Two weeks ago I played jeopardy with my students for our last class together. The 500 point answer for “Amber in Spain” was, “the only autonomous community in Spain Amber has yet to visit” and the correspnding question was, “What is Murcia?” Few students got it right on the first try and one class of students failed to answer correctly at all, instead realizing they had forgotten that Murcia even existed. When I gave them the answer, they reacted with, “¡Ayyyyyyy! ¡Pero es que no hay ni puta alma en Murcia!” (This translates to: “Ahhhhh... but there isn’t even a f*cking soul in Murcia!” Excuse my French. I mean, Spanish… swear words have much less weight - if any weight at all - in Spanish culture.)
My friend Carmen told me not to go… it wouldn’t be worth it to miss out on my last weekend in Madrid and didn’t I want to leave something to come back to? No Spaniard (except for the ones form Murcia) said a single positive thing about the place until I told them I was going to the beach. Then they halfheartedly conceded, saying it couldn’t be too bad to go to the beach for a few days.
Boy, were they wrong. Perhaps it helped that my expectations were EXTREMELY low, but honestly, Cartagena blew me away. I’d like to promote Spain’s well-kept secret, hidden between the Costa del Sol of Andalusia and the the Costa Blanca of Valencia.
Our hotel alone was enough to want me to stay forever. I got into Cartagena earlier than Erica on Friday, giving me time to hang out in the city… or in the hotel room. The slightly overcast, windy weather kept me from wanting to sit on a terrace all afternoon; so, after lunch and a walk around the city, I headed back to the hotel, plugged in my laptop, and started blogging away in a big comfy chair situated right in front of the balcony.
The best fried eggplant I have ever had
A sculpture giving tribute to the victims of terrorism
School’s out for the summer!
I didn’t even have to leave my room to enjoy the smell of the sea and a view of the port!
Or turn around and check out the main plaza
On Saturday, Erica and I headed out to La Manga (The Sleeve), a peninsula about 30 minutes away from Cartagena where we could enjoy both the Mediterranean Sea and the Mar Menor (Minor Sea) by walking just 8 minutes across the peninsula.
Along the way we met a young woman from Arizona who had been living in Murcia for 4 years. Politely we managed to ask, “Uhhh… why?” and she fondly recounted her summers with a family friend who is from Murcia which lead from one thing to another and ended with her current state of being 5 months pregnant with her and her Murcian husband’s little boy.
She married into Murcia but she loves it like home, talking about how there is no need to go on vacation because they have paradise right around the corner. She also know the bus stops like home, which was helpful for us since not a single bus stop was labeled on the stops or on the map.
After we successfully got off the bus, we first checked out the Mediterranean Sea and enjoyed the free entertainment of watching a group of young Spaniards attempt to throw a football… the first people I have ever seen throw a football in public worse than me.
Walking along the beach
There’s nothing like beach hair!
After a few hours on beach, we left in search of food and were happy to find that southern prices were indeed as low as remembered them. €7.50 each for an entire menú!
Mmmmmmmmm
With our tummies full, we headed back to the beach for our siesta… but this time we walked 5 minutes West and settled down on the Mar Menor.
An older couple going for a stroll
Looking at mainland Murcia
Reading… typical.
We soaked up as many rays as we could until our thirst got to us and we headed out for a Coca-Cola at one of the restaurants right off the beach. Then, around 18:40, we headed to the bus stop to catch the 19:00 bus. The non-existent 19:00 bus. We waited and wondered and double checked our map and doubted whether or not the bus would stop at all of the stops or only the one at the end of the peninsula. Erica decided to check with a store clerk to see if we were at an acceptable stop and after confirming we were, we realized that there was a faded dot next to the 19:00 bus. “What does that mean?” I asked and then finally saw the legend that this little dot meant “Sólo domingos” (Only Sundays). Oops.
We had almost an hour to kill until the next bus so we sat down and had a granizado (a slushy that, in Spain, is consumed as much, if not more, by adults as by children) while I wrote out my last Spanish postcards.
Lemon slushy!
When we finally made it back into Cartagena, we showered, rejoiced in our lack of sunburns (Thank you, SPF 50!) and headed out in search of tapas. The restaurant recommended to us by our Arizonan friend was closed but by the number of people crowded around the bar down the street, we figured we couldn’t go wrong. And we didn’t. Tapas of ensaladilla rusa (Spain’s potato salad), solomillo al chimichurri (pork loin with tomato pepper sauce), berenjena rellena (stuffed eggplant), mini-hamburguesa (You can figure this one out), and pollo al curry (Hint: pollo = chicken) filled us up and allowed us to enjoy the delicious gastronomy of the South for the low dinner price of €15… total. Erica and I considered moving.
Good food is nothing without good conversation but we had that as well… with the Murcian couple who was standing next to us at the bar. We started off talking about the bar’s food and continued on to conversations about what we were doing in Spain, our thoughts about Murcia, and more conversation about Spain’s gastronomical experiences. It wasn’t the first, though it might be the last time (at least for a while) that a Spaniard told me, “Se comen muy bien allí” (They eat very well there). Through conversation with them I discovered I had somehow missed out (?) on trying sangre frita (fried blood), the woman’s favorite food as a child. I’ll consider adding it to the to-do list for my next visit.
On Sunday morning, Erica and I woke up and headed down for our second day of the breakfast buffet (complete with fresh ginger-carrot-pear juice, a yogurt bar with pumpkin seeds and papaya chunks, ensaimadas, jamón serrano and Manchego cheese) before checking out the sights in the city of Cartagena.
First, we headed over to the Roman Theater, one of the best preserved Roman theaters in the world.
From the top
Cheese it!
Then we walked to the Roman forum and an old Roman house, which the woman at the Roman theater talked us into visiting because of the €9 student deal for all three. It was totally worth it, since we happened upon an hour long tour through the Roman Forum with an engaging guide. The Roman house on the other hand (described as “preciosa” by the woman working at the Roman theater), was a short visit… within 5 minutes we had entered, looked at the foot tall brick walls showing us the layout of the house, appreciated the oldness of the bricks we were surrounded by, and left. It made us even more grateful for the guide at the forum.
Part of one of the walls that was reconstructed by the archeologists in the Forum
The pieces of their next puzzle
After we finished our sightseeing, we walked around the city and noticed the huge difference between the main streets and the run-down buildings just off the beaten path. There was a beauty in the mix of old and new, though the old woman who saw me taking a picture of one of the run-down buildings was not amused.
Pretty old wire balconies mixed with scaffolding
As I took the picture, she stood behind me and scolded me for taking a picture of “an edificio tan feo… ¡hay muchos otros que son más bonitos justo allí!” (“such an ugly building… there are many other buildings that are much prettier right there!).
We also saw quite a few mini alters and floats waiting to be put to use later in the afternoon.
I suppose it is too heavy and too obvious to run off with
Right off Calle Mayor
Then, just before we left, we enjoyed one more delicious meal amidst the smell of the sea.
Tomato, boquerones, cheese, olives and pepper salad
Stuffed mushrooms
Paella
As you may have guessed from the photos, Murcia passed my important test. Se comen muy bien allí.
Well Spain, it’s been great getting to know you. Even up to my last journeys, you haven’t disappointed me. I’m going to miss every last bit of you.
Much love,
Amber
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