The Good, the Bad, and the Barcelona

Welcome to our longest stay in one place so far (not by choice….though we are glad now that we did). We flew from Athens to Barcelona (our first flight in almost 2 months!) to get Nicole’s Spanish fix in before we started on our German and Workaway job in Switzerland. As a side note, the lady at the check-in counter was ECSTATIC that we had filled out a Passenger Locator Form for Spain. Apparently we were some of the few who had done it prior to check-in, and it was causing a mess at the counter for those who didn't. We arrived on Sunday around noon, headed to our hostel to check in, and headed to the beach! Our intent was to play volleyball, relax and swim a bit, and take it easy before it looked like some bad weather in the forecast set in. We grabbed some tapas in the Barceloneta area and walked down to the beaches, which were less than 1 kilometer away. We stayed at the beach until nearly sundown before we headed into the Gothic quarter, walked along Las Ramblas (the major street through Barcelona with all sorts of shops/food/stores) and got some tacos for dinner (not exactly a traditional meal in Spain, but we were craving them after two months). Coming from Athens, especially staying outside of the city center in Athens, it was easy to compare and contrast the two cities. Barcelona seemed much cleaner, more lively, and there were restaurants/bars/new types of food around every corner. In Athens, the area near the Acropolis feels very similar but venturing 1-2 k outside of this area and you’ll see a lot more garbage in the streets, homelessness, and poorly lit streets. Needless to say, we felt safer in Barcelona, despite all the warnings of the large pickpocket/theft presence here (insert quirky foreshadowing music!). Our second day, as it was raining, we hunkered down to do some planning (yes, we do plan some things in advance). We took a few breaks for meals/snacks and by the end of our session we had a solid gameplan for the coming days. We were going to rent a car Tuesday afternoon to drive to Valencia (Kyle needed his authentic paella fix, plus they have some great history and cool modern architecture to boot). We planned to spend 2 nights, and be back in Barcelona on Thursday afternoon to enjoy LA MERCÉ, a macro-festival made up of various individual festivals that showcase Barcelona's cultural wealth. This included, among many things, the La Mercè Street Art Festival, displays of popular culture, and also BAM, Acció Cultura Viva and the Música Mercè programme. With our gamplan set, and the weather still not holding up, we decided to do exactly what we would do on a normal rainy evening back home: we went to see a movie! We arrived 20 minutes early (Kyle hates when we miss previews) for the showing of Dune, at which point the check in attendant looked at us confused and said he’d check if they had finished cleaning the theater. In the meantime we got the standard popcorn/soda combo to prepare and upon confirmation that it was clean, headed into the theater. As the first people to arrive, we learned showtimes listed in Spain aren’t when the actual movie starts, but when the previews begin. Fortunately, we made it in PLENTY of time to catch them all. They varied from Spanish to English and at this point we weren’t sure which language we’d be watching the movie in. To Kyle's delight (and Nicole’s slight disappointment), when the movie began it was in English with Spanish subtitles. We walked home at 12:30 am when it finished and headed to bed.

The next morning we woke up to get in a workout before spending 5 hours in the car driving to Valencia. We jogged down the same street we walked home on the night before towards the beach, ran along the beach until we hit the 3 mile mark, and used the open-air equipment next to the beach before rounding out our jog home. After a quick shower and packing up, we left our big bags and took the tram from our hostel to the car rental agency (we had decided to rent a car because it was cheaper than 2 round trip bus or train tickets to Valencia) with our valuables (think passport, international drivers licenses, COVID vaccines, cameras, ect - the foreshadowing music is now intensifying) - to make sure we had everything we’d need to rent. Pickup went smoothly and we parked on the same street we had walked home on the night before, jogged on that morning, and was less than 800 meters from our hostel to grab lunch, bags, and to hit the road. Unfortunately, Spain had different plans for us. In the 30 minutes we had left the car, someone had smashed our rear window, flipped down the seat, and stolen our bags from the car. See previous note above about all important documents. Not only were our important documents in there, but our cameras, purses, a laptop, and other small items in our day bags. These were hidden in a COMPLETELY covered trunk, not visible to anyone walking past, and on a street tourists and locals alike work out on constantly, has a steady flow of pedestrian traffic, and was at 2 pm in the afternoon. As we arrived back to the vehicle, there were multiple people around it looking at the shattered glass and car. Unfortunately, none of them had seen the culprit.

