Rambling in Rambla de raval

Barcelona is famous for its scenic beauty as well as an architecture that even though doesn’t fit the modern day skyscraper imagery, nonetheless is anytime more intelligent than any contemporary structures. With classical tap dancers performing to present-day Latino hits this Española culture capital is known for having inherited the best of both worlds.

Rambla de raval is the city’s major highlight if you are up for a multi-cultural urban life experience with noisy cafes, crowded streets, performances and pick pockets.

Yes please!! Add that to your travel plan and don’t forget to thank me later.

So there I was at Rambla de raval, making the Shopping Gods proud, completely unaware of the fact that Spain takes great pride in the competency of its pick pockets. Skimming through the racks like a bunch of fanatics, I couldn’t help noticing a tall guy walking towards my mother and just when he was within an arms distance he asked us both to step aside for a moment.

Oh no is this about my mom’s hijab or for being brown to begin with? Has he mistaken us for some terrorist group allies? FYI that’s the sound of my heart pounding sir, not a time bomb.

Thanks to my overactive imagination, just when I was ready to put my hands behind my back because I could see him reaching for the handcuffs (or maybe a taser) in his pocket, to my utter surprise he took out my mother’s cell phone instead.

I heard his thick, intimidating voice for the second time in the last 60 seconds asking if the phone belonged to any of us.

I could feel the blood rushing back to my legs as my mother reached for her purse to check for her phone. It was obviously gone.

While I was trying to figure out how he managed to do it and was he expecting a tip for the trick because I was sold, he handed me the phone and asked for the password. That was when we knew we were right about him being an undercover cop and more importantly we were pickpocketed??

The officer saw two women pickpocketing us in the surveillance camera and of course Captain America came to the rescue.

After filling up a form and completing a few formalities we got our phone back but my mind went into a neurotic frenzy of “what ifs” for the rest of the day and my mom held onto her bag pretty much like that for the rest of the trip.

2 things I learned from this experience:

Number 1: Backup your data (especially pictures) and save yourself the (s)painful loss of memories. That is how Google Drive and I met.

Number2: When in Barcelona always have one hand on your bag pack and the other where ever you would want it to be.

Story contributed by

Fatima Sirhindi

If you have similar crazy experiences that you would like to share feel free to comment or email us at imansirhindi8@gmail.com

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Happy reading everyone!