Spanish students hit the old town for “pintxos” and wine in Bilbao

Some Instituto Hemingway students have been out in Bilbao´s Casco Viejo (old town) to enjoy some pintxos, the name of tapas in the Basque Country. This is an activity organized by the school that happens every Friday evening. The route through the pintxos bars started at 8.30 on Friday evening in Plaza Nueva, a spot where the electric atmosphere surprised the students greatly. The square was buzzing and the students were impressed by the enormous amount of people of all ages meeting at the same time in the same place: children and adults; toddlers and the elderly alike.

The students were brave enough to try all kinds of pintxos, in spite of the fact that they had no idea what each one was, nor which ingredients they contained. It became a sort of game, commenting and trying to guess what each pintxo was made from, even after having tried them all.

Accompanied by a teacher from the school, the students got to know about this bar crawl (“el poteo”) at first hand; a very typical custom in Bilbao. The students were also very interested in the names of the drinks: “txikitos” (small glasses of wine), “zuritos” (small glasses of beer) - as well as in the small amount of liquid served in these glasses! It has surprised them a lot to learn about the custom of the “txikiteros”, people who go from bar to bar drinking these small glasses of wine, singing traditional Basque songs. Our students were lucky enough to see one of these groups of singers in action and, upon hearing the beauty of their voices as they sung the popular Basque song "Oi Ama Eskual Herri goxoa” in unison, they couldn´t resist the temptation to film this impressive and deeply-rooted tradition on their cameras.