Introduction

Bilbao, or Bilbo in the local idiom Euskara, is an industrial-turning-alternative city in the Basque Country, Northern Spain. The lively Casco Viejo (Old Town) is its oldest nucleus: it originally started with seven streets, las Siete Calles, and grew to include a square (Plaza Berria or Plaza Nueva) and the streets Santa María, Bidebarrieta, Correo and Askao. Thanks Wikipedia!

The area is bursting with bars, pubs, cafés and cervecerías where one can drink a refreshing caña for a very low price: the streets are usually full of people having a drink (or two, or more…), accompanied by a savoury pincho and a costant flow of chitchat.

So, once upon a time, three expats met in the multicultural environment of the town… Here, let us introduce ourselves:

• Alex, from Wales – the Failed Comedian;
• Ivan, from Croatia – the Superciuk;
• Beatrice, from Italy – the Writer.

After bonding over our common penchant for beer, we started wondering *how many* bars really are in Casco Viejo. Since a simple Google search didn’t satisfy us, we decided to turn the whole thing into a proper project: the Bilbo Beer Quest.

Rules are simple: over the following weeks, we will drink a caña (a glass of draft beer) in each place of the Casco, thus mapping the centre and counting all the drinking holes offering a cerveza... well, más o menos. Alex and Ivan will do the drinking bit, while Bea will mostly take care of reporting their noble enterprise.

Our beer quest is currently under development (read: we’ve just started our drinking mission!), therefore we’ll try updating the blog every week or so with the new places we’re hitting. Expect some inconsistencies as the alcohol level in our bodies increases and the mental skills accordingly suffer.

We are aware of the challenging path lying ahead of us, but our motto is:

“Till the last drop! …Or until one of us drops out”.