Keep your wallets in your front pockets: October 25th

Picasso Museum
Morales Food Market Structure
Gehry Fish (day)
Agbar Tower: Jean Nouvel
Sagrada Famiglia (night)
Attempted Gehry Fish (night)

The day was great and we were excited about what we have seen all day. We wanted to make one last stop to see the Gehry Fish lit up at night before we headed back to the hostel. To get there you have to travel by metro. Matt, Helen, and I figured out our plan and went down into the metro, not realizing we were being followed from the point we pulled out our wallets to get in the metro. We arrived at the platform and waited. The tram came and I was the first one on, with Helen behind me, and Matt behind her. The group of kids, nicely dressed, 18-22 years old, followed behind us. One wedged himself in front of Matt and proceeded to make a scene, hugging Matt and telling him “welcome to my country.” While there was a kid behind Matt taking his wallet.

By this point I was already seated and wondering what is going on. The kids leave the tram and Matt realizes his wallet was taken, I heard him swear and jump out. The decoy ran and Matt and I followed. We chased the kid through the two metro stops. I am slow. There was not a chance we were catching him, he was around 5'4", 120 pounds. I noticed they literally have a running lane track out of duct tape in one of the main metro stops. I think they actually line each other up to see which one can run the fastest. We ended up getting outside and he was nowhere to be seen. Matt and I were livid. We walked back to get Helen.

We chased the decoy; in our book it says the wallet is never with the one you think has it. So, the other group of kids actually had the wallet. Helen did not follow us, so she jumped out of the tram and saw a group of kids standing; they pointed her in the opposite direction we ran. After she walked a little bit and realized they were all a group, she walked back and saw them on the steps sifting through a wallet. So she grabbed it out of their hands and walked away. They got away with about a 100 euros of Matt’s, but he got everything else back. Helen is Indonesian, around 5'2", and maybe around 100 pounds. I'm still surprised she had no fear to walk up to 3 or 4 kids and grab the wallet out of their hands.

So we were relieved, but if another person touched us it would be a bad move on their part. We decided no more to the Gehry Fish, just go back to the hostel and call it a night. As we were waiting for the other metro in the same station I notice a different group of nicely dressed 20 year olds. We do the same thing, I am on first, Helen next, and Matt last. The same thing happens but more subtle this time, so none of us noticed. Who would think it could happen twice in a row!? These kids just unzipped a zipper on Matt’s bag and luckily there was nothing in there. So they didn’t get away with anything.

Also, Matt looked the most touristy out of all three of us. He had all his travel gear, his North Face gear, a large and very nice camera around his neck, and he is American but of Asian ethnicity. The people in Barcelona seemed to single out the Asians as easy tourist targets everywhere we went. They thought I was Swedish, so I didn't encounter much problem.

From that point on throughout the whole trip, Matt kept his wallet in his front pocket and we watched our back everywhere we went, always making sure we were the last ones on the metro.