if you have to pick a time of the year to come around, do it on the 30th april. spring is well settled in, lots of flowers to look at and then boom! queen’s day. it was celebrated last saturday (hence on the 29th, because sunday is not a very good day to party – everybody know that) and was great – lots of people in the streets dressed in orange, concerts in the city’s main square, and the best of all, the free market. imagine all kinds of people selling all kinds of stuff in the streets. from kids to grown-ups, from junk to amazing treasures, food, drinks or just playing music. amazing! why don’t we have such a thing in portugal?!

well, me, joy, heye, nurcan, lulu and levi found a free spot on the sidewalk to lay our wallets in the beggining of the afternoon and we were imediatly flooded by curious looks and interesting comments. the boys stayed in the middle of the street, chatting and subtly diverging people towards us. the girls (from portugal, thailand, china and turkey) smiled and showed the wallets. lulu spent the afternoon trying to say “portemonnaie!” and her cute chinese accent made people laugh and approach us.

we had all kinds of costumers, from little kids (who had probably just finished selling their old toys somewhere else) to grandma’s, couples in love, crafty chicks, even mothers who would come and let all of their 5 kids choose their favourite one. we even had people coming back for more to offer to loved onesn or telling us about which milk they drink everyday, how it was such a nice idea. we made a website (www.pantominas.com) about the project and some general instructions to make wallets and we slipped it into them.

it was perfect – three hours later, only a few wallets were left from the initial 160, and we came back home tired and happy to the bones.

nurcan even got a xmas themed present from the lady selling stuff next to us, just because “we attracted so many costumers”. :D

(this last picture was taken by a dutch guy :| a very tall specimen.)