Destination #14: Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona was our replacement city for Istanbul. I went to Barcelona when I was 17 and I remember being charmed by it, so we had high expectations. After hearing so many glowing praises for the city, we were excited to experience it together. When we landed in Barcelona we quickly embraced the vibrancy and happy feelings we got from Spain. In our taxi ride to the hotel we already loved how colorful and sunshine-y it was. Not a rain cloud was in sight! Once we checked into our hotel we went on a quest to find a money exchanger and some tapas, in that order.
This is when things went from awesome and full of promise to really really bad. Less than a quarter mile from our hotel in La Rambla (a lively shopping area) Cliffton was robbed. Unfortunately, this set the tone for the rest of our trip and we just simply couldn’t shake ourselves out of the funk.
So here’s what happened: As we were walking down the street a strange man came up to us. I can't exactly remember how he looked, except that he was about Cliffton’s height, tanned skin, dark hair and eyes, and really slender. Probably European. Cliffton describes him as a “druggy looking guy” with crooked teeth. There were a few other people in the street but he specifically started following us and aggressively beckoning for us to eat at his restaurant and flamenco dance with him. We briskly walked away from him, but then he reached out and touched my arm is if to lead me away. At this, Cliffton sternly turned around and said, “NO TOUCHING”. The man backed off and kind of crazily chanted “no touching, no touching” as if he was getting ready to fight. After a few more steps he basically launched himself at Cliffton, jumping at his back, arm around Cliffton’s neck, and leg in between Cliffton’s legs as if they were "dancing". It was so quick I could barely process what was happening. Cliffton managed to brush him off and we quickly walked away. Literally 10 seconds later Cliffton reached into his front pocket and with shock and disbelief realized his iPhone was taken.
We knew that this man was up to no good, but honestly I am not sure how we could have prevented this situation short of Cliffton getting violent and punching the man. Sadly, Cliffton and I spent the whole first day in Barcelona at the police station and replaying the incident in our heads over and over again. And we came to these conclusions:
- Pickpocketing is a huge problem in Barcelona. Upon entering the police station there were throngs of tourists that had had their whole purses stolen, phones, wallets, everything. All with similar stories to ours. It’s not just a situation of carelessness or being oblivious tourists. All kinds of people were targeted by these thieves. We saw young people, older couples, people with young children!!! No one is spared. Purses where literally snagged from womens' shoulders while husbands looked on helplessly. They are so fast. The best way to avoid pick pocketing is to not carry any valuables with you or keep your hands on them at all times.
- The police in Barcelona won’t actually help you get your stolen items back. When Cliffton asked them what they would do about the situation they were pretty complacent. They repeatedly asked us if we could identify the man in photos, and we repeatedly said YES. No photos of suspects were ever shown to us. When asked for the thief’s description, it almost seemed as if they were racially profiling. Without allowing us to finish describing the man they kept prompting, “But was he European? He was Moroccan?” After this Cliffton asked them about the Find My iPhone app, “What if we find the location of my phone?” And we were told, “We can’t do anything about it, because we don’t have a warrant.”
- Pickpockets use phishing techniques once they have your iPhone. I was sent a fake text message from iCloud saying “your phone has been found!”. This message had a link which led me to an imposter site where you can surrender your iCloud username and password. Once you’ve entered those items in, the thieves can now fully access your phone. Luckily, Cliffton saw right through that and his phone was locked. So they can probably only use his phone for parts. If they somehow manage to unlock it after all of that, at least it gave them a hard time.
- Once something bad happens on a trip try your best to put it behind you. We really failed at this. Because we’ve been on the move for 3 months now, we were honestly burnt out. For the next few days we went through the motions of being touristy, and we did have moments of fun. But we were thoroughly paranoid during our entire Spain trip.
- Give yourself time to rest. If you are ever on a long vacation, it's okay to have a day where you do absolutely nothing. Our last day in Barcelona we self soothed with smoothies and chocolate and walking down the sunny streets at La Rambla. We didn't take a single picture or do anything touristy. And that's okay.
Sorry, for that long post about pickpocketing, but it really painted our time in Spain with depressing and moody blah colors. That being said, I myself have been to Barcelona and had an amazing experience with my high school friends. And more recently, I’ve heard so many people sing it’s praises. I think what happened to Cliffton and me was honestly just a random unlucky thing. If you’re pre-warned about the pickpocketing issue, I don’t think you will be fooled as easily. Lastly, if you're going on a 100 day trip around the world chances are higher that something is going to happen. I am just thankful that it was just a phone. And at the end of the day phones can be replaced. Also, it's just not normal to be blissfully happy for 100 days, even if you are having a once in a lifetime vacation. For a few days you may just hit a wall, and think to yourself, why am I here?
And that's okay too.
Onto some pictures:
Quicky explanation: We spent the next day sightseeing starting at the Guell Palace. This gave us a great preview into Guadi and his unique architecture. We continued to pick ourselves up with some delicious fresh seafood at the Mercado de La Boqueria. Not to mention we had some sweet and satisfying fruit juices almost every day for only 1 euro! The market is a MUST in my opinion. We also wandered through the Gothic Quarter. The next day we visited the Casa Batllo, the Basilica Santa Maria del Mar, Cafe El Magnifico (where I had the BEST green tea latte!!), Parc de la Ciutadella and finished with dinner at Ocana in the Placa de Real. On Sunday, we ended with the big finale: La Sagrada Familia and some yummy tapas at El Nacional. Park Guell is also a must do (I went back in 2006, Cliffton was uninterested).
