Expat Life in Bilbao
>
It’s surprising just how many expats there are living in and around Bilbao. When you first arrive here you get the feeling that there are no other foreigners around. After all, this isn’t London or Hong Kong. But slowly you begin to hear about an Italian family living up the road, an American married to a local a few blocks away, your child’s classmate has an English father, and on it goes until you build up a large number of foreign friends.
Sandy, Anna and I all met through a group of mothers with young children who meet up for coffee on Wednesday mornings. Obviously, now that the three of us are at Excel Wines, we don’t go to the coffee mornings but we try to make it to the monthly dinners and we often meet up at the weekends to go out to eat, to the beach or other activities with our families.
As foreigners, this group of friends is a huge source of support, but also a very interesting cultural experience. Last Saturday, for example, we had a leaving party for a Polish family that has been living here for the past 2 years and is now going to the US. They have become good friends and will be sorely missed but at this party there were Polish, English, French, Irish, American, Mexican, New Zealander, Swedish, Greek and, of course, Basque people.
The spread of food was fantastic including Basque empanadas, Thai curry, Greek Tzatsiki (yoghurt and cucumber dip), Swedish meatballs, American brownies, Polish mazurek (breakfast cake – delicious), and good old British fruit crumble.
The range of drinks was also interesting, from the mojitos that were served on arrival (Mojitos are a Cuban rum cocktail – the best ones I know are made in a restaurant in Bilbao. I’m working on prising the secret recipe out of the barman and I’ll let you know when I do). Then we moved on to some very nice Spanish wines and finished up with Brazilian cachaça (sugar cane liqueur) and plenty of excellent Polish vodka
It is sometimes very sad when a particular friend moves on and these Polish friends will be very sorely missed. At one point during the night (and being in Spain, it really was night and not evening!) the conversation turned to who else will be leaving within the next year or so. It’s hard for those of us who will be here long-term to see so many people go and sometimes it’s not so easy to keep in touch.
On the bright side, the departure of these friends was the perfect excuse for a very fun party – helped along by some great wines from Excel Wines, natch!