Barcelona Part Three: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Hobo Sangria

My mom's coworker has a son, Jeb, who we discovered would be traveling through Barcelona at the same time I was. Jeb and I contacted eachother and discussed how cool it would be for us to meet in Barcelona! We could take pictures together for our mommies to see. It would be great!
Friday night Jeb and I had plans to meet. After a pleasant nap, Gillian and I got ready to go out to Jeb's hotel then take him out for a good time in Barcelona. We invited our roomate, Kautchr, to come along. Kautchr is from Morracco. She was bored and hoping to find a dance club for us to go go. On our way out of the hostel we grabbed six meal voutchers for the Travel Bar nearby where we could get cheap meals with our drinks. When we met Jeb at his hotel he had two friends with him. Perfect! Six people total. At the Travel Bar we talked over dinner and learned of mutual friends we had in Iowa. After we ate and drank two jugs of sangria Jeb's friends decided to go back to their hotel. The 6 of us walked back to their hotel and then were on our way to show Jeb the awesome Picasso and Hemminway bar. With our cold hands in our coat pockets, Jeb and I were walking a few paces in front of Gillian and Kautchr. I was telling Jeb about my brother's concert we had seen the previous night and had started talking about Knox College Choir and how much I loved.....
Suddenly a group of a half dozen young men merged into us speaking a language we didn't understand. Thinking they were trying to offer us drugs or asking for money, Jeb put his hands up and said, "No thanks". One of the men separated Jeb and I. In a blink I went from feeling annoyed to feeling very nervous. A man in front of me said something quickly. When I didn't respond he grabbed my shoulder bag with both hands and ripped it off my body. "F***!" I exclaimed as I realized what was happening. The man ran with my bag up the street to the right and my first instinct was to run after him. I was chasing him up the street. He was 10 paces ahead of me. I saw him turn into an alley and by the time I got to it he was turning another corner. I turned around and saw Jeb, Gillian, and Kautchr arguing with some of the other men. I walked quickly toward the group and when I was close enough for them to hear my I said, "I need to go cancel my debit card right now!" Every important thing I had in my bag was racing through my brain. My debit card, my drivers liscence, my digital camera including MANY pictures I had not yet saved. The bag itself was a gift from a friend. It also withheld 70 Euros and two perfectly good tubes of chapstick. DAMN.
As we walked back toward our hostel to get online we discussed each of our perspectives on what had just happened. At the same time that my bag was stolen, Jeb was grabbed, tripped, and his camera was swiped from his coat pocket. Kautcha had been speaking to the men in Arabic, and the men seemed regretful for what their friends had done. Kautchr and Gillian went back to the scene to discuss the possibility of getting our things back while Jeb and I went to the hostel to contact my bank. Thank God my BFF David was online at the time. He called my mom and she immediately called the bank to cancel my debit card. (Thanks Dave! Thanks Mom!) Jeb and I were surprisingly calm and good humored about the incident. We were sad that our things were gone, but they are of course only material things. We were extremely thankful to have not been physically harmed in the incident. When Gillian and Kautchr returned they told us the men they spoke to were very helpful, yet skeptical about Gillian's presence. The only reason they were helpful was because Kautchr spoke to them in Arabic and told them she and Gillian had been friends for a long time. Our inference is that we were targeted to be mugged because we had been talking to eachother in English.
On Saturday morning over breakfast Gillian and I discussed our lack of enthusiasm about our last day in Barcelona. We decided to pack up, call a cab, and spend the day at the airport. We made hobo sangria (Fanta and cheap wine), played card games, read, napped, ate, and talked. We were at the airport from 11am to 8pm and had a great time. We could not wait to be back in London. PEACE OUT BARCELONA.

(I wish I had photos to share with you for the Barcelona series.)

p.s. I am now safely back in London, looking for a new camera, and figured out how to get cash with my credit card. Every little thing is gonna be alright.