I know that I know nothing

Today was one of those days that, as my dad would say, built character. If I’m going to share how cool everything I’m doing is, I think it’s only right to share the not so cool parts too. Everything has been going pretty smoothly since I left the US, so I was due for a day of complications. And even today hasn’t been so bad, just a little frustrating. And really, I feel like it’s probably good for me to survive a day of mishaps and see that everything turned out fine in the end. I apologize for the lack of pictures today, but if you keep reading you’ll soon realize why today didn’t have many photo ops.

As I mentioned yesterday, the 8th was el Día de Asturias. Apparently, they pick a different Asturian town in which to celebrate this day each year, and it just so happens that this year it is happening in Llanera, which is only a 15 minute drive from Oviedo. According to the promotional materials, there is traditional Asturian food and drinks, dancing, live Asutrian music, demonstrations of traditional sports, and a market with Asturian goods. Well, my friends and I thought that sounded pretty fun (and very Asturian), so we decided to take the bus to Llanera. Just yesterday we went to Avilés (pictures to come) on the bus,which is about 30 minutes away, and it was super simple. So, thinking that we knew exactly what to do, my friends (Camille and Shannon) and I walked into the bus station and bought tickets to Llanera. The line was from Oviedo to Avilés with stops, which seemed simple enough. So we get on the bus, and we stop a few times in Oviedo to pick people up. And then we’re driving and driving, and I start seeing signs for Llanera. So I said to my friends, “The next time we stop, I think it’s us.” I figured there would be sign, or the bus driver would announce it something. When we went to Avilés, the bus had stopped at the station and the sign had said, “Avilés,” so I figured Llanera would be something similar. But the bus just kept driving, and driving, and I stopped seeing signs that said Llanera. So we asked the bus driver the next time he stopped and he said, “Oh no, we passed Posada de Llanera way back there. But I go to Avilés and then turn back around, so you can just stay on the bus.” We felt pretty silly, but to our credit, it wasn’t like there was a map of the stops or anything that said where we were, so unless we knew what Llanera looked like ahead of time, I don’t know how we were supposed to know where to get off. So we went to Avilés and back, and there was traffic and lots of stops, so what was supposed to be a simple 20 minute trip turned into a 2 hour journey. And for some reason, the bus driver kept apologizing to us. I guess he felt bad because he had seen our tickets, but didn’t let us know about the stop? I don’t know, but at least he was really nice about the whole thing.

So after 2 hours, we finally got off at the stop in Llanera, but the festivities were no where to be found. We asked someone where the fiesta was, and she told us that it was in Lugo de Llanera. As it turns out, we were in Posada de Llanera, and the festival was in Lugo de Llanera, which was almost 2 miles away. These are both very, very small towns. At this point, I was starting to feel like the festival was going to have to be really good to make all of this worth it. We got a coffee and discussed our options on how to get to Lugo de Llanera. We figured we could walk, because it was less than two miles, but as we were finishing our coffee it started to rain, so that was off the table. Luckily, there was a taxi sign right across from our cafe, and we were able to take the short taxi ride to Lugo without any problem.

We arrived in Lugo and it was still raining, so we zipped up our raincoats and put our hoods up and prepared to be wow-ed by this amazing festival celebrating Asturian culture. We rounded the corner and saw…. a craft fair. A cool craft fair, at least, but a craft fair all the same. It turns out that the sporting events were in a different place all together, and the dancing and other events were either only happening yesterday or not until tonight. There was a guy singing on a stage though, and he was pretty good. So at least there was that. We could have just gone home, but we had traveled over two hours to get to this craft fair so gosh darn it we were gonna enjoy it! So we poked around the various stalls selling jewelry, pastries, bread, and purses, all the while being battered by wind and intermittent bursts of rain. After a while, we pulled out the sandwiches our host moms had packed us, and ate under the overhang of a car dealership because it was dry. We tried to wander around Lugo a little more, but it was nearing the part of the day when the streets empty out because everyone goes home to rest. Plus, we were pretty soggy and tired, so we just wanted to get back home.

