Despite the fact that I got robbed by this little oompa loompa fado-singer lady in Portugal, I still really liked her. She was the perfect little carterista(robber): amiable, old, cute, and very VERY short. So when I told her I wanted to buy her fado CD, she was talking to us for a good half hour, during which she hugged me, then slipped her hands into my bolsillas. HA! Good thing I only had postcards LOSER, oh well, maybe she really needed them. By the way, fado is this really beautiful, deep and sad singing in Portugal, that is very parecido to the blues in America (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHzaIK8fGVg). She was an outstanding singer! After she robbed me, she told us to be very careful outside at night because there are lots of carteristas. It's too funny to even think about the irony of it all. Speaking of robbery, be careful when you eat the bread baskets put in front of you in Spain or Portugal because they end up costing you a FORTUNE and they're NOT FREE! I call THAT robbery. So after that we left the restaurant, in a barrio of mazes in the dark to find our hotel with tons of other people. Kinda dangerous, but eh, I didnt have a purse or anything valuable, and the one girl I did see with a purse had it wound around her neck, so she would have to get choked before someone took it. That winding neighborhood was filled with the haunting melancoly of fado, so pretty, so tempting; inviting us to turn down dark, dangerous alleyways to hear it better, like other stupid tourists who get robbed. I love Portugal!
