The new home:calle Colon de Larreátegui

Tom on the Gran Via-quiet Sunday afternoon

Amy studies Spanish in the living room

January 27, 2013

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home. James Michener

Llegamos a Bilbao! After a relatively painless flight on British Airlines (so much more polite than American Airlines) and a 6 hour lay-over at Heathrow, we arrived in chilly, rainy Bilbao. David graciously came to meet us and direct the cab driver to our new apartment, where we were met by Amy. The apartment is grand; David did a bang-up job finding it, although it couldn’t have been easy. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, kitchen, living room and a dining room we are using as a library/study. There’s also a big beautiful terrace that looks out on over calle Colón de Larreátegui and should get some heavy usage as soon as the sun starts to shine.

Cafe Iruña, our local spot. David and Amy beaming

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We are a half a block from the Jardines de Albia and 2 blocks from el Corte Inglés, 8 floors of everything from car parts to groceries, including 25 feet of butchers case specializing in different types of ham; ham from every corner of Spain or “ham de terriore”. And the cheeses! Hundreds of them! Cheese from cow’s milk, sheep milk, goat milk or a mixture of 2 or 3. My favorite shopping experience so far is a roofed market with some 100 or so individual stalls, at least half of which sell fresh fish and shellfish. There’s a special stall that just sells mushrooms, all types, including a small chantrelle we will have for dinner tonight. There’s another type called senderuelas that looks suspiciously like a candycap but I didn’t get a chance to detect that telltale maple syrup aroma. There’s another stall that specializes in olives; dozens of different colors and flavors, and again, terroire seems vital. Also cured capers, pickles The shopkeeper ladled the olives requested into plastic bags, offering samples directly from the ladle.

Last night we went to a flamenco performance at the teatro Arreaga, a short walk across the river. The teatro is a beautiful Belle Epoque style building and the flamenco performance was top notch. It included a riveting performance by a Mexican dancer, Kerime Amaya, but the head dancer was Farruquino, the descendant of a several well-known flamenco dancers.

Today we visited the Sunday book and antiques fair located in la Plaza Nueva en el Casco Viejo. Lots of inexpensive used books, records and DVDs. Throngs of pre-teenagers buying cards of their favorite soccer stars from dealers. Think baseball cards, but these kids were ORGANIZED. Each had a written list and they crossed off their purchases as they made them. We bought an Agatha Christie and an Arturo Perez-Reverte, both in Spanish, but my most exciting find was a DVD called Las largas vacacciones de 36, about the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. When I took Consuelo España’s film class last year, I searched endlessly and fruitlessly for this film so I could include it in my final project. Now I have it!! Maybe she’ll let me re-write my paper.

Tonight we have a special treat…actually 2 treats. Treat number 1: a vegetable dinner (meals so far have been largely bread and meat or fish) en nuestro piso, and treat number 2: Paddy Keanan, the eccentric and virtuoso uillean piper, probably best known for playing with the Bothy Band. This last treat is especially delicious as it is so unexpected.