Calle La Ribera, Calle Santa María
Too much Disaronno.
A waiter poured Bea too much Disaronno. Just too much.
That is why this episode is being published with almost one week of delay - there was a hangover to fight! And some laziness, we'll grant you that. Well, now, let's get down to business!
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This Saturday night out starts at PALACIO ARANA, a café-bar in Calle La Ribera. The palace that gives its name to the bar, built around 1590, is the oldest one of Bilbao; its monumental portal is still visible some meters up the street. To amplify the historical feeling, the owner has put up on one wall of this bar a large reproduction of a map of Bilbao in its earlier days, and has added around the place some Medieval armours and decorations. Yes, he ackowledges the anachronisms, but it's good for the tourists - as he explains us while we take our glasses of Mahou and tinto de Crianza.
A little way down Calle La Ribera we enter the café LA MERCED. It is bigger than it looks from the outside: it even has a nice fireplace in the wall. Several bars in Casco Viejo offer bookcrossing points, but the one we find in here catches our eye because of its bold sign reading "Promiscuous Books. They go out with anyone!".
However, here is where the minidisaster happens and Bea receives from a too attentive waiter what looks like a full pint of sweet, alcoholic Disaronno - and she drinks it all (shame!) Look at her happy crazy eyes. There are many smiling people sitting at the bar and at the tables, so maybe this place is particularly generous with their liquid portions...
Finally, we meet with some others at GATZ, in the lively Calle Santa María, a popular place known for its pinchos (also veggie ones). The stickers showing Michelin and Routard guides recommendations are all over the bar, but our main pleasure is found in the company of many fun friends...
...and Heineken, of course.
¡Salud y hasta pronto!
