Day 30 Sandals, Pickpockets and Chiropractor

Our quest today was to find a store at which to buy sandals that would relieve the pressure on the blister on my left little toe. The other priority was to arrange an appointment with one of the three chiropractors in Barcelona suggested to us by our own back in Westleigh.

The chiropractors all had English names. Two of them were active at the Barcelona School of Chiropractic and the third was an Aussie woman in private practice, and we chose this one. We had trouble communicating with her receptionist, but luckily she became free between patients and we were able to arrange a time with her for this evening. At this stage we also discovered that what I thought was the phone number of my Spanish SIM was in fact bollocks, even though the chap who sold it to me said that was it.

Back on the sandal front, we remembered seeing a Scarpa store in one of the main shopping streets off Plaza Catalunya. We found it alright and they even had my preferred Ecco brand, but not in my colour or size, so we pressed on to other stores. A large department store was a big disappointment, but we found a small store in Santa Anna, a side street. They had something at a very reasonable price but there was a question mark over the comfort so we kept looking.

Joan spotted a Clarks store two doors down so we checked it out. They had what looked to be a good sandal, but not in the right size. Ever helpful, they directed us to one of their other stores a few streets on the other side of Catalunya. We made our way there in some considerable discomfort only to find they didn't have it in size 46, and size 45, while possibly okay, did not have the expected enhanced comfort to justify double the price plus. So we returned to the second shop and got a serviceable pair for €42, a good deal. I walked back to the hotel in them and was relieved that the pain had almost gone away. We bought some bocadillos on the way back and ate them in the room - they weren't very good, and we had been screwed on the price of two Pepsi's - €2.50 each for a small can. No wonder they weren't price-marked on the shelf!

To give the poor toe more of a chance to recover we decided to stay in for the rest of the afternoon, cooling our heels so to speak. We had thought about a tourist bus, but my heart just wasn't in it.

Yukking it up in the lift,

After an afternoon's rest of the foot, we set off at 5pm for the chiropractor's. On entering the metro train, I was jostled by three swarthy young men who made a show of preventing me from getting to a seat, interposing their arms in my path and making verbal objections to my progress. None of the other passengers seemed concerned. Sitting separately from me, Joan soon discovered that her sunglasses, normally kept in her shoulder bag, were missing, but she could not remember whether or not she had brought them from the hotel. Soon after, she noticed a guy walking along the train holding her red sunglasses case. She approached him and thanked him for returning her sunglasses.

We can only surmise from this episode that the altercation with me was only a distraction to allow them to get at Joan's bag, but that on finding their only booty was an unfashionable pair of sunglasses, they dropped them on the floor for the other chap to find. We are thankful that we only had a close call and it reminds us that we need to remain vigilant. This also reinforces the advice of the American couple on the train from Fes to Tangier, who alerted us to the devious ways of pickpockets in Spain. It also reminded Joan of Anne's robbery on the tram in Amsterdam.

The chiropractor was a red-headed Irish/Australian woman from Albury-Wodonga who had trained at RMIT and had been practicing in Barcelona for three years. I was her third Australian client in the past few months. I was very pleased with the outcome and together with my new sandals I feel like a new man.

After two nights of economising we enjoyed a lovely evening, first at My Bar, a small pub run by an Englishman, and then at a restaurant on a square near our hotel. Most of the waiters were from the sub-continent. And of course, when we later bought Lebanese sweets, and water at a convenience store next to the hotel, the proprietors were also from the same part of the world. We can't quite get their connection with Spain, but there are many of them about here.

Joan would like to comment that the Spanish men do not measure up to the adonises from Buenos Aires. The women, however, are better looking than the BA chicks, probably due to better access (affordability) to beauty aids here. Lothar says that there are a lot of tall slim women here, but possibly these are tourists from elsewhere. In general there seem to be more tall people than in Oz.