Sorry I didn't write last night (morning your time) about the fado concert. Our dinner there started at 8 and we thought we'd be out of there by midnight but it ran until 2am!!!
We got to the restaurant which I had found on tripadvisor and had received amazing reviews. It's a little tavern type place owned by a couple probably in their 50s or 60s who were so welcoming, it was like visiting a friend's place! We were given beautiful bread, cheese and olives when we arrived. Then they recommended ordering the Cataplana, a seafood dish they are famous for. It's cooked up in a pressure cooker type thing with prawns, mussels etc etc. It was so yum and served with rice! We drank sangria and then had custard tart for dessert.
The show itself didn't start until 11pm. As a general rule people in Spain and Portugal don't really even eat dinner until 9pm!! But the singing was wonderful. Fado is a melancholy genre of singing that originated when people from the poor areas of Lisbon started singing about life there. There were 3 musicians, one of whom was the man that owned the place and another who also sang. Then there were two more singers, another man and the lady that owned the place. It was really great and a different experience! It really was like going to a friend's place for dinner. Only thing that made me feel nervous was when they went around the room and got everyone to sing a song from their country. We had Italians, Swiss, French and Taiwanese people. Billy didn't sing so I had to sing waltzing Mathilda!!!! How embarrassing!!!
We did enjoy the show but started to think it was never going to end! We woke up at 5.30am for the train yesterday so were fairly tired! We paid the bill (it was a bit expensive but definitely worth it, we paid 102 euros and got a free cd for being over 100). Then we got a taxi back.
About to head out for the day to the suburb of Belėm. More later!
Love to all,
Claire
Xoxox
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