13th Chapter - The Night Before Carnival

Friday, 05 February 2016
Calle Askao - Plaza Nueva

After a one-week hiatus due to Alex's visit to his homeland, we are once again ready to tackle our hoppy mission. Eider, neighbour and friend, is the first one to join us tonight in Calle Askao, behind Plaza Nueva.
LOS CARACOLES is a narrow bar in Athletic Bilbao's colours - red and white. They serve us Mahou and Moscatel wine. It's mainly a warm-up, so not much to note: we sip our drinks, discuss Carnival costumes, gossip about Hameed and lament the fact that Jon is not here to take pictures for us.

Next comes the bar and restaurant GURE TOKI, which also has draught Mahou - and dishes like goose egg or a tomato concentrate called Fancy Tomato Paste; for all their fanciness, they are a little stingy with the quantity of beer in a glass. Bea orders a Grimbergen, forgetting that it's a devilish abbey beer impossible to finish; when Ivan notes that Alex holds his glass in a peculiar way that even English lords would find too sophisticated, however, even Grimbergen is a good enough prop to make fun of him.

Some other friends have joined us in the meantime, so we move to SORGINZULO, in Plaza Nueva, recognizable by its large frog sign (a pity that our French acquaintances are not around tonight!). They serve Amstel and are proud to call themselves "the best bar of pintxos" - you can see Hameed putting them to the test.

The following beer stop is EKAIN: they lose some points for serving San Miguel, but they make up for it thanks to the interesting Basque prints on the walls and the nice waitress who compliments Alex on his Euskera skills (she might have been making fun of him at the same time, but we like to look on the bright side).   

Intermezzo: a picture of Bea in front of the TOPA...! shop. If, like her, you are familiar with the slang of Livorno, Italy, you do not require further explanation. If you are not, let us only note that for Basques "topa" means "cheers", and for Livornese people... well, it means something else.

Finally, we turn our steps towards Calle Somera and enter BAR JOSÉ "PEPE" MUJICA, an vegan-friendly place dedicated to the former Uruguayan president. We close the evening drinking Estrella Galicia and sweet mosto, with some awkward hugging and inexplicable cheering going on all the while. 

...And this last one makes three cheering-arms-up, silly-looks-on pictures for tonight.
Now we have to go and get dressed for the Carnival follies. Enjoy this winter parenthesis of confetti and fried food, 'cause we surely will!

12th Chapter - Plain Beer Drinking

Friday, 22 January 2016
Calle de la Merced

Another easy night for BBQuest-goers: tonight it is just us three with our photo team Jon and Giedre. Our destination is Calle Merced, a short side alley that counts only a few bars.

We start at SALTSAGORRI, happy to find that the local draft is Keler - a drinkable lager, still nothing too fancy but almost excellent in comparison to the omnipresent San Miguel. Jon tells us that Keler used to be a cheap option for beer before: it has made a good comeback to the market.

TABERNA BIKOTE also serves Keler (and Black Bitch IPA for Bea): we only note the marked Basqueness of the place before taking our drinks out in the calle.

The third and final bar in Calle Merced is LAGA. Here, we drink Amstel and discuss ideas for the impending Carnival festivities (group costumes? DIY masks? dignity?). 

After saying goodnight to Jon and Giedre, we move to Calle María Muñoz for the last drink at BASTE: a glass of Estrella Damm, accompanied by garlicked artichokes and mushrooms.

And that's it for tonight! One more street done; the achievement of our noble purpose looks closer and closer...
Cheerio!

11th Chapter - Drinkin' in the Rain

Friday, 15 January 2016
Plaza Nueva

It's pouring. After an unusually dry December, Bilbao has come back to its natural state - rain. There is only one solution if we want to continue with our Quest tonight: seek beers and refuge under the arches of Plaza Nueva.
Full of cafes and restaurants on each of its four sides, this monumental Plaza is full with people day and night. It hosts a flea market on Sunday mornings and is a favourite spot for children and their parents when the weather is good. It is also intimidating for us BBQuesters, since once started we have no idea when we'll be done with it...
Ready and steady to face the rain? Let's go!

Our first bar in 2016 is ZUGA, a small corner place crammed with pintxos and customers. We stay outside, observing a group of tweens sitting on the ground playing videogames on Ipad, while their parents drink nearby - ah, the joys of parenting in the twenty first century! The beer served here is San Miguel, but someone leaves it unfinished: it's not too good, alas - but by now we know that neither Alex nor Ivan is partial towards this brand.
In the photo below: we are proud of our beer bellies.

