Cartagena

When I got off the bus in Cartagena at about 9pm, I heard drums beating a march. I followed the sound into the center of the city. I soon arrived at Roman parade, part of a two week Roman festival in Cartagena. It seemed like everyone in the city and lined the street for the parade. Whole families set their dinner tables on the sidewalk to watch the parade as they ate. Bars, their patrons and their drinks, spilled out onto the sidewalks. The party dissolved shortly after the parade and I found a hostel. The owner slept on a cot behind the front desk. When you come in late at night you have to ring a buzzer that wakes him up so he can let you in and give you the key to your room. In the morning I toured the city and visited a Civil War museum inside of a bomb shelter. Cartagena was a strategic port in Republican territory during the war and was therefore heavily bombed by the fascists. I would have liked to stay another night in Cartagena (the festival was continuing that evening) but there are only a few hostels in the city and they are all expensive.