as it happened

i am staring out of the window. the train makes its way through the rough edges of the pyranees mountains. the catalonian coastline lies streched out to my right and i stare as the sun goes down over the mediteranian sea. i shake my head as the memories of the weekend stays in the front of my mind. i just does not want to let me go. what a weekend it has been. no words seem to fit the discription to word the feelings and emotions of the happenings that took place in the last fourty eight hours. where can i begin. what should have been a weekend of great excitement and celebration started out as a real nightmare. after not being able to find the place we booked to stay for the weekend we found ourselves driving circles through the streets of barcelona. all of a sudden two guys on a scooter pulls up next to the car and the one on the back signals that our rear tyre is flat. we pull over to changed the tyre. the same guy stops next to us saying that there is a mechanic just down the street if we need any help. we tell him no thanks and that we will be ok. he drives off and as we turn around the bags have been stolen from the car. it was not even five seconds. gone. laptop. cellphones. passports. even the infamous ipod. the one that survived the ordeal in the washing machine and the tumble dryer. the shock and the horror of those few moments after you realise what just went down is unbearable to think about. do you run. do you seacrh. do you call. who do you call. it is such a feeling of helplessness. clothes and things can be replaced. but it is the little things that you cherish that is not replaceable. so we got in the car and found our place. my brother in law was waiting for us at the appartment. we went to the agency to see if they can help us finding numbers to stop all the credit cards and rest. my problem was off course that most of my things were in french and it being a friday night every call i made was answered by fast speaking french people that i could not understand. utter helplessness. but eventually we managed to stop all. the drama was followed by not being able to find my sister that arrived on a later flight form london. she got on the wrong train and got off at the wrong station. we drove between mignight and two oclock in the morning from station to station in barcelona to find her. we eventually did. how i still dont know. it was the most remote place i have seen in my life. with the robbery of the afternoon still in my head. i was terrified for her safety. but all is well that ends well. the rest of the weekend had a bit of a cloud over it seeing that all the plans we had had to be re arranged so that the mess could be resolved. my parents had to reroute via madrid to get a temporary passport for my mother. so we had to get train tickets and change airplane tickets so that everybody could make it to their destination as palnned. so saturday was a bit of a waste and we got to know the station and police office of barcelona very well. a piece of advise. if you ever travel to barcelona. travel light. take the minimum. while we were in the police station there must have bee another thirty or fourty people that also got robbed in the last day. in hotels. in restaurants. in stations and airports. crazy. no wonder the officer behind the desk did not show much emotion when we arrived there early saturday morning trying to explain our situation. he just handed us a stack of forms and pointed towards a corner. next. but at least the mood of saturday started to change as we prepared for the rugby. world cup final. sa vs eng. believe it or not but we ended up watching the game in an english pub. my fault off course seeing that i thought it was irish. oops. we had good seats but realised our situation when the english army arrived. goodness me. what a sight. but after proudly singing out national anthem and being applauded by our rivals the game kicked off. well. the rest is history and now we have brag rights for the next four years! we celebrated our victory together with my moms birthday. the real reason for being in barcelona in the first place. well. i dont think the tapas bar will ever be the same again. with all the troubles forgotten we sang and laughted until late into the night. yes. the cava was good. happy birthday mom. our stay in barcelona ended with strolling around on sunday morning. we got our things and said our goodbyes. a weekend of mixed fellings and emotions. will barcelona see us again. i guess so. why not. one should not allow a bad experience to cloud your opinion of one of the most famous cities in the world. so as the train carved its way through the pyranees and up the cost to montpellier i had a good time to reflect and plan. where do i start. so much admin that awaits. but thats life i guess. all part of the learning curve. i guess the most important thing i learnt was that everything in life can be replaced. everything apart form human life. and looking back i guess that is the thing we cant thank our lucky stars. nobody got hurt. as the train pulled into gare st roch i breathed a sigh of relief. home. a warm feeling settled inside of me. jp and nuno was there when i arrived. they just laughed and shook their heads in disbelief as i told them the story while we drove back to the flat. another story for another day. what a life.