Calle del Perro
As the title says, it's hard to act young.
We would like to stop complaining about back pain, heartburn, persistent cough and receding hairlines... but then, it's a nice variation from the constant gossiping about other people's lives! So tonight we embrace our old side and join the flow of sixty-somethings in Calle del Perro.
Ok, we might have been exaggerating. There is a cuadrilla definitely in their late fifties drinking in ROTTERDAM, the first bar that we choose. To get even crazier, we order a draft Voll-Damm (gasp!) instead of the usual lager, while the waitress eyes us suspiciously and wonders if we are eventually gonna sit for a proper dinner, as well. But we don't. Thug life!
Our second stop is RIO-OJA, which welcomes us with a nice smell from their restaurant part, its walls lined with pelota-related articles. Beer: Amstel Oro, the toasted variant of our usual cerveza.
And the tiles in the bathroom remind customers to always carry their umbrella - it's rainy Bilbao, after all.
A few doors down on the same road we find EGILUZ. The three of us sit down at the bar, looking at the rows of ceramic pots filled with calamari, soup and meat, and -with an Amstel in hand - slowly slide again into our retired personas. It's actually an OK place, only lacking some music maybe, but half hour later we notice that the owners start tidying the place up: time for another bar!
We move to the restaurant-bar KALDERAPEKO, on the opposite side of the street. Here we are served Mahou (that Ivan twice tries to pay for, feeling a strange and unnecessary rush of generosity), while the conversation turns onto aging and relationships. Outside, rain and drizzle alternate, in a nice echo of our contemplating mood.
Alex did not even make any comment about forks, this time.
And finally it's time for our last BBQ stop for this Friday: the bar LUZGAS in Calle de la Pelota. We have a glass of Heineken and observe the dimly lit room - there's a girl with artistic inspiration drawing behind us, a blackboard on the wall which entertains us for a while as we try and make out the writings on it, and some inflatable toys used as decorations that remind us of Jeff Koons creations.
We call it a (BBQ) night, collect our old selves and leave this side of Casco as soon as our glasses are empty.
Until the next beer!
