exploring my heritage

hello friends! let me continue where jonathan left off. mom, don't worry - jonathan is no longer making me sleep at truck stops. after a restless night, we woke at 5AM and hit the road - what else where we going to do? it wasn't long before we headed into the rolling hills of the province of Asturias in northern Spain.

some of you may be wondering why we weren't going to more exciting places in Spain like Madrid or Barcelona or Seville. well, the reason behind our visit lies with my Spainish heritage. my grandparents on my father's side were from the town of Oviedo in northern Spain. i don't remember much about them as they passed away when i was little, but my 3 sisters filled in enough details to make me curious enough to journey here and retrace my Spanish roots. it was with a lot of excitement that we arrived in Oviedo. we were glad to be out of the Basque region - they are a proud people, and it was a beautiful region, but the Euskadi language hurt my head. horray for Spainish! well, kind of. northern Spain speaks a sort of Spanish dialect called (appropriately) Bable. it hurt my head as well. some of the words were the same and some of the words weren't. in those cases where the words were different, my Spanish phrasebook wasn't in the least bit helpful. we did a lot of charades and pointing at things.

anyway, we quickly found parking and hit the streets for a place to stay. we decided to book a place in the Hostel Romero right on the Calle Uria - one of the main streets right in the heart of Oviedo. we quickly dumped our stuff and got to business eating, drinking coffee, and walking everywhere. we quickly happened upon a flea market in the old town of Oviedo where jonathan bought his own umbrella from one of the umbrella vendors. no later than 2 minutes after his purchase it started to pour. as we walked the streets of Oviedo i realized several things about Spanish shoppers: they love shoes, luggage, and designer sunglasses. they also love high fashion - we saw no less than 20 ateliers selling amazing evening gowns on a couple of the main streets. apparently Spain has some of the best prices in Europe when it comes to shopping. alas, after entering several stores i realized something else: Spanish people are small - it was all i could do to find a pair of fun shoes that fit my big bozo size 9 feet, and pants in every store came to about my shin.

the second day in Oviedo we continued to walk everywhere. we found an old Romanesque cathedral in the old town, witnessed 2 Spanish weddings, and walked through the town park complete with wild peacocks. yes, there were wild peacocks roaming around. in spain. i had no idea. we also ate dinner that night complete with Spanish cider. the Asturias region is known for their hard apple cider, and the way that they pour it. they pour it just so it's frothy and full of bubbles, and after the pour, you have 10 seconds to drink it before it becomes flat. it's quite a sight, and i don't think they do this anywhere else in the world. we'll post a picture when we can.

our third day in Oviedo we made our way to an amazing pastry shop - Rialto. these guys have been in business since 1920. i even wondered if my grandparents had eaten there at some point. on our way there, we saw some people with bagpipes and traditional Asturian clothing. we decided that we should hang around to see what they were up to - they looked sneaky. it's a good thing that we did because we got a complete free concert of Asturian music and dancing. an interesting thing i discovered about this area is that it has a Celtic heritage. as such, there is a mix of Celtic and Spanish. the dances were particularly interesting - a mix of bagpipes and castanets - sounds terrible, but it was cool. anyway, we made our way to Rialto for a small breakfast. yet another thing this region is known for is this tiny donut thing covered with an almond sugar glaze. ridiculously sweet and ridiculously yum.

after our breakfast we drove to the towns of Pravia and Penaullan (pic above is of me in the town square in Pravia). my grandmother was born in the town of Penullan in 1894. I had some information basically tracing back to my great-great-great-great grandparents (thanks for the info, Sue!). unfortunately, we were unable to find a cemetary and no one spoke English anywhere we went in Spain so we spent our time wandering the small streets, taking in the fresh country air, and wondering which streets she might have walked as well. it was really special. i'll have to come back when i know more Spanish to actually talk to people.

even though we only spent 3 days in Oviedo it felt like home. my Spanish language skills are still terrible, but i think that this does not make me any less Spanish. i learned a lot about my heritage - the music and the dances, the importance of siesta, the sweetness of lingering over dinner and then taking a long walk afterwards....each day was like peeling a layer off of an onion. i think that i may have only scratched the surface....