Bilbao

During the week of April 22-26, I was at a conference in Bilbao.  The conference, titled Graphene 2013, was about graphene.  There were a bunch of interesting scientific talks, including a couple talks that were a little more pessimistic and seemed to piss some people off.  That was funny.  But anyway, I'm not here to talk about science, I'm here to talk about food!

But first, some pictures of the local scenery.  My hotel was on this street:

Here's a shot of Bilbao from up high:

Finally, here's a picture of the crazy-looking building where the conference was held:

Bilbao is in the middle of Basque country, where a ridiculous amount regional pride exists (even more than Catalonia, if that is possible).  Lately, they seem to have made a big push towards modernity in science and technology, the result being a lot of newfangled constructions like the one above.  However, they also remain strongly traditional in a lot of ways, especially concerning their language and their food.  Yes, the food.  Let's talk about that.  For me, the high point of the Bilbao culinary experience was the pinchos.  Pinchos are the ultimate Spanish bar food -- they are all laid out on the bar and you just point out which ones you want.  They are called pinchos because they are made from bread and meat and are held together with a wooden stick called a pincho.  Basically, they're just creamy, greasy, fatty goodness on a stick.

It is also customary to have an apple cider, which is poured from a large height.  Five pinchos + one cider + one coffee = 11 Euros.  Not bad!

I also tried a pig's foot at the conference dinner.  That one wasn't so great.