The things that happen after midnight...

Hey all,

So after a few weekends in Oviedo now I realize a few things that I find interesting enough to share. First off, no one and I mean no one goes out before 1am. The first weekend we made the mistake of trying to go to a bar around 12. We found ourselves there by ourselves with the bartenders and a few loners. Strange, we won't make that mistake again, this weekend we met up after midnight. My second surprise is that everyone goes out. Going out to a bar here really is not just for college students everyone of all ages is out just socialising with thier friends no matter how old you are.

They have an army of street cleaners here. People with jobs to pick up the dog poo in the park, wash down the side walk, pick up the trash empty the garbage cans. It is all done after midnight everynight. The city itself is spotless its amazing but thats not because the people are clean. I am actually starting to think their theory is, its ok to throw it on the ground, someone will pick it up later. On the note of that men pee everywhere. WHY WHY WHY? It is not okay to pee next to the church or in the middle of something. This is not like a I am a 20 year old drunk college kid, this is like I am a 60 year old man I have to pee so I will up against the wall. It is just not okay go find a bush at least! At least the street cleaner washes it down at the end of the night!

Drinking and walking around town. I do know it is illegal to walk around with open drinks here, although no one enforces it. I think much of this has to do with the Spanish lifestyle of you do not drink to get drunk so many times you have a drink for quite a while. This makes it normal for them to carry their drink with them even if they change locations.

A little note since I had said the weather was terrible. They are offically calling it a cyclone (I always thought cyclones were the opposite of hurricanes but I guess I am wrong). The whole north of Spain, south of France and north of Portugal got hit really bad. The waves have been very high killing a couple of people as it crashed over walls onto boardwalks and streets as well as a gym cealing collapsed in Barcelona killing a team of kids playing inside. Everything here is in one piece but I guess the wind sounds and the sight of garbage cans flying wasn't a joke at all.

Adios!
Erika