Fabien's Gijon
"Rohit, this kind of precipitation is called orbayu," said Fabien as he explained the spectrum of rain densities plotted over colloquial linguistic references.
A month back, I visited my dear friend and mentor, Fabien, in his new world, The North of the South — Gijon. These are some pictures from my visit.
Fabien is a renowned cartography geek. He is the creator of tools like Proximo and Rumbo which creators around the world use to tell stories through maps. He often uses, maps as an archetype, in his design fiction work.
Here we were talking about new variations of this map in the near future.
Gijon is a beach town. Gijon is a surfer's town. You can see people taking a walk around the beach. If you have been to Mumbai, this promenade reminds me of the Marine Drive. The beach curvature, I imagine, looks similar to Queen's necklace.
As many stairs go down from the street to the beach, people tend to remember their absolute location relative to the stair number along the beach. For example, the best view of the cathedral is from Stairs Number 3 or Escalara 3. Funny enough, these local references are not documented landmarks on Google Maps.
The parking on the streets is lined up with vehicles from all over Europe. The Dutch, the Belgians, and the Germans cherish the waves of the lower Atlantic and make merry of the lower cost of living.
I loved this site of a man, unknown, watching the waves while he surfs his mental waves. Stopping and pondering, the sea acts as an object to meditate on, an affordance that is not available in Madrid.
Fabien has a theory of internal resonance with cities. As you change, your frequency changes, once this frequency is out of sync with that of the city, you feel out of place. Then you should find a city that is close to your frequency. Gijon is that city for Fabien.
As you walk down, Gijon's Marine Drive, you see people. Many of them are not in a hurry. They take their time. They indulge in whatever life has to offer.
... some walk past you.
Gijon seems to be an ageing town. The young tend to flee and come back when they begin to resonate again. Post-COVID, many have come back and they keep coming.
Here is a picture of surfers going to work.
and someone enjoying the solitude that often comes with age.
while some enjoy the gifts of company with a good game of beach football.
As we walked further, closer to Gijon's cultural centre, and strolled up to Elogio del Horizonte, we could see more greenery and hills. It reminded me of the picture I have of Switzerland coming from India. Fabien, a real Swiss, was not convinced.
As our walk was ending, I clicked this picture of an old couple. They were climbing a small hill with their newly adopted puppy. The mother was teaching the pup what not to eat while the father was rejoicing in the moment as he protected his view from the sun.
Then, I visited the Cathedral of Gijon where our walk ended. Later that day, after eating an amazing sumptuous meal of Asturian Vegetarian Fabadas made by Fabien's wife, Eva, he dropped me towards to bus station for my trip to Santander.
Un grand merci à Fabien, Eva, Noah et Luna. C'était génial !