So real

People from Asturias love Asturias. (Asturias is a little autonomous region on the north coast, just east of Galicia.) I met an Asturian guy a while back and he made me a whole list of places here that I have to see; I'm trying to get to as many as I can in a few days. Stop number one was Luarca, a little fishing village that speaks directly to my obsession with authenticity. The port is tiny and filled with little brightly-colored fishing boats and a tired-looking orange tugboat. Old men fish off rocks and there are signs all over saying (more or less) "Be careful because we don't respond to accidents."

The land sweeps up into cliffs on both sides of the bay, making for nice views and lots of little hidden rocky cove-y beaches. On the bigger beach were a few families left over from tourist season; kids playing futbol, dads fishing, grandmotherly types sunbathing even though there was no sun. A few rogue raindrops, but mostly it was just cloudy all day, which seemed fitting.

I'm sure I'm not the only tourist here, but I like to think I am. I feel like a fly on the wall in someplace real, that's not trying to sell itself or be anything other than what it is. Thank you, Asturian guy whose name I can't remember.