I'm writing this from Oviedo, in the region of Asturias in the north of Spain. It took me seven hours to get here by bus on Sunday, and when I arrived my host unfortunately (but very kindly) took me on a tour of the city which was actually en fiestas - specifically the Fiestas de San Mateo in which people were making the habitual amount of noise, and eating and drinking as if the word "recession" wer! e some kind of myth associated only with the rest of Europe.
