Day 16: Cartagena, Spain

Sumner

Today our port was Cartagena. Cartagena means little Carthage (I think). Whatever the meaning it was the port for the day. We didn’t have a tour for this city so we went to walk around after we had had our breakfast. We made our way on a pedestrian street and then down a side street to get to a Roman theatre. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the theater area so we satisfied ourselves with just taking pictures from the top. The theater was pretty big, probably fifty to seventy-five metres (and about the same in yards) across. The structure was very incomplete but it was the first Roman theater that we have seen so far on this trip. Even though you can’t see it now it must have been the coolest thing in the time of the Romans. Just the scale of the project must have been awe inspiring. We then made our way to a castle. I was more just walls that used to be something but we did find a neat little playground and stayed there for a long time swinging and see-sawing. It was really nice because it was breezy and cool up there on the hill (the theater was built into the hill and the castle was on top of the hill). From this vantage point we could not only get a good view of the city but see many other sites of where ruins of Roman or even Carthaginian buildings still are. All around almost wherever you look there were ruins. Of course we didn’t have a guide to tell us what the ruins where from but it was just neat to see them. After staying at the castle for a while we went to go find the cathedral. We walked to the place where it showed it on the map but it was not there. We gave up because we won’t have any shortage of cathedrals on our trip. We then made our way back to the ship for lunch and after that we went back off to go to Burger King for free wifi. Unfortunately it didn’t work but we went back up the pedestrian street to see how much a museum that held some ruins of the city. It wasn’t worth the cost so we went back to the Burger King and this time the wifi worked, maybe it had less traffic but regardless we used it because anything is cheaper and faster than on the boat. We decided then to go back to the boat for a swim. I swam for about two hours actually, the last part of that time was with the Balderson boys. After we were finished swimming Colton and I played some ping-pong. We had a lot of fun but then we went back to our rooms to get dressed for formal night. After dinner we came back to the room, Hannah went to Club HAL and mom, Oma, and I watched some of Ben Hur together. We didn’t get very far and I don’t know where it’s going but I do know that it is about chariot riding and that there as been no mention of that activity at all during the first fourty minutes of the movie. I decided to go up to the theater to try to catch Colton as he was coming out and then we nt to go play ping-pong. Of course we were still in suits but hey, a very formal game of ping-pong it was. After that we went to bed.

    ~Sumner

Hannah

Tday I got up rather early. I got ready and then everyone except oma went to breakfast. We a hurried breakfast, and went back to the room to get ready for the day. I was wearing a dress today, so I did not have any pockets so I put my money in my shoe. NOt in my sock, but in my shoe. BAD IDEA! Why??? Because if you want to buy something, (such as a postcard) you have to literally take off your shoe, ddig through your shoe to find the money. It was VERY hard to get to my money. Anyway, we got off the boat no worries. At this rt, mom was not able to find a tour that was not a tour booked with the cruise ship. So we just went on our own around the city of Cartehena. (Cart-uh-hey-nuh) As we walked along the port’s shore, we saw LOTS of boats, and yachts. (NOTE: yacht is pronounced ‘yah-t’ not ‘yah-ck-t) there was this “magic” man that had a wire/metal head. To tell you the truth, the man’s head was in the boday part of the costume. It wasn’t that sneaky. We walked a ways until we got to the main pedestrian area. We had a little family argument on where we were supposed to go. Sumner said to the right, mom said to the left, Oma was taking pictures and not participating in the conversation, and I said don’t know. We all had DIFFERENT oppinions. In the end, MOm ended up winning. What we were trying to find was a roman ruin of an amphitheatre. On the way to the amphitheatre, we stopped by a farmacia. AKA a farmacy. We had to get sumner some itch cream, and me some eye drops. (Sumner was REALLY itchy, and I was having allergy problems and my eye was all red.) After walking A MILLION miles, we FINALLY came to where we could SEE the amphitheatre, but we couldn’t get IN it. (We actually never got in) We had to climb A BUNCH of stairs, but we made it. We took pictures and then headed on. We ended up in this REALLY nice playground. The playground was on a hill where you could see ALL of Cartehena. It was SO pretty. There were swings, so I swung for at least 45 minutes. (While I was swinging, everyone else was either enjoying the scenery, or enjoying the breeze.) After that little rest, we headed back down to the main part of town. It was about time for lunch, so we headed back to the boat for lunch. We just had the buffet lunch. After lunch we headed back out. Actually, heading back out REALLY meant finding an internet cafe. We got internet. SUmner and I got what we needed, and headed back to the boat wiith Oma, leaving mom at the internet cafe. (Also known as Burger King.) We got BACK on the boat a immediatly went swimming. (Of course, we had to get changed first :D) A friend of mine was SUPPOSED to meet me at the pool, but of course they did not come. So I gave up and went to the room to finish my pearls. I finished the part I know how to do, but when I went up to get help from the “pearl stringing expert” she was not there. After a couple of tries, I finally gave up and wnet back to the room to change into my formal dress. As you can tell, it was formal night. When everyone was ready, we went a little early so we could get PROFESSIONAL photos made. I was fun but we were late to dinner. We made it just in time. I decided to be adventurous (I can be as adventurous as I want to be because anything you want is already paid for) Anyway, I was REALLY daring to try

It actually wasn’t that bad. It felt like simpy mushrooms. I liked it. After snails, dinner was basically normal. It was SO nice of our waiters. Why? because George, the wine bar perosn, mad me a chair out of the lid off of a wine bottle, and LOTS of wire. He was SO nice! I went to Club HAL after dinner. We started off with baloon toss, then we played monkey in the middle balloon version, then a boy popped the balloon. I intended to color a picture, but by the time i started, Betsy (A Club HAL leader) said it was time to clean up. We got to play for free in the arcade room that is right next to the Club HAL room. It was fun. There was animal hunting and car racing. That was all but it was fun. (There was more stuff in the room, but the games I listed were the only games that could be put on free play.) After arcade games. We had a little bit of free time. I played with a girl named Anastasia. but EVERYONE calls her Anya. I think Anya is a REALLY pretty name. After free time, we played a HUGE game of Bingo. We first played regular Bingo, but then we played blackout. Me and my partner, a little girl from either China or Japan, won the blackout. It was fun. After that, I went to go get Sumner. When we got back to the room, we HAD to go STRAIGHT to bed. NO passing GO and NO collecting 200 dollars.