For the first weekend in Bilbao, on Friday the girls, Val, Katie, Dayna, Kassandra, and Morgan, had been craving good Mexican food and they heard of this place called Placer de Guadalupe that was really popular and we needed to get a reservation. For Friday lunch we got a reservation, however when we got there we were the only ones in the restaurant, which was fine with us. I think one of the greatest things about Spain is the menu del dia, menu of the day, which every restaurant has during lunch. It is a set price, three courses, appetizer, entrée, and dessert with about 3 to 4 choices for every course, also, wine or water and bread are included. At the Placer de Guadalupe it was only 10 euros for 3 courses! The USA really needs to adopt this idea. It was the best food, the bread was toasted garlic bread served with salsa, for appetizer I got a sort of quesadilla with ham, entrée was chicken enchiladas, and dessert was an amazing chocolate mousse cake drenched in rich chocolate sauce and whipped cream! And all for 10 euros!! This is definitely on my list of places to come back to!
Quesadilla, Patato cakes (which I didn't try), and Garlic Bread
Sombrero decoration on the wall
After a great lunch, I met up with Mike and Jacklyn for some bike riding around the city. Bilbao through the tourist office allows people to rent bikes for free. All you need to do is register the first time you rent and then there are multiple locations around the city where you can pick up and drop off bikes. For about an hour, we road through the streets of Bilbao and along the Ria. It was a little colder than I would have liked, my hands turned bright red, and after a while it looked like it was going to pour so we decided to drop off the bikes. I still had a lot of fun even if my bike was little broken and kept shifting gears on its own when I would go up hills. It is a great, free way to see the city. I just am planning on doing it again when its warmer and sunnier out!
Mike and Jacklyn ready to ride around Bilbao!
Riding through the streets of Bilbao
That night was decided to be the Spanish all nighter night. In Spain, the clubs do not open until 2am so that is when everyone goes out and nobody returns until they are kicked out at 6am. We hadn't pulled an all-nighter yet so we decided to go to Fever which is way far away from Algorta so it would got 30 euros for a taxi if we wanted to leave early. See on Friday nights, the metro stops running at 2am, so enough time to get to the club and doesn't start running again til Saturday morning at 6am. First all the Spaniards hang out and drink in front of the club on the streets before going into the clubs, therefore they don't have to pay for expensive drinks in the club. So once we got to the club we were stuck until 6am! After about 4 hours and lots of dancing, I was very exhausted and ready to go. I successfully made it though! But I was about to fall asleep on the metro ride home. At 7am I tucked myself into bed to fully recover!
Me, Kassandra, Morgan, Val, Dayna, and Katie outside the club
Stage and DJ in the club
Saturday was just a relaxing day. Later that night I went to the Spanish cinema for the first time which is cheaper, 6 euros, than going to see a movie in the states. Also, they let you bring whatever food into the theater, like McDonald's. We went to see An Education which Dayna said was going to be a chick flick, although there is a romantic plot line in the story I would not call it a chick flick. I loved the movie though! I cannot wait to see it in English because Spanish dubbing does not show the true quality of the acting. Also, I was so excited that I knew what was going the whole time, my Spanish is improving!
Sunday, the sun made a small appearance so I figured it was a good time for a walk, but by the time I made it out of the house it was cloudy again. I met up Kassandra, Val, and Dayna and we walked along the beach. There is a great walking path with benches all along the Getxo beach, also it is scattered with ice cream stands which replaced the churro stands for the spring and summer time. We decided to take the cable bridge over to Portugalete, talked about it in one of my first posts, to just go explore. Even though it was Sunday we found a few things that were open, China Oriental store, bakery, and few bars. These Chinese Oriental stores are everywhere in Getxo and Bilbao. They are run by Chinese immigrants and sell basically about every cheap thing in the world, almost like a dollar store. They sell makeup to barbies to paper cutlery to party hats to linens to workshop tools and on and on and on. These stores are jam packed with anything and everything imaginable at a ridiculously low price!
We stumbled upon this Mexican bar, Nopal Bar-Mex, and they have an excellent tex-mex menu so we got some guacamole to share. The guacamole was delicious and it came with salsa verde and jalapeños, which Dayna was very excited about! We decided to go back there this past Saturday too, Morgan and Katie us this time. We ordered margaritas and guacamole again. Then the bartenders put sombreros on top of our heads and took our picture for their website. It was hilarious! But Val started talking to the guy in Spanish and he said, "I'm sorry, I don't speak english." And we were just so confused because she was speaking spanish! Other than that this is definitely on our list of places to go back to.
Dayna enjoying her Jalapeños
The delicious guacamole!
with our margaritas & in our sombreros!
This past Friday, we all went to Casco Viejo to grab some pintxos and hang out because it was such a nice night. But first we saw this big, fair going on in the plaza by the ria. It is like a world market with vendors from all over the world. It is only going on from March 18 to April 11. They were selling jewelry, scarves, clothes, and other things. I didn't buy anything but I would love to go back to try and find some unique gifts for people.
Entrance to the Fair
After exploring the market, we headed into Plaza Nueva in Casco Viejo for some pintxos. Pintxos are small portions, like appetizers, of seafood, salads, meat-filled pastries, deep-fried pastries, and on and on. Each bar has their own variety of pintxos that they sit on top of the bar. You just ask for a plate and pick out which ones you want and then just let the bartenders know how many you got. I grabbed two, a croqueta and a seafood one. A croqueta is fried ball filled with a mixture made from butter, milk, and flour, and ham. (Carmen makes the best homemade ones). The seafood pintxo was shrimp and squid on a skewer on top of a piece of bread. It was very tasty! We sat outside the bars in the tables they have set up in the plaza. We just ate and talked for a while with many other Spaniards enjoying the weather and pintxos while their kids just ran around the plaza.
Pintxos!
It was nice to just have two weekends to chill in Bilbao, although I love to travel to different places, I need to explore where I am living too. I only have 7 weekends left in Bilbao and I would hate to leave a place I have lived for 4 months and not know it at all. I am very happy to have relaxed and seen where I have been living. Now, I just wish the weather would be nicer during the weekends!
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