Wine Country- Logroño
The weekend of the 21st & 22nd I went to Spanish Wine Country with two friends (Shani and Aubrey). We spent 2 1/8 days-ish there. It was a really neat and relaxing weekend. Here's how it went down:
Friday-
9:00pm our train left from Oviedo to Logrono. Since it was a night train ride, we got to be in a sleeping car with four tiny beds and a sink. For those of you who have never had the joyful experience of a sleeping train car, it's set up like two sets of slim bunk-beds in the space of less than half of a dorm room. I actually slept very well. Before I got to sleep though, the three of us girls were chatting it up in our all-too-small room. While chatting, a very drunk and slightly wobbly British man wandered through our open to door to join our conversation. We had run into this man earlier when we accidentally entered the men's sleeping section of the train. I'm mentioning this man because while chit-chatting with us he said the funniest British phrase. In his comical British accent he asked "are you girls here on business or just for a weekend jolly?". I now love the word "jolly" and am going to use it as much as possible.
After a solid hour of sleep, our train stopped in Logrono...at 3am. Before the trip we decided we wanted to be cheap and spontaneous and not pay for a hostel on Friday night. In theory that was a good idea. In reality we spent the hours of 3am-8am in the train station. To this day I cannot remember for the life of me what we did for those 5 mysterious hours.
Saturday-
After the mystery train station time we found our way to our hostel. The woman running the place was kind enough to let us in at 9am (undoubtedly hours before opening time). She looked at us and said "oh, right, you're the American girls" and then led us to our room. She took pity on us for being tired looking and, well, American.
Once we were more rested we decided to explore the city. It was an adorable town with a big city look mixed in with ancient alleyways. We spent the rest of the day meandering and waiting for a museum to open. We had to wait until 5pm for this museum to open and it turned out to be lame. Really lame. I don't even remember what it was about, probably a museum on the history of being lame. But, while killing time waiting for that museum to open up we found another museum (to be mentioned later) with an outdoor display. The outdoor display was full of sound experiments, like a giant xylophone, as well as a bunch of other cool stuff.
Saturday night we went out on the town for the "camino de pinchos y vinos," which just meant wandering around and having appetizers and wine. We tried some local food (like calamari) and some wine. Semi-side note: since I'm not accustomed to the taste of wine, or alcohol at all, prior to this weekend I thought all wine tasted like a cork. Along with some vegetable tempora, I had my first full glass of wine. I did not like it. I did, however, feel like a classy grown up.
Sunday-
Sunday was the best day. On this day we actually had something planned. We made a reservation to get a tour of a winery. We got a bit lost on the way there and then once we found the building we couldn't find the entrance. "Where is the freaking door?" was uttered from all of our mouths in one form or another. Once inside we were greeted by the nicest men who ran the place. One man, the one was giving the tour, spoke some English. He was delighted to hear that Shani and I were from California. He told us that he had recently visited Napa Valley and loved it. I felt super cool for knowing the slightest bit about Napa. The tour guide man led us to the rest of the group and introduced us as the American girls. (Apparently people in Logrono knew we were coming and braced themselves for the "American girls"). The tour was great. We got to see the whole sha-bang, including an art room containing pieces pertaining to wine. At the end we had a tasting. I thought I was going to be able to do that thing where you sip the wine and then spit it in a bucket- no such luck. We had two glasses of wine, one red and one white. The tour guide taught us how to taste the wine properly- including a tidbit about oxidizing the wine (which appears like slurping) in which I nearly drooled and almost choked, so much for being classy. As I mentioned, we each got two glasses of wine and not a spit bucket. As I also mentioned, I'm not accustomed to alcohol. After two glasses of wine (which weren't actually full glasses, just tasting size) I was feeling dizzy. As my friend tried to get me to help her pick out some wine, I thought to myself "oh crap Kate, stay calm. One foot in front of the other. Don't be drunk, don't be drunk, don't be drunk". I wished hard enough and it came true- I wasn't drunk. But I do think I had my first encounter with being on the way to being tipsy. The whole winery adventure was quite the experience.
After the winery we had half a day and some night to kill before our train came. We spent that time in the coolest hands-on museum. This was the museum I mentioned earlier. It was so cool that you couldn't even wear shoes inside. It had bunches of different displays and games that all required you to use your hands and senses. The place was filled with children and accompanying adults. We were the only ones over the age of 8 without child to accompany. It was awesome.
We passed the rest of our day/night eating and going to a movie before heading home to Oviedo. Our train didn't get in until 8am Monday morning, just in time for classes. Even with the lack of sleep and mystery hours, I had a great time. It was a weekend in which I was able to sip wine like a classy grown up and then squeal like a five year old in a children's museum all in one town.
No comments:
Post a Comment