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.

Space Ibiza Anniversary

Our wedding anniversary and Jaki's birthday are looming up and as always our conversation went something like this.
La Jaki, "I'm sick of receiving practical presents."
El Ste, "Would you like something mega expensive, but totally useless?"
LJ, "Yes."
ES, "Two tickets to $pac€ closing coming your way."

(The joke is that it is expensive to go to this disco and we've never been nor desire to go. It is, however, wearing a bit thin as I've used it for the last 11 or 12 years)

The Iron Law of Ibiza Ironmongery

Someone hit the View from the (Ibiza) Villa site via a Google search for 'ferreterias (ironmongers) in San Antonio Bay. Had I known that folk would be looking for such a thing I'd have proffered some advice. Based on many years' experience of trying to find little bits of things in the ferreterias in this vicinity I formulated my Iron Law of Ironmongery - which states.

"No matter what you are looking for, if you ever manage to find it, it will always be in the last ferreteria that you visit."

I have a much more interesting law for Ibiza restaurants which can be revisited by clicking the link