San Miguel awaits for us at the bar ZAHARRA, too, and it's only slightly better. Wine is ok, though, and bartenders chatter friendly to each other and to customers. We meet several fellow expats as well as locals hanging around, proving once again that people living in Bilbao are not afraid of a couple of drops (or a drizzle... or a storm) when it comes to go out and socialize.

The bar-charcutería JAM TOKI is the following stop, although Alex and Bea are not too happy to step in a place redolent of ham and salami. On the bright side, the beer served here is Mahou! Holding the cold glasses is becoming harder while the temperature goes down, however, so the couples (Jon and Giedre, Ivan and Alex) share two pairs of gloves among them to keep the beer hand warm.

It's 11PM. Several places are closing down by now. Luckily, VICTOR tavern is not! Inside, we find warmth and room to accommodate our ever-growing group. The guys order Mahou again, served in nice handled glasses, while Bea finally enjoys a black IPA (Black Feet by local Milana brewery). The bartenders comment that evidently we are not yet real Bilbao people: if we were, we would have stayed outside in short sleeves without a problem!

We cross the square to get to CHARLY, where we are informed that the bar will close in 20 minutes. It's more than enough for our needs: the beer knights drink cañas of Amstel, others have wine, someone hot tea or Colacao (well, if we are not bilbaínos after all, why bother?). Also, Bea and Ivan manage to get a cheesy profile picture...

Sugar rush caused by cocoa and caffeine excess in tea...

Plaza Nueva is done for tonight, so we walk some minutes to Calle María Muñoz and enter SOIZ 3. There's a round of Heineken, and then another, as it's too late to change more bars but too early to part just now that things are getting happy and awkward. They also have a better selection of bottled beers, so Bea enjoys two products of Laugar brewery: EPA Pale Ale and Kiskale Brown Ale (that Ivan orders asking for la cerveza con perro, "the beer with the dog", and the barmaid surprisingly understands). 
Also worth mentioning: the boards put up by the bar staff.

As usual, by now only two options are left: continue the evening at some clubs like Mitote and Antzoki for more beer, shots and goofy dancing, or surrender to the late hour plus rainy weather and go home. 
Guess what happened, judging by the following photograhic evidence.

9th and 10th Chapters - The Ones Before Christmas Holidays

Happy New Year, everybody! 

Back from the holidays, it is time to get back to work/study/duties of various kinds, and to keep up with those new year's resolutions taken during San Sylvester's tipsy hours. What is your goal for 2016? More exercise, more trips, more love? 
Well, here are ours: more pubs (Ivan & Alex) and less procrastination (Bea), for sure! The writer has been quite lazy lately, and so it happens we still have to tell you about our last crawls before Christmas...
Let us not indulge more in explanations: to start this new year, let's dive in in the last of the past one!

***

Friday, 11 December 2015
Mercado La Ribera

"La Ribera", a food and groceries market, is one of Bilbao's iconic sites. On its upper floor  a number of small restaurants, fast foods and bars offer can be found. That is where we go, together with three friends of ours, for the (traditional?) "piss-off" night: or, as non-Welsh people might call it, a night of drinks to say our goodbyes to each other before heading back home for Christmas.
We start with a plentiful and savoury dinner accompanied by Heineken beer at MR WOK.

Since the market bars are quite full in this chilly night, we go out and head towads Calle Santa María. A good pincho can always be found at IRRINTZI bar... but, full as we are, we only stay for beer (Amstel lager served here) and wine!

Next and last for this piss-off event comes CON B DE BILBAO (a name good for spelling and for Biscayan pride alike!), a restaurant bar where we find the locally produced La Salve beer. Also, an interesting recommendation added to the emergency exit sign.

Useful.

***

Tuesday, 15 December 2015
Calle Jardines

Tonight, with Jon and Giedre, we exchange more season's greetings and anecdotes about the celebration of Christmas and New Year in our respective countries. 
At the fancy-looking BERTON, the guys enjoy for once a caña of Krušovice, a Czech beer. We also happen to notice some eerie similarities in our clothing style, so it is a perfect occasion to immortalize a glorious Matching Couples Moment. Plus the single outcasted single, obviously! 

Alex feels blue.

