Sunday 10 August 2008

The Basque Country

What a swiz! I´ve been here over a day and still haven´t seen anyone like this.

Still, my initial disappointment has been more than assuaged by a fantastic new discovery I´ve made. It´s called a Zurito and it´s a 30 second beer. A small measure that doesn´t take ages to down and matches your little morcel of food called a pintxo.

Pretty well every bar here has a counter laden with snacks - so far I´ve sampled pintxos made with asparagus, anchovies, eels, roast duck breast, black pudding, peppers, sirloin steak, cod, monkfish, baby eels, wild mushrooms - and as I´m having one in every bar, I don´t want to be wasting time (I can´t believe I´m writing this) boozing.

No it´s not true, I get a zurito, a txakoli (slightly sparkly white wine) and two pintxos per bar for around 6 Euros the lot. It´s a great way to spend the evening and as the Plaza Nueva, about a kilometre from my digs, is absolutely full of these bars, life is quite sweet in Bilbao.

Talking of Bilbao, I complied with the law today by visiting the Guggenheim, and I´ll be publishing some photos sometime soon. Coincidentally, the main exhibition was given over to an artist called Juan Muñoz, who died in Ibiza in 2001.

I have a plan to go to San Sebastian on the bus tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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