Huevo.
Egg.
I recently went to Avilés, another city in Asturias; Gijón, Oviedo and Avilés form a kind of triangle whose sides measure 30 minutes by direct bus.
Avilés, like much of Asturias, is known for its industry and the factories on its outskirts are visible from the city, but the sad fact is, it is treated as the ugly duckling (Oviedo is the swan and I'll say Gijón is perhaps the peahen, impressive and big but not quite a peacock). My students warned me against it, they said it smelled, said it was boring and small.
I was pleasantly surprised!
Ok, the factories are visible, the river can smell and the fumes can be headache inducing at times but it is on the whole a lovely place.
It has one of the best and biggest casco viejos (old towns) I've ambled around, with tiled floors, column-supported covered walkways under the buildings and beautiful building frontages, a park with a pond and a lovely theatre and ayuntamiento (town hall).
Avilés, like much of Asturias, is known for its industry and the factories on its outskirts are visible from the city, but the sad fact is, it is treated as the ugly duckling (Oviedo is the swan and I'll say Gijón is perhaps the peahen, impressive and big but not quite a peacock). My students warned me against it, they said it smelled, said it was boring and small.
I was pleasantly surprised!
Ok, the factories are visible, the river can smell and the fumes can be headache inducing at times but it is on the whole a lovely place.
It has one of the best and biggest casco viejos (old towns) I've ambled around, with tiled floors, column-supported covered walkways under the buildings and beautiful building frontages, a park with a pond and a lovely theatre and ayuntamiento (town hall).
And, for reasons unknown, this statue of a seal.
The great contrast to this take the form of the Centro Niemeyer, a futuristic structure by Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer placed just in front of the factories, over the river. It comprises of several parts: a rainbow bridge, a tower, a dome a long building made of glass and white brick and an auditorium which looks like half a boiled egg with provocative biro scrawl. I felt like I was in a space station, maybe while hallucinating. It is used as a kind of media centre for exhibitions, film screenings and education and Woody Allen (more on him later) has openly declared his support for it. I felt like a smug local upon seeing the current exhibition was one I'd already seen for free in Gijón.
This is an interesting article I read before visiting:
Well, we all know what happens to the ugly duckling in the end don't we?
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