We had bought “open return” tickets from Posada Llenara to Oviedo, but as I said,  now we were almost two miles from Posada. We figured we could probably catch the bus here in Lugo, and then pay the difference, or  act lost enough that the bus driver would just let us use our Posada tickets to get back to Oviedo. We tried to ask a security officer lady where the bus stop was, but we said bus station on accident, and she told us the nearest one was in Posada Llenara. This left us thinking the only way to get home was to get to Posada Llenera and then catch the bus home. The sky was clearing up, so we decided to suck it up and walk the nearly two miles back, because it was a pretty walk and why not? Well, about five minutes into this journey it started to dump buckets of rain on us. And just then- we saw a bus stop! We thought this was perfect, until we realized that we have no idea what the bus schedule is, and we can’t seem to find one online. We decided to back track to Lugo because there was no way we were walking in this weather. (Keep in mind that this place is literally only 15 minutes by car from my apartment in Oviedo, so if we had been terribly stranded or lost, my host family could have come picked us up. )

So back to Lugo we went, now even soggier and more discouraged. We ducked into a cafe and got another coffee so we could ask the waitress for some help. We explained our situation and she let us know that there were a few bus stops in Lugo de Llanera, but because it was the weekend there would only be a two or three buses coming through all day, so it would be better for us to just take the train. The train station was right down the street from the cafe, and once we were on the train it would be 8 minutes to Oviedo. She clearly felt bad for us very damp, obviously foreign girls, so she even explained how it wasn’t a manned station, so we would have to buy our tickets at a machine, and she explained how to get to exactly where we needed to be in the station to catch the right train. She was great. (It also occurred to me in this moment that this valuable information could have been given to us by the security officer, and it would have saved us a lot of time. But whatever.)

So after drying off a bit and gathering our spirits, we headed to the train station, where we bought tickets and made it to where we were 80% sure our train was going to come. There was a train schedule posted, but it didn’t make a whole lot of sense to any of us- even Shannon, whose Spanish is nearly perfect and who has been riding public transport all her life. We waited about thirty minutes and took some pictures around the station to kill time.

Luckily, some grandparents with a baby showed up and said they were going to Oviedo, so we were reassured that we were in the right place. As the station started announcing that a train was coming that we were fairly certain was ours, more and more people came to the station. As the train arrived, we asked the people next to us if they were going to Oviedo too, and they said yes. So now we were 99% sure we were in the right place. So, finally, we got on the train to come home. We almost got off on the wrong stop, but we didn’t. We made it to the Oviedo stop and managed to actually get off the train, which was definitely an improvement from our bus ride. Luckily, the train station is very close to both Camille and I’s apartments, so our long journey was over.

The funniest thing about all of this to me is that we were only trying to go fifteen minutes from home, and yet we ended up making a complete mess of it. On top of that, it wasn’t even worth the trouble, as the festival wasn’t really anything. When I got home, I told my host mom that there wasn’t really anything to do in Lugo de Llanera. I elected not to tell them about our bus mishap because I think they would probably just make fun of me, plus I really didn’t feel like trying to explain it in Spanish.  She had been the one that told me about this festival thing in the first place. When I told her that it was kind of a bust, she said we should have gone yesterday like she suggested, and gone to Avilés today instead, and then it would have been fine. So basically, “I told you so.” We went to Avilés yesterday because I didn’t want to change our plans twenty minutes before we left, but I guess I need to become more flexible and willing to do that. Switching the days of our trips probably would’ve been way better, although we would have missed our stop in Llanera regardless. Oh, well.

And so that was my disappointing and rather soggy day. Despite all the trouble, I think it was still a valuable experience. For example, I learned I made the right decision in bringing waterproof boots and a long rain coat. I learned that sometimes I don’t know as much as I think I do about a place, situation, or pubic transport system.  And as my host mom told me, any time I’m out and about here it’s good, because I’m learning the language, culture, and customs. And even more than that, today I learned that things can not go to plan (again and again and again) and no one dies or is even in danger. Sure, we were inconvenienced, but we were never in peril and we made it home just fine. So I think today was important, because difficult days are just growing pains in travelling, teaching me to be more flexible and how to roll with the punches without falling apart.  (Also shout out to Shannon and Camille for being troopers and not falling apart either. )

My host mom is confused as to why I don’t want to go out tonight. I told her that I walked ten miles yesterday, and that today was tiring, and that I’m going to be busy tomorrow too, but she told me that young people should be able to walk 8-10 hours without being tired. Maybe I just can’t keep up with the young people here, but I think I’ve done enough exploring for one day. I’ll be back at it again tomorrow.

PS: As I’m writing this, the rain is subsiding and there is one of the biggest and most vibrant rainbows I have ever seen right outside my window. Take from that what you will