After another late night filled with pintxos and Spanish McDonald’s, today brought a more relaxed and culturally immersive journey around Bilbao. We were split into two groups to go to a cooking class and a tour around some sights in Bilbao, and an accompanying visit to the Ribera Market. My group, of course, the one with all the allergy kids (curse my peanut allergy), went to the cooking class first. On the menu: pintxos, tortilla de patatas, and goxua, a crème brûlée style dessert. In a word, it was magnificent. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the olive and seafood-based pintxos, but it was fun to assemble the skewers. We had started with the tortilla, peeling and cutting up the potatoes, and chopping the onions. Our teacher, Karen, was super helpful in showing us the proper cutting techniques. Morgan and Samatha helped her flip the tortillas with an excellent success rate. I cracked some eggs for the dessert, and my favorite part was using the blowtorch to caramelize the sugar on top of the dessert. I drank some Fanta along the way, and the food was so delicious, and it was even better knowing we made it ourselves!

After the cooking class, we went on a tour around some of the sights in Bilbao and saw some very nice buildings. I was interested in the mix of modern buildings and older architecture; some places showed a distinct blend of both types of designs, especially the Ribera Market. I found it very cool and a nice way to preserve the history of Bilbao while still moving forward towards more accessible and functional buildings. Wandering around the market and seeing the stained glass inside was very nice, and even though I didn’t get any food since I was so full from lunch, it was a great time!

After that, we rode the Artxanda Funicular and saw a gorgeous view of Bilbao and the mountains surrounding the city from above. We took lots and lots of pictures, and it reminded me that I still haven’t ridden the Duquesne Incline back in Pittsburgh (got to get on that soon!). Despite getting more than a bit sunburned on only one shoulder, today was an overall relaxing and culturally intriguing day that ended, yet again, in pintxos. I also finally found my Frigo Pie ice cream, which is something that I used to have when I was younger, visiting my family in Galicia. I’ve been struggling to find a store that has it, so I was quite excited when I finally got it! I can’t wait for what the rest of this weekend has in store!