Spain – August 2021

When I say goodbye to Michèle in Bilbao it’s still the early morning. Unfortunately, when I finally got around to booking my next bus to Gijón, it was already full. And I now will be staying in the relatively unknown town of Aviles instead. However, to get there I still have to change busses at some point, because the direct one is fully booked too. Wondering about the reasons for this roaring popularity of road travel I board the first bus to Llanes.

The perk of my situation is that we take the ocean road. Glad to be sitting at the window facing the right side of the street, every now and then I catch a glimpse of the Atlantic coastline with its high, rocky cliffs emerging behind lush green hills. The stops in small fisher villages grant a little insight into the slow, coastal lives of their inhabitants. But there are many tourists too. Getting off and on the bus at the most unlikely stops. Some with suitcases ready for a beach vacation and some with loaded backpacks and hiking gear.

And then we arrive in Llanes. I get off the bus and ready for my 2-hour layover. As I repack my bag, I overhear some hikers talk to the “Posada” where they’re staying for the night. They tell them about their route on the Camino de Santiago and it clicks. Of course, August is the high time for the hike along the pilgrimage trail. With this new knowledge, I head into the center of the small fisher village and am blown away by the number of day trippers I find there. Not only hikers, but also vacationers from all corners of Central Europe.

Avoiding the crowded restaurants, I get myself a tasty ice cream and sit by the small harbor to eat it. Looking at the colourfully painted houses and the small beach around the corner, I can definitely see why people would want to visit the place. But for me it’s already time get going again and so I head back to the bus station. On the way there I walk through a tiny street where the “Lavandería” is located and a woman is singing along to “Vivir mi vida”. This is more how I expected rural Spain to be like…

The bus station is empty and my next ride to Oviedo apparently delayed. When 25 minutes after the expected departure time a bus saying “Gijón” pulls into the station, everybody is confused. As the bus number doesn’t match my reservation either, I decide to talk to the driver, and he confirms that this is my ride. Everybody proceeds to load their luggage into the trunk and off we go. Still a little unsure about where we’re actually headed, I check my options for the last leg to Aviles from both Gijón and Oviedo.

Once more my doubts where unnecessary, as we pull into Oviedo Bus Terminal at 4.50pm. I rush to retrieve my backpack, because my last bus for the day will be leaving in 10 minutes. Luckily sorting out the ticket and finding the right departure platform proofs easy enough and I sit in the bus by 4.57pm. 30 minutes later I arrive at my AirBnB, only to find out that the host has left for the evening. She assures me that her friend who looks after her dog is on the way, but she doesn’t know exactly at what time she’ll be there. So I resort to sitting on my backpack in front of her door until the friend gets there.

The apartment block is located on the outskirts of the historical part of town and resembles the fabric-like, somewhat industrial looking brick buildings Michèle and I have seen in the hills of the Basque Country. From there it’s only a short walk to the historical town center which I wasn’t expecting to find here at all. The vibrantly painted buildings (some daiting back to the 15th century) house lots of Tapas bars and restaurant and make the town come to life in the evening. However, after eating Tapas for a week and a half in a row, I don’t really feel like it tonight and so I head to Burger King for a Whopper (I know, I KNOW).

An early night follows and the next day I am already on the move again, heading to A Coruña.