Asturias Paraíso Natural

Hey all,

Saturday I took a group trip with Aegee to 3 cities here in Asturias. Aegee is a group that does tons of trips for international students, but mostly Erasmus students. Erasmus is an exchange programs for students in Europe to attend another university in Europe.

The first place we went to was Covadonga. Covadonga is where the Picos de Europa are located, it is very much like a national/ European park of protected beauty. We did not get a chance to climb the mountain to see the lakes in the mountains but we did see a few waterfalls where the water comes down as well as the old cathedral in the city. The legend has it that if you are to drink the water from the fountains of Covadonga you will be married within a year. A bunch of us decided to prove the theory wrong and drink the water (which by the way is not guaranteed to be sanitary, but tasted good!)

Our second stop was a mini camping grounds park where we had lunch in the sun. Our third stop was in a little town called Ribadesella. The town is home of about 7,000 people but absolutely beautiful. It is a beach side town where one side is on the riverbanks and the other is at the mouth of the river where it runs into the Atlantic Ocean. On top of the cliffs is a little church that overlooks all of the town as well as out into the ocean. I was told that the town is overwhelmed with tourists during the summer months as it has many summer resorts on the beaches.

When we got back to Oviedo we ran into their Carnival parade and hung out to see some of the costumes. The parade was about 20 min long (very different than that of the Canaries). However one thing that caught me completely off guard was the differences of some of the costumes both at the parade and throughout the night. I saw dozens of people painted black as well as communists and Nazi's. It is something that completely caught me off guard, because although many people both in the United States and in the Canaries like to have fun and joke around with their costumes, their are very rarely costumes like that.

...Pictures... I haven't figured out if this is easier or not for everyone to view!?



Till next time,
Erika