We quickly called the police, Kyle ran up to the nearby park to see if there was any signs of our belongings, and we tried not to panic. Now, trying hard not to panic when the two most important travel documents you own have been taken is a bit difficult. After talking to the police, they informed us that we needed to drive to the nearest police station to file a report. Frazzled and trying to use Google maps abroad driving through a foreign city, it took us a bit to find the station (this was the most f-bombs Kyle had ever used in a 1-hour period). When we finally found the station, Nicole was able (in Spanish) to explain what happened, get the necessary information relayed, and then the filing began. As the car was rented in Kyles name, they filed under his name. While Kyle talked to the police (Kyle needed a translator), Nicole contacted banks as credit/debit cards were all in the stolen purse. The thieves had already spent nearly $500 on one credit card. Thanks to Chase for the quick assistance, we were able to shut down the card and the next 6 attempted transactions were declined. As we had no window, Nicole was diligently guarding the remaining belongings we had. At this point, we waited for a translator and 3 hours later, our report was filed. Step one down, addressing the rental car was next.

We drove straight there to inform them what had happened. We assumed this would be another 3+ hour process, but the rental car agent was AMAZING - stating simply “you have your health and you are okay - that’s what really matters”. He asked if we wanted a new car or to return early. We opted to return early as we knew we’d need to visit the embassy the following day and figure out the next steps. He let us know quickly how the broken window charge would work and sent us on our way. After an already long and not-so-great day, he gave us the optimism we needed to keep navigating. That night we did some dumpster diving, hoping perhaps they had discarded documents or items of non-value to them nearby (we are nothing if not dreamers) but were unsuccessful in our hunt. We also debated going to the area where the cards were used, however it was approximately 40 minutes away on the tram, and we weren’t sure what type of area it was (obviously, our guard was SLIGHTLY heightened at this point). We split a pizza for dinner, still lacking a real appetite, and went to bed emotionally and mentally drained, knowing we had another long day ahead of us.

A rule that we have, if and WHEN things go wrong when we travel, is to allow ourselves one day of sadness, and then to hop right back on the fun train. Although we still had a lot of work ahead, we decided to make it more of an educational experience than anything. So, after a bit of evening research, the following day started with a trip to the consulate where Nicole was able to get an emergency issue passport. This process was quicker again than we imagined, so we grabbed some pastries for lunch and headed to the area where there are “supposed” street vendors selling stolen goods. We have definitely seen these types of areas before (especially in Bogota, Colombia), but we were unsuccessful in finding an area with them in Barcelona. We then began the insurance process of filing a claim, calling for assistance, and determine what is covered and not. Trust me, we are still figuring this part out. While most things can be replaced, the truly unfortunate part is all of the photos from our cameras are lost. We realize we need to be better about backing them up as we hadn't done this since we began. The good news is, we have been using phones in many places as well for photos and those weren’t stolen - so we will still have some memories to take away.

We decided at this point, there’s nothing more to do but move on and let the processes take hold. There was still plenty to see in Barcelona, and with LA MERCÉ kicking off, we picked a few events we wanted to hit. We spent most of the evening eating pinchos (basically little pieces of bread with anything you can imagine on it served with a toothpick - at the end of the meal they charge you per toothpick). During the day Thursday we visited La Familia Sagrada, buildings by Gaudi, walked through the major attractions, ate lunch at La Boqieria where we tried approximately 8 different types of food, and then hit a free concert in the olympic stadium Thursday night. We got home late, but we were up early for the fitness festival (which was limited (non Nicole and Kyle) entry - thanks COVID), so we substituted with yoga on the beach. After relaxing for a few hours, we walked home through the closed off streets with “giants” parading through (another part of LA MERCE). We capitalized on the free entry to museums, and a delicious paella meal, before heading to an award winning cocktail bar, Marlowe bar, for a personalized cocktail creation. We finished the day at the nighttime fire run, where "devils" and monster creations run through the streets spraying fireworks into the crowd. This included some burnt clothes and hair, and of course some burnt skin (this explains why everyone else was wearing hoodies, jeans, and sunglasses) but it was a definite highlight.

We caught our bus Saturday morning (that started 1.5 hours late) and headed to France, worried that they wouldn’t allow Nicole in with an emergency passport and only a photo of her COVID vaccine. To our surprise, they didn’t ask for either (perks of traveling via bus or train instead of flying) and we hit the road. France soon to follow!

Even after a theft and loss of a lot of important items, the one thing that constantly was a bright spot in our days was a HUGE influx in our Levi count. Kyle even got a picture in front of the store. Current count: 182 👖