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After a couple days and nights exploring Barcelona, we decided to hit an Internet cafe. We only knew of one that appeared to be in business. According to what we'd read, it was closed all that day but opened at 8:30 in the evening for a few hours. Evelyn had a story to enter and I would check email. Off we went through the labyrinthian alleyways of the Barri Gotic (Gothic Quarter) - the heart of the Ciutat Villa (Old City). Let's take the back way, I suggested, avoid the throngs strolling on La Rambla. It was Saturday night - and more significantly, May 1st. We wound our way through the narrow alleyways lined with gothic homes, shops and churches, and popped out at Via Laietana - at Placa Angel. Just as we reached the opening of the small plaza, a mob appeared in the middle of Via Laietana noisily dragging metal police barricades to block traffic; then dumping large bins of streetside garbage into the middle of the street. Cheers, shouted slogans, an explosion. I remembered it was Workers' Day.

Mob members wore black hoods while others simply had shirts over the heads and faces to shield their identities. The mob spilled off the street into the plaza - some coming towards us. We backed off. A guy right next to us wipped stones at a bank. We backed off further. Then, from the middle of Via Laietana, stones starting flying towards bank windows on the opposite side of the street. No alarms, no sirens, no cops. Just the ominous shots of slogans. Now the garbage pile was set ablaze - an inferno was unleashed. The crowd backed off and we ducked behind the corner of a building. I thought of the video camera we had in our bag but figured it would be insane to pull it out.

A fusilade of stones erupted from the middle of the street. Again aimed at the first and second floor windows of the bank across the street. This time doing great damage. The mob seemed to become emboldened by the absence of sirens. We kept our distance but couldn't take our eyes off the action. It was a bit surreal. A couple bidding each other adios at the steps to the metro as if nothing was happening. Others, strolling by, their backs to the action; seemingly oblivious. Other bystanders supported the mob's actions with cheers. The fire raged. Another fusilade of stones. More broken glass.