Mark Barcelona as another historic landmark on the little journey Michelle and I took. What was a fun three days turned into a chaotic fourth an hour or so before we had to catch a train to Paris.
So we're on Las Ramblas (the main street, a crazy street, mind you) talking to our parents on pay phones. Michelle's on the phone, leaning into the booth with her backpack between her legs and I'm just kind of walking around checking things out. This guy them comes up to me and asks for directions somewhere and shoves a map in my face. This was kind of random (the guy had kind of a Spanish accent) and I saw some guy walk really close to me (behind me) out of the corner of my eye. I told the guy I didn't know what he was talking about and didn't think too much about what just happened for another few minutes until Michelle hung up the phone and realized her backpack was gone.
Yup, those sketchy guys grabbed it and took off. In hindsight, I knew something shady was going on but I really wasn't thinking. Luckily, they only got her daypack (which we take on day trips out and around the city) and not her monster pack (which has all our clothes, film, stuff, etc.). She did lose her camera (w/ a roll of film from Rome - and the Coloseum), an umbrella and a poncho - but the killer was the fact that her money belt was also in the bag.
I don't know if you've traveled before, but everyone warns of pickpockets all throughout Europe. So, they tell you to get this money belt thing (a fanny-pack type belt that you wear under your shirt). For 18 days or so we had these things strapped to our chests. It was the one day that Michelle didn't have her's one her (she put it in her bag because it was so hot and uncomfortable) that her bag got stolen. Sucks. So what did we lose? Our train tickets, travelers checks, a couple American dollars and Spanish pesetas, IDs, credit cards, and worst of all, passport.
By the time we had figured out all the shit we just lost, she was bawling in the streets. (I probably would have been too). We called her parents, canceled her credit cards, called the American Embassy, blah, blah, blah. We had to spend an extra day in Barcelona (which is a story in itself), but within 24 hours we had everything returned - complete with a new credit card ready to meet us in Paris. Luckily we just robbed on a Sunday leaving us to deal with everything bright and early on Monday morning. Had it been Friday we would have been pretty screwed.
Well, that's my story. Barcelona before the incident was great - endless pitchers of Sangria (I had to literally drag Michelle home one night), tapas and Nuggets de Pollo at McDonald's (my little cousin's favorite). There's a secret cybercafe in the mall at the end of Las Ramblas (good for e-mail checkin') and lots of cool stuff to buy (Tamagotchi).
However, at this point; after Venice and after Nice and Barcelona; we had but one thing on our minds: Disneyland Paris.
Next - on to Paris.