In short, I was pick-pocketed the other week in Barcelona at the Sagrada Familia. Ange suffered a similar fate about 10 years by La Rambla so I wanted to type up a couple of lessons learnt as it's always good to remind others of the risks.

Zip it up, all the time

It was mostly my fault as I didn't zip up my man-bag. I just had lunch, a spot of wine and was enjoying my holiday break from work. I shouldn't have been there anyway, because the train I wanted was full, with me thinking it was in the UK where you buy a ticket and you jump on and stand if no seats. Not sure if this was Spain being Spain, but the next train after the 12pm one was 3pm. So, I had some time to kill and decided to go back to the Sagrada Familia for a closer look, even though I had literally went there in the morning to take a few photos.

I was given a nice leather passport holder as a gift so I tend to use that on holiday so I don't take my stupidly large chest wallet with all my personal and business cards in. It has a slot for the passport, cards and cash. Sounds good but it means you have all you eggs in the same basket.

I should have left the passport in my backpack that I did leave at the train station to avoid lumping it around. Or at least used a wallet card cards and cash, and push the passport into another compartment in my man bag.

Luckily I had already bought my train ticket before my stuff got stolen. A positive.

Then again, then could have pulled my man-bag from me. Then again I could have got mugged at knifepoint, and last my phone as well. Luck in many ways, considering.

Meeting someone worse off than you

So, I then got on the train to Alicante - 5.5 hours to mull things over.

A guy asks to borrow my USB cable to charge his phone. I did so at my chair. His girlfriend then says can they take the cable as they have a laptop that they can plug into, and hence be able to use it as well. I said OK, and was given an apple as a thank you.

For a while I was playing a scene in my head where she comes back with the cable and I proceed to tell her my story and ask if I can borrow 10 euros so I can then take a bus journey from Alicante to Torrevieja so I can get picked up from there. I felt slightly embarrassed and thought I might come across looking like some fraud.

She finally comes back and I start my pitch. Blah blah blah, lost my wallet, could I borrow 10 euros and I will post it to you. Then she leans in, says this is funny as she had her bag stolen, which had her laptop, three passports and hard drives.

I said don't worry, you have your own issues, more than me, I will be OK.

She came back a few minutes later to say that they have 5 euros that they can lend me. Wow, I felt really bad now.

Good people gravitate to good people - karma

We got to Alicante train station and left together. The guy handed 20 euro note to me. They dropped me off at the bus station. I then saw the two people that sat on the opposite side of the train table to me, who had heard my predicament and knew I need to get on the bus from Alicante to Torrevieja. One of them just stared at me as they were boarding and I stared back.

I managed to meet up with them and gave back the money a few days later. She teaches yoga and Thai massage, and he teaches meditation. I felt we were kindred spirits and the crap that had just happened made us cross paths.

I sorted out an appointment at the British Consulate in Alicante to get an emergency passport. Pitched up, finished off the online forms that I had started, went to a police station to get my report printed as I didn't report the crime in Barcelona as I found out on the platform as the train pulled up.

Whilst at the Consulate other people were coming in distraught with tears, after literally getting out of a taxi from the airport when they had just found they had a missing passport.

Wasn't a big deal

I sat there and felt more positive about my own situation as it was just the passport, one credit card and a small amount of cash that went. I was able to get onto the train, met some really nice people that helped me. I then had a few days to sort out, in no rush.

Lessons learnt

I will aim to keep the passport separate to my cash and cards. Don't take it out if you don't need to.

Try to remember to zip up. I used to think that those man-bags with the flap over the top were a cumbersome design flaw, but it is there to make it more difficult for thieves to see if it is open or not. They just want to go for easy targets.

Don't get distracted.

But, even with all that in place, worse things can happen. Just need to spread the risk, hope for the best and carry on enjoying life.