A town called "Bowls"

A traditional Spanish tazón, or bowl. We visited a town called Tazones. 

It's just one more of Asturias' creatively named towns. (source)

Last weekend Héctor and I got lucky enough to both have Monday off of work/school. We decided to take advantage of our three day weekend and go and visit my friend in Gijón! Friday afternoon we left right after lunch and drove all afternoon. We finally made it by 9...perfect timing to drop our stuff at the apartment and have dinner. We went to a seafood restaurant which has a reputation to have good food for a decent price, and we weren't disappointed! I'm pretty sure we were all waddling like ducks as we left the restaurant on account of the size of our food babies.

Of course we wanted to go visit a traditional Asturian fishing town, and ended up deciding on Tazones. First, we drove up to the top of the cliffs to see the lighthouse. There wasn't a whole lot going on up there, but it was incredibly beautiful.

                                     Héctor climbed down a steep,
                                     thorny hill to take this picture!

                    Every kid's dream tree house

Afterwards we went down to the actual town to look for a place to eat. Normally I call these towns hidden gems, and this one was certainly a gem, but it wasn't hidden. There were big expensive cars continually coming down the main road as we looked for a restaurant, and we soon discovered that all of the menus were out of our price range. Apparently "Bowls" is famous for their seafood!

 

 This teeny town is overrun with enchanting doorways and bright colors. 

Messing around with cameras on the "walkway" by the beach

 Since we were dying of starvation, we had to hightail it out of this quaint little town and go to another town that would feed us for a more Asturian price. We ended up in Villaviciosa, which is also quite beautiful.

 Ducks and Kitties!!

This is what happens when I try to get a nice picture of these goof balls.

When we got back to Gijón we had a special dinner planned: a bar was putting on an Ethiopian dinner/event. When we got there they were just about to start. All the food was out on the counter and the host was explaining how to eat the food. They have a special bread that is called injera which they use to eat instead of forks. It's similar to a spongy crepe, but with a different flavor. They had about twelve to fifteen dishes in all and of course we had to try everything! Then after dinner they showed us the coffee ceremony. They toasted the beans right there in front of us and it is served black with some brown sugar. I am not lying when I say it is the best coffee I have EVER had. In my whole entire life. There was no bitter taste like you normally find with coffee, and had a slight minty aftertaste. If all coffee tasted like that, I would never stop drinking it! 

 Dinner comprised of (from top left around in a circle)a few meat dishes, two lentils dishes, cabbage and carrots, green beans, an algae salad (maybe seaweed??) radishes and potatoes. In the middle is a cheese dish. Dessert was shish kebabs of papaya, kiwi, and pineapple! MMMM

On the left, toasting the beans. On the right, pouring the coffee. She is wearing a traditional Ethiopian dress. 

My only reminder of the best coffee I've ever had. 

P.S. To see other posts about traditional Asturian fishing towns click here or here