £3.50 for a coffee that comes with no side snack.

Oh and this area of Spain is also very famous for its cider.

I'm not usually a big solo boozer, but I had to go to a local Sideria just to do as locals do.

I found a particularly bustling one where I plonked myself next to an older couple. I ordered my cider, and was fairly surprised to say the least, that it came in a bottle the size of a wine-bottle, and at 6% I knew this wasn't your typical Magners we get over here.

Then the fun began. There is, apparently, a very particular way this cider is served. I can't demonstrate it without gesturing, so I'll point to a visual demonstration:

The other fun part was the custom for consuming the drink. Ideally, you down it. Yep, each time your waiter/personal barman serves you from your giant bottle, you down what he gives you - all in one.

At least that's what I think the couple next to me were trying to tell me. Otherwise, I just looked like another Brit trying to get as pissed as possible, in the name of tradition.

Needless to say I didn't get much done after that.

Other fun activities were sightseeing. I'll admit there wasn't that much in terms of breathtaking sights - Gaudi didn't make it to Asturias I guess - but there were some great little statues dotted around, including one of Woody Allen, because Oviedo is said to be his favourite Spanish city.

 

Obscure Spanish city adventure day #1! Things got interesting when I went to explore the local bevy of choice: cider. And got told about the precise way it's served and consumed... Will explain it all in Thursdays podcast!

Total Play: 0