Calle Sendeja et al
And here we are with yet another sortie of our Quest!
After some deliberation, we decide to start the evening from the northern limit of Casco Viejo and move our way inwards. As a result, our first beer is an Amstel at BAR EIDER in Calle Sendeja, a cafeteria which probably works mostly during the day, but all the same looks quite ok to us.
Although we personally do not look very ok.
At the bar-Asian restaurant ARRATIANO we find a beer we have never heard of before: Aguila. It looks and tastes suspiciously like Amstel, though... and rightly so, since it's the same drink, only under its old name: Aguila was acquired by Heineken and then fused with the Amstel company and barrels years ago; this bar happens to keep the old sign on the draught beer font. See? We are actually expanding our hop-and-malt knowledge!
Next comes YAMIKE, a modern-looking place in Calle Esperanza. Sitting on the bar stools, sipping very cold Heineken and listening to the background music, we talk about Jon and Alex's misadventures earlier during the day - a small incident that for now only serves to confirm Ivan's prejudice against Bilbao's most "punkards" areas. But what would life be without a little adrenaline, after all?
At TABERNA PLAZA NUEVA, in the square of the same name, we find the real treat of the evening (beside another Amstel). The navy blue walls, ceramic tiles, knick-knacks and pictures hung on the walls of this bar already tell an interesting tale in their own way. And then from one of the barmen-owners, a friendly and chatty elder guy, we learn the story behind one of the framed memorabilia: one day the comic artist Kim (famous in Spain for creating the series of Martínez el Facha) came into the bar, ordered a drink and asked for some paper; closest thing they happened to have that day was a poster for a pelota game, but Kim, unperturbed, proceeded to sketch the bar itself on the back of the poster in just three minutes. We are also told how a Japanese journalist featured this bar in his article about food in Spain. And how another foreign correspondent, from the Netherlands this time, included in his reportage on the Basque Country a full-page picture of Taberna Plaza Nueva which was bigger than the photograph of Guggenheim itself - as the barman is quite proud to point out!
Eventually we get to the busy Calle Somera to try one more bar: our choice falls on TXALAPARTA, a very crowded bar that must have (re)opened quite recently, since none of us recalls noticing it only a few months ago. Another Amstel drunk, another place ticked off our list, another episode concluded...
But before ending this post, enjoy this rare pictures of the three Questers preparing themselves for a table football challenge at TIRAUKI. ¡Hasta luego!
