Lessons in the Production of Alcohol

Nano: my International Marketing professor

Austin loving the choo choo

This wonderful weekend began way too early on Friday morning where I found my self crossing town with headache of the ages, most likely due to large consumption of sugary Mojito's the prior evening. The purpose of great trek to Nervion was to meet up with my class for a tour of the Cruzcampo/Heineken factory.

We ended up taking a very quiet bus ride about 30 minutes out of town. The tour itself only took about 45 minutes and the rest of the time (3-4 hours) was spent at the factory bar where they encouraged us to try all their products and tapas. It was like Wonka Land for grownups. Where else can you drink a Heineken literally 100 yards from where it was brewed? Needless to say every one on the trip was much better friends by the time we returned.

Yesterday, a few of us took a train to Jerez, the Sherry producing capital of the world. After we bopped around town and had lunch it became apparent that we needed a later train ride home because we had missed the earlier tour. So we enjoyed the hike back to the train station where we easily swapped our tickets for later ones, walked back to the Tio Pepe factory, the main Sherry company. The tour its self was an interesting experience. We took a little train around the factory and watched a delightful little movie about its history. When it came time for our samples, we had to drink quickly and run back to the train station to make it in time. We made it....with time to spare.

To cap off this weekend, last night instead of going out the the clubs like most people our age would do on a Saturday night, we went to Bingo night. They take it very seriously here. It was hands down the nicest establishment I have stepped foot in here. I had to call it quits after a couple games because they read the numbers very fast and two euros is a little expensive for a game I know I'm going to lose.