Half way down the rugged Murcian coastline. In a natural bay defended by dry, rocky hills, is the city the Romans chose as their gateway into the Iberian Peninsular. It’s Roman past is still celebrated in festivals and some remnants still exist, but the past grandeur has mostly been washed away. Many small Spanish cities…
Category: Cartagena
A Change of Heart
I had already planned to meet Atlas in Valencia to talk to the people I would work for in January who just so happened to be the same people she now worked for. While Skyping a few days before I left to see her, she admitted “something had happened” in Lisbon involving a boy. I…
Onwards and Southwards
My last week of my two and a half month stay came about, the end very much in sight. I emailed the head of CP’s and asked if they needed a CP anywhere else in the country. I was having too much fun to stop now. She asked if I wanted to go to Tenerife…
(The wrong end of) La Manga
The Morning after Atlas’ night in hospital, I woke up early to go meet her. The hospital was right on the edge of town and there was a bus to get there but I decided to have an early morning walk. When walking out of Cartagena you pass through some dodgy areas. Paths abruptly end…
Nuts!
One of the weekends that I didn’t go to Madrid, Atlas came to me. She came all the way to Cartagena on the Saturday morning and Adrian, Claudio’s younger but older looking brother, who thinks himself quite the chef, cooked for us. Me and Atlas caught up and then went to the island in the…
Head Deep in Music
Working as a conversation partner was such a breeze. Start work at 6PM, most days finish up by 9, 4 days a week. This left me with a lot of free time. I have met CPs who spend this free time doing absolutely nothing but I couldn’t, so I decided to apply for some journalism…
Madrid Times
Despite living 450 kilometers away and only being paid 650 euros a month, I visited Madrid four times in five weeks. The one week I didn’t go Atlas came to Cartagena. Nearly always I travelled the 450 kilometers by BlaBlaCar, leaving Friday mid-day and returning on Monday morning. Atlas had moved out of her cramped…
Granada, Tapas and Relationship Status
Despite enjoying my time without the lingering on-off relationship with Atlas, I had already arranged to meet her again. As soon as I was paid, I got a Blabla Car to Granada where I was to spend the weekend with her, as friends. Granada is a beautiful place, truly. It has one of Spain’s most…
The Festival of Carthaginians and Romans
I arrived in Cartagena at the beginning of it´s two week long city festival. The Festival of Carthaginians and Romans celebrates the cities Roman past. People spend thousands or hundreds of euros on roman legionary outfits to march down the street in parades, practice mock combat, or just go out on the piss in. View…
Lazily making his way through the world 