HAPPY TUESDAY!  (started this post yesterday, but never finished)

I was just here chattin’ with ya’ll last…Thursday?  Or was it Friday?  I’ve loss track since time is completely flying past, despite my greatest wishes (as mentioned in the last post).  Part of it is due to being so busy with Bruja’s Bakery, and the other part is because I went away this weekend! 

I have been traveling like 15x as much this year as last, and while it’s exhausting (coming back Sunday night and heading to work Monday), it’s also been so much fun. 

I never thought I would (or really wanted to) go to Oveido, Asturias (in Espana), but Kristen, Annie, and I wanted to plan a quick weekend away, and after running through our options, we decided on Asturias.  It was actually a lot nicer than I was expecting!!  I was expecting tiny pueblo (town) and it ended up being more like tiny ciudad (city) with some fantastic shopping 😉

I had to work Friday (side note: that was the first week in well over a year that I worked FIVE days and oh my gosh it was so exhausting.  Spain has ruined me.  100% ruined me.  How will I EVER go back to working a normal schedule?  WHAT DO YOU MEAN NORMAL PEOPLE WORK MORE THAN FOUR HOURS PER DAY….???

So anywho, I met Kristen and Annie in Oviedo a little after midnight Saturday morning.  There were earlier buses, but the 7:30 pm was only 25 Euro.  The bus was nice!  free snacks! and wifi! and movies!  Once I arrived, we talked for a bit and then fell asleep.

Saturday started with a hearty (haha) breakfast of cafe con leche x2 y pan con mantequilla y mermelada.  Despues, fuimos andando por la ciudad.  Fuimos al ayuntamiento (Town Hall)…

Al parque….

y al mercado!

One thing I love about European cities is the abundance of food markets.  Sure, we have food markets in the US, but they’re trendy and “cool” or hipster.  Like if you buy your veggies from the farmer’s market, it’s a trendy thing to do.  These markets, which can be found bustling with people across Europe, are where people buy their fresh meats and cheeses and produce and pastries.  I love it.

After meandering through, we walked around the city for a bit, stopping into the famous cathedral there.  Don’t know the name, though.

And then we continued on.

After all of that, we did some shopping (I may or may not have purchased two dresses from Mango….[I did]).  And then had lunch.  Since it was Saturday, everything was more expensive and we ended up having a less than great lunch of greasy food than I burped up for hours.  YUM.  

THHHEEEEEEN, we walked some more, stopped for coffee and pastries…

And eventually headed back to the hostel, went to the Real Oviedo football game- but didn’t go into the stadium because tix were 30 Euros- and then went to Gijon.  How’s that for an afternoon?

In Gigon, we had wine and tapas:

And then some below-par food for dinner (but the wine was great and I was buzzed hehe). Are these nachos or….?

We had grand plans to go out that night but apparently we are abuelitas because we ended up going to bed when we got back a little before midnight.  It’s just that the party doesn’t get until after 2 in the morning and uh, that’s a commitment, ya know.  

So, in the end, we got a good nights sleep, which was perfect for our full day of RAIN and food.  We started with some breakfast in a cute, sunny little coffee shop, where we had some great cafe con leche y galletas.  (coffee with milk and little cookies).

 

Then, we walked around in the pouring rain, took some pictures, and decided it was lunch time.

Breakfast –> lunch.  At least it was warm and dry and gave us something to do before heading to our respective trains, buses and cars for our ride home.

It was a great little weekend away, and by the time I arrived home, I was more than ready to hit the ground running with these pumpkin pies.  Currently, I only have my nose and mouth above sea level and I am at risk of drowning completely, but I’ll keep ya posted 😉