Travel Diary: Cartagena, Spain

Hello sweet friends! Once again, please forgive my delay in posting on my blog this week – I just got back from my bachelorette trip last night (we went to Costa Rica, it was magical!!), so after 10 loads of laundry and numerous espresso shots today (ah!) I am so happy to sit down and share this much anticipated post with y’all! Though we stopped at quite a few places on our Princess Cruise through the Mediterranean coast (so crazy that I just hopped off the ship roughly a week ago!), I thought I’d start with Cartagena, Spain – the cutest little coastal town that had such an old, vintage charm about it. (Oh, and very good beer, too! 😉 )…

^^Ohh I just adore him so much! Blake and I had the best time exploring this precious little town – and stopping for tapas, cappuccinos and local beer along the way!
^^Very happy with a delicious cappuccino in hand! After strolling for a few hours, an espresso beverage (er…fuel for me, ha!) was absolutely necessary!

^^Dear world travelers (and anyone else who walks a lot throughout the day!), do yourself a favor and invest in some Birkenstock shoes…I’m not kidding, these shoes are a MUST and they have so many adorable new styles out now! They mold to the shape of your feet as you wear them, so over time they become the best. shoes. EVER. I wear these non-stop and now own 3 different pairs of Birks. I’m a super-fan, for realz. Not even kidding when I told Blake over the weekend that I want to write Birkenstocks a thank you note for creating such incredible shoes…haha!

On another note, when I think of Spain, I immediately think of bright colors, sunshine and delicious food. Given the heat in Cartagena (it was a sweaty day, lemme tell ya!), I opted for a pair of cutoff shorts (totally obsessed with these, order one size up because they run small) and THE prettiest mustard yellow, eyelet, off-shoulder top! A hat was appropriate, too, since we were in direct sunlight most of the day.

If you’re on the hunt for a pair of “effortlessly cool” sunglasses, I highly recommend the Ray-Ban Wayfarer style I am wearing. They’ve got a vintage-y retro vibe but are also such a classic and flattering frame shape. These are actually Blake’s, but I have been “borrowing” them for the past 6 months…shhh! 😉

^^Blake and I are big beer fans and made a point to try the local beer at every port during our trip! Estrella is a Mediterranean beer and it was SO yummy. We got it quite a bit during the cruise – it’s super light and delicious, such a nice little refresher as we explored Cartagena.

^^Ha! Told ya he’s a fan.. 😉
Cartagena is a port city directly on the southeast coast of Spain, so as soon as we docked we were able to walk right off the ship and into the town (literally right on the water), it was so beautiful as you can see! There are a couple of sandy beach areas near the port, but Blake and I ventured into town to explore instead – we’ll have to visit again one day and partake in some sunbathing next time!

Cartagena was the second stop during our cruise (the first was Barcelona, fear not – that post is coming soon!) and it was a fun contrast between a big city like Barcelona. Most of the shops along the town streets were local (they did have a Sephora and Zara – I was so surprised to see that!), so Blake got a tie (the cruise hosted 2 formal nights) and I scooped up a curling iron (…remember that time I blew my hair tools as soon as we arrived in Europe..ah!). The people that live and work in the city were so sweet and really helpful when it came to navigating the shops or ordering at restaurants (my spanish is note very good and they were extremely kind and patient with me), so that was nice to see that they enjoy tourists.

Though this day we opted to explore on our own, some of our blogger friends on the trip signed up for a tapas and wine tour through Cartagena (they visited 5 different tapas bars in the area) and said it was so much fun (…and isn’t always a good idea to eat/drink your way through a new city? I think so, too.. 😉 ). So if you decide to go on a Mediterranean Cruise, I’d recommend scoping out that tour, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed! However if you’d rather spend that time exploring on your own, Blake and I had a blast doing that, too – you really can’t go wrong because this city is so pretty!

Excited to share more travel diary posts from our Mediterranean cruise in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

top – MADEWELL / shorts – FREE PEOPLE / shoes – BIRKENSTOCKS / sunglasses – RAY BAN / tote bag (mine is old) – similar NORDSTROM / bracelet – NORDSTROM

A big thank you to Princess Cruises for sponsoring this post! All opinions are my own.