Paranoid and Feeling Unsafe in Madrid

Being our last day in Madrid, we set out today to see the last major sight we haven’t visited - the Palacio Real (Royal Palace).  Our morning was off to a late start since we had to move to our new dorm room for this evening (which thankfully will be the last night we stay in this dreadful hostel) and we needed to find somewhere with Internet so that Paul could do some work since the guy at reception needed us to vacate the common areas so that he could do the “cleaning” (honestly I seem to see the exact same messes when we return in the afternoon so I don’t think they clean at all). 

We wandered into a Starbucks where Paul thought he had a Wi-Fi signal, and I started my morning with the worst cup of coffee I have ever had!  Seriously, do they not know how to brew coffee at Starbuck’s here?  As it turned out, the Wi-Fi Paul thought he had found didn’t work so I bought that stupid coffee for nothing and we had to go to McDonald’s afterwards

By the time we made it to the Palace, we figured we wouldn’t have enough time to go inside and do the tour before Paul had to officially start work, so we wandered around the gardens, took some pictures, and then started to head back to the hostel.  As we walked along a crowded street, Paul noticed a young, dark haired girl behind me pulling down the zipper of my daypack really quickly.   Once he turned around and saw her, she turned and disappeared right away.  I looked inside my bag and it didn’t seem like anything was missing (the most important thing in my bag was the batteries for the laptops and those were still right there) so we figured that Paul had managed to scare her off before she got anything (editor’s note: Making Kung-Fu noises and Kung-Fu poses will ward off other suspicious fodder).

When we got back to the hostel and I got on my laptop to update this blog, I realized that my notebook was gone!  I’m pretty choked because I had used this notebook to keep track of EVERYTHING we’ve done and all the money we’ve spent and it will be impossible to backtrack and remember everything!  I had also tucked into my notebook some ticket stubs and receipts I was saving as memoirs, as well as the only pen I brought to record all of this stuff.  Of all the useless things to steal – this makes me so angry!!!!!!!

And then, while packing our bags to get ready to leave, I realized that there was 50 euros stashed inside of a zippered inner pocket of my daypack that’s also gone!  I don’t even know how the thief managed to get at this so quickly as Paul caught her unzipping the outer zipper, but my 50 euros is definitely gone!

To top it all off, in our dorm room we met a new Japanese guy who had just checked in and he told us he almost got robbed at the Metro station when he arrived!  Some dude punched him in the stomach and then went for his pockets, but he managed to kick the guy off and run away.  Apparently it was right in the crowded area of the metro and no one bothered to help him at all!

Thankfully we depart for Barcelona tomorrow, but now I’m completely paranoid and whenever I see anyone slightly suspicious looking I walk a little quicker.  The thought of my missing notebook makes my stomach twist in knots of anger and I just can’t believe how quick and crafty the pickpocket was!  If this is how the rest of the trip will be, I’m not sure I can keep travelling until Dec!  This is just no way to live