When we get to the second destination, the café BIKIAK, some of us have grown a certain appetite. While Ivan and Alex drink Amstels, Bea orders a sangría and a plate of fried green pimientos, deliciously oily and salty; unfortunately, for some obscure reason the only surviving picture is one of Alex showing his love for forks.

And, finally, the last bar of our BBQuest for 2015 is HATARI. Its jungle theme looks fun and original; however, several customers looking for the restrooms are puzzled when they find animal symbols instead of the usual Gentlemen/Ladies signs. Bea had to politely tell a guy that he actually was a rhino and not a giraffe.

(Image: via Tripadvisor.es)

After the alcoholic and gastronomic excesses of these past few weeks, we are finally back in town for MORE alcoholic and gastronomic excesses! We will soon continue with new BBQuest episodes and fresh posts, so keep following. Cheers!

8th Chapter - Hidalgo Hidalgo

Friday, 04 December 2015, h 21:00
Dendarikale

Once again, our plan was only to have quiet, normal episode of our project. Once again, Alex swore that he would stop after a couple of drinks to try and defeat his neverending sore throat. 

Once again, our intentions and his promises crashed against the crude alcoholic reality of BBQuest. 

The streets in Casco Viejo can be a real labyrinth when one tries to go home early: they - with the help of a growing number of supporters of our project - won't let go easily of us, once started.

The first stop of this Friday is the restaurant-bar BATZOKI, notable for its strong association with a local political party. Our friends Tiziana and Iván (an homonym of our Ivan, but 100% Basque) join the quest for the first time. The tap beer served here is Mahou Classic; Bea orders a tostada, but is a bit disappointed to be given a mere 0.25 lit. bottle of Voll-Damm instead of the regular 0.33 lit. C'mon people, really?
Fun fact: the whole bar counter is made of a single stone weighing 1227 kg.

At SARKUE our group has already grown, as we are joined by more friends, colleagues and friends of friends (shout out to Hosam for addressing Bea "the Harry Potter of beers"!). It's good for business - the bar looks ok but is empty, probably because bilbaínos have already left town for the long weekend. Ivan makes some introductions, Alex still tries to convince us that he won't sing tonight and both, sticking to their primary purpose, duly empty their glasses of Estrella Damm.

Although it would be nice to find some place indoors to let everyone sit down and enjoy, our current number makes it impossible. Instead, for our next destination we choose the bar LEKERIKA, in calle Somera, and after ordering local Boga beer we stay outside in the street: at least this way it's easier for the various groups to mingle.

Just in front lies the Chinese restaurant JADE, which needs to be included due to the fact that it keeps draft Heineken. Their cerveza is unfortunately not the best we have tried so far; anyway, the owner has a friendly smile and we try not to mind the rest. Bea orders a thick, syrupy "sweet wine" without being able to catch its name.

NEKANE, the next stop, is a place for staunch Basque independentists, as the posters and pictures on the wall clearly show. However, they don't appear too generous with the quantity of beer (Mahou Classic) in each glass. Nonetheless, as the other bars on this side of Somera at this day and time, it is full of customers.

We are happy to find that MADARIAGA has more room inside, and we can sip our Heinekens while conversing indoors. I write conversing to give us a certain dignity; you imagine a less formal and less coherent chit chat, culminating with Ivan passing around Bea's little black notebook and asking for everyone's autographs.

URKIA bar is our last stop in Somera. The real drinkers get cañas of Mahou, Bea a soy decaf macchiato (she's getting ready for the hipster party, clearly). Ivan makes friends with Carmen, a girl full of vitality and charme, also happening to be a pitbull.

Someone's proposal to continue the evening dancing is welcomed warmly by the remaining people. We head to MITOTE, a bar-night club in Belostikale. To our dismay, though, they do not have cañas! We decide to include the place all the same, because the amount of awkward but energetic dancing and raspy choruses happened there is worth of a (dis)honourable mention. The guys order bottled Heinekens; beers are soon accompanied by gin tonics, purple shots and whatnot.
The magic rythm of Latino disco music, Livin' On A Prayer and Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar soon gets everyone hitting the dance floor; the last song mentioned above is worth a Youtube search in case you are not familiar with it: Ivan especially requested it, after being thrilled of discovering this 80's pearl at his language lessons, and from the moment he learnt that all Spanish people know it, he's been using it to scientifically measure the Hispanic quotient of everyone he meets. 
Some pictures follow, for your benefit only.

We would like to conclude this episode with the following wise words dispensed by Iván:

"Hidalgo hidalgo

Hijo de puta

El que deje algo"