The incredible Museo de Bellas Artes de Asturias is smack dab in the middle of Oviedo, just meters away from the Cathedral. Filled with modern and classic works spanning centuries, a visit is indispensable, especially considering the happy fact that it's free.
I've lost count of all the pictures I've taken since we arrived in Oviedo, but it's a ton! We're planning to organize a photo exhibit about Asturias, in Savannah, Georgia - our next destination. It would be a way of introducing both ourselves and Asturias to a brand new audience.
The biggest festival of the year in Oviedo came to a close yesterday, on September 21st. For eleven days, the city had seen its streets converted into a massive carnival. To be honest, we felt a little relieved it was finally over.
Last night, Oviedo invited the pyrotechnic company to light up the Parque de Invierno with fireworks. The Valencian company also did the closing of the World Cup, and we are already well familiar with their incredible work from our time in Valencia.
Here's a tip for young entrepreneurs. Want to make sure your new bar is massively popular? Offer free slices of pizza with every drink. And make the drinks crazy-cheap.
One of the biggest days of San Mateo is September 19th, the Día de América, when Oviedo celebrates its relationship with the New World. The immigrants who've moved to Spain, Asturians who went abroad, and the mixture of cultures are all represented in a big parade that shuts down the city.
In the middle of the University of Oviedo's courtyard is a statue of its founder, Fernando Valdés Salas. The statue's expression is fatherly; benevolent but stern. The sense conveyed is that Valdés was a serious educator dedicated to learning, and a kindly, wise man. But a little research reveals that a loathsome monster reigns in the University's courtyard -- rarely does history provide us such exquisitely evil characters as the Archbishop Fernando de Valdés.
Oviedo and the rest of Asturias enjoy a reputation as one of the safest, most crime-free sections of Spain, a country that is itself quite free of violence. In fact, Gijón and Oviedo recently ranked #2 and #3 respectively in a list of safest Spanish cities (#1 was Pamplona).
After sitting down at the popular Mesón Casa Pedro on Calle Asturias, we did like everyone else and ordered the cachopo. A delicious breaded, fried "sandwich" of ham and cheese, cachopo is similar to Cordon Bleu. Just a lot bigger.
Las Fiestas de San Mateo are the biggest event of the year in Oviedo, taking place over the course of nearly two weeks. Oviedo has celebrated the saint's feast day for over a millenium, since the days of Alfonso II in the 9th century.
The Plaza de Daoíz y Velarde is a quiet, tree-lined plaza which offers a respite from the noisy marketplace and cafés of the adjacent Plaza Fontán. Especially when bathed in the late afternoon sunlight, it's a beautiful place and home to the city library, a palace, a legendary fountain and, of course, a statue.
Until moving to Asturias, I shared the popular notion that bagpipes are from Scotland, and that the instrument's presence necessarily indicates Scottish influence. That turns out to be completely wrong. Bagpipes have a long history in all Europe, from the Balkans to Scandinavia, and definitely in Northern Spain. There's nothing uniquely Scottish about bagpipes; they weren't even invented there.
