Plaza Nueva, de nuevo

Continued from Free jazz at the Guggenheim

As I followed the Nervion River towards Arriaga, I allowed my camera to be seduced, once again, by Zubizuri Bridge, the results of which you would have seen here. This particular attempt didn't make it to that post.

As you would have guessed, by the time I got back to the apartment, it was quite late. Haha. Story of my life. Late to leave in the morning, late to leave in the evening...

Anyway, a quick shower, and time to search for some food. Taking into account the time, the best bet would be...yup, Plaza Nueva, for the second night running. On the first night, we ended up at Inma's. This time, we decided to stop at Bar Charly. It was buzzing, waiters dressed in black, with CHARLY emblazoned across their chest, running around, fighting for space behind the bar, which was still stacked with pintxos at 11.30pm, the time we got in, more or less. Some of their neighbours were already packing up.

One stool available, which was good enough for us. It's quite customary to stand and eat by the bar in Spain, especially if it's busy. And for pintxos, being by the bar is really the best place so you can get served quicker; not only that, you also get to see what the most popular pintxos are, and you get to hear the staff explaining what they are. I never quite understand why they don't label their pintxos - wouldn't that save a lot of Q&As? And for those who don't speak Spanish, it would make matters even that much better! I think I must have seen only one or two bars where their pintxos were labelled with at least the name and maybe their principal ingredients.

One note of advice: if you have the time - a lot of these bars/restaurants have websites - go visit them. Check out their offers, their specialities. I didn't, but I speak the lingo, so it's easier.

I regret to say I didn't take any photos nor took any notes, so I can't remember what we had. All I can say is that the pintxos were quite tasty. We could have carried on eating, but we didn't want to be surprised by the bill later! As it happened, 12 pintxos and 3 soft drinks set us back €25.60, quite good value for money around these parts, I'd say. The only thing is, as I'd mentioned before, pintxos are often served cold. The hot ones are sometimes warmed up, as they were done at Inma's. At Charly's, if I remember correctly, all we had were served cold. Still, all in all, stamped RECOMMENDED!