I have had a crazy life with over a dozen near death experiences. Many times I was certain I was going to die, but this one comes to mind. I was coming off two amazing nights in Madrid and it was Saturday night. I walked out of a bar around midnight in Plaza Del Sol(think Spanish Time Square) feeling good and I see this beautiful girl smiling at me. "hola sexy! Como estas? Hablas Ingles?" She did, and I said "show me around Madrid. Lets go get a drink somewhere" She says there is a good place on this side street. Well there are people everywhere and Spain really comes alive at midnight. We go walking up the side street, and I am a very savvy traveler always aware of my surroundings, but it was Saturday night at Madrid, and I was too busy running game on this chick, and let me guard down. Well she says the place is right around the corner...we turn the corner, she is on my right, and this guy comes running up behind me, and wraps his left arm around my neck.....I grabbed his wrist, looked at him over my shoulder, saw his face, and he was scared shitless(I have a fighting background and keep myself in shape)-I looked back at the girl and she flashed a very nervous look at the punk and I realized they were in cahoots. Well I was about to snap the punks wrist and was going to !@#$ his world up...while I am processing all this a guy comes running at me from across the street fists up 10 O'clock...I realized now the situation and got my fists up, he stopped short before I could hit him. Then another guys came at me from 2 O'clock and I threw a punch at him, but a 4th guy grabbed my arm from behind as I threw the punch. They wrestled me to the ground. I am good fighting from my back and I was doing some damage, but it seemed like there were 10 of them. One said to me "you are going to die". And I fought with everything I had, swinging, elbows, knees....then next thing I know I am out cold.
I felt like I woke up from a deep sleep and was trying to figure out where I was. Whats this cold feeling on my face-concrete. What country am I in- Spain I think. What happened- holy **** I was mugged. My jaw was sore- I could tell they hit me when I was out cold. and My eye was bleeding pretty bad. The first thing I checked was to see if I had my passport. Luckily I did- it was in a money belt under some cargo pants. They cut my pants open with a knife, but couldn't get the money belt- too much foot traffic I think. They did get my wallet, my camera(which pissed me off- I just spent two weeks in Hungry and made some great friends, and I lost all the photos of them). They also took my kashmere trench coat right off my back. I shook off the cobwebs and went looking for them. Never found them, but I was enraged. I made George Brett being called out for pine tar mellow. No bueno