ROME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Okay I havent finished sharing my trip to Asturias (and the next part gets into climbing), buuuuuut I am headed off to Rome. I´ll be back in a few days.

I am going to visit ELLEN and REEDY, and less importantly my old campus. I have not been there in almost 8 years?????? saying that makes me feel aged. I just got a facebook message from Ellen saying that tomorrow we are gonna have lunch in Castel Gandolfo. Hehehe, I remember it all like yesterday. I think the other two things about Rome that I am most looking forward to are seeing St. Peter´s again and anyone who knows me knows what the second one is.... gelato.

:)

The next destination

We spent two days relaxing in Ribadesella, a beautiful little town in the mountains and on the water, as seems to be every town out here...... Ribadesella is famous for some huge festival where everyone goes down the river in canoes, or something like that.

We stayed in a reformed silo that had fig trees and lemon trees and random animals in the yard.

The weather in Ribadesella was a little bit rainy, but it wasnt too cold so we decided to take advantage of the scenery and go for a nice long 4 hour afternoon walk.

Day 4?

My next trip starts tomorrow, so the end of the story of the Asturias trip is gonna be told by pictures.........

Day 3ish.

We left Llanes and went to find a nice place to camp and cook dinner. We found a nice field right next to the ocean and under a rainbow. The night was stormy and we made a friend.

The night was reallllly stormy and we woke up (in the van) to the sound of a little critter who wanted to be our friend and nuzzle up next to the van. After trying to shoo him away for about an hour, we decided to just let him take refuge next to us (turns out it had a broken leg). The next morning I woke up to Javi dragging the goat away by the horns as two more of his friends came up to say goodmorning.

After breakfast we headed into the mountains to Covadonga to see it´s Monastery and a little chapel nestled in a cave above a waterfall.

Then we decided to follow the map to check out what the heck ¨Lagos¨ was. And it was beautiful. Two lakes up in the mountains. One of which is next to a site that used to be a mine....

This is a modern day cowboy (the dude in the white van).....

As tourism and traveling always goes, we hiked around for a while.....

What a wonderful trip

Here we go on our week long tour of Austurias to find out what the province is all about, besides the cider.

Day 1.... we headed out on Saturday, once we had finished packing and everything, which of course means around 6 pm.

Destination number one was a town called Llanes, located on the eastern side of the province. (We more or less went from east to west during the week and totaled about 1000 kilometers).

We arrived late and went to sleep next to the beach. The next day we woke up and walked all of Llanes, Below......(upper left) Llanes is famous for those painted cube things that break the waves. (bottom right)There are tons of fishermen, just chillin and fishing for 4370673 hours.Bright colored houses are typical of the region. Reds, blues, greens, yellows, and oranges... or in this case, pink. We went for a walk along the coast. The weather here is strange, one minute its rainy and then the sun comes out the next. I can´t say there was any day that wasn´t sunny, but there also was probably no day that wasn´t rainy....These trees caught my eye because if you look closely they are all interconnected... I guess the branches must just crash into eachother and fuse together?

Heading out

Today I am going to Asturias....... (highlighted in red) I think its like a 4 hour drive. Its supposed to be beautiful and very green.

So I´m back in Spain again.

So I´m back in Spain wrapping things up. I got in a few days ago and I am just realizing how much I missed Madrid! I am happy to be here and to be on vacation. The other day I went for a run in a park and around a lake and through the city. Something I had been meaning to do for the past year, but never found time or motivation to do. :)

The day before yesterday we went climbing. I climbed pretty horribly, I think its not gonna be long before I lose any eurostyle that I had..... but I enjoyed what was probably one of, if not the, last glimpses of Patones (its been my homefield these past couple years, as far as climbing goes).

Today I spent the entire day moving. It´s crazy saying goodbye, but I am happy that I will be returning to my family and my city........

Anyways, as long as I am over here I am gonna take full advantage of my vacation. In the next few days Javi and I are gonna head up to Asturias, an area in nothern Spain. He´s told me that it´s green and beautiful. I know that it´s famous for cider and has beaches..... the rest I will have to report back to you. OHHHHH and of course I am trying to relearn to climb. Ive got private lessons and everything. My wrist injury has already been diagnosed as the result of poor climbing technique ( and a lack of back massages).

Apart from Asturias, I have also added three more countries to my travel list: Rome (to revisit an old home), Morocco (inspired by seeing the movie Sex in the City 2 on the plane ride over here), and Malta (for beaches and, why not?)

Thats the story for now.

Ohhhhh today I was with Javi´s family and his niece. She is absolutely adorable. :) ANNNNND we had a paper airplane flying contest off the 6th story balcony. I´m glad I got to do this before leaving Spain.