Cartagena

Two weekends ago was a bank holiday here (known as a puente) so I took advantage of the 3 days off to visit Cartagena with a friend. It is a relatively small city which is only a half an hour drive from San Javier, that's if you're lucky enough to have a car. If not, you have to get the unreliable 70 LatBus to Murcia, potentially wait 2 hours and then get another autobus to Cartagena. No prizes for guessing which route we had to take:-) 

When we did eventually make it though, it was worth the arduous journey. In comparison to San Javier and Santiago de la Ribera, which mostly consist of newer builds, Cartagena is host to some beautiful architecture. It's what you'd expect from a wee Spanish city; untouched cobbled streets, iron balconies, locals enjoying their cortados and tostadas for breakfast. On the Friday evening we wondered about looking for tapas, which proved a weirdly difficult challenge. It turns out (little to our knowledge as neither of us have spent much time in Spain) that 6pm is not tapas o'clock. We eventually settled in a cafe which offered a limited selection of tortilla, ensaladilla rusa* or a cheese sandwich. After another couple of hours eating our respective tortilla and cheese sandwich, surrounded by locals still drinking coffee, tapas time hit and we were suddenly spoiled for choice. 

*Ensaladilla rusa is favourite amongst murcianos. I accidentally bought it the other day, in a blind panic, as I couldn't understand anything else on the menu. "It's a Russian salad, how bad can it be?" I thought to myself. How wrong I was. I was presented with a mound of pallid mayonnaise-like matter, whose ingredients remained a mystery, served alongside two sad little breadsticks. I reluctantly tucked in, not wanting to seem like an ignorant tourist. I still don't know exactly what the ingredients are of this 'salad'. As far as I can tell it's a combo of egg, mayo, tuna, and a variety of vegetables; I now call it tuna mayo on steroids. Sorry to offend anyone who does like it, most Murcianos are surprised that I'm not a fan. 

Our hunt for breakfast the next day proved more fruitful (and authentically Spanish). We spotted a busy panaderia which seemed to have better ratio of local to tourist (90:10) so we quickly nabbed a table. I have generally had more luck with Spanish breakfasts than tapas so far. The typical Spanish breakfast is toasted bocadillo bread (like a small baguette) with tomato, jamón, olive oil, cheese or jam/butter for the not so hearty. I decided to relinquish my vegetarianism and went for the tomato/jamón/olive oil/cheese option which was 100% worth it. 

Cartagena's most popular site of interest is the teatro romano. A Roman amphitheatre constructed between 1-5 BC, much of the city was built on top of it and it was only re-discovered in 1988. All of this means that it has quite a strange location with regards to the rest of city. With most artefacts or ancient sites the modern city is built around it, but in Cartagena it is the opposite. The teatro romano looks as if it has been carved out of its urban surroundings by a contemporary artist trying to make a statement. 

Sadly the teatro romano was the only sightseeing we really did as we had to leave fairly early to make the long trek back: a 30 minute drive which in reality involved two buses, a two hour layover in Murcia, and overall a 5 hour trip!