We walked along the historic buildings and naively believed in a trickster who looked like a South American. He showed us that by waving the paper doll in front of the speaker, the paper doll would dance. Seeing is believing, but not always! We tried to spot the trick; we tried to see if he was manipulating the paper doll, but we just couldn’t find any loophole! We couldn’t see any string attached to the paper doll too. I wanted to open the packaging which was only loosely stapled to check the content before I paid. Then the trickster became very impatient and fierce that he didn’t allow me to check. We bought two – a Pikachu and a Minnie Mouse at €2.50 each! In fact, there were many peddlers along the passageways selling the same stuff too. (See below for how we discovered that we were being tricked.)
There were also people selling padlocks to lovers, to connect the idea of love and lovers by locking the padlock and throwing the key into the river, and the lovers became eternally bonded. Oh, I had seen this before on Mount Huangshan in China, where the people there do the same thing. And I heard that the keys are alike, so even if the lovers throw away the keys into the abyss, the peddlar could open the padlock again and sell it to other lovers again and again.
P.S: Back in Singapore, we tried to make the paper doll dance in front of the speaker on with music. You must be thinking we were very stupid. No argument over that! Then I found that the piece of paper in the packaging was a piece of instruction, surprisingly, written in English. It instructed us attach the string to make the paper doll dance. One might not see the magic if the trick is performed tactically. We were so silly! The paper doll is actually a string puppet. As a tourist, I used to buy things out of impulse when seeing something special in that country. Also, I realised that tricksters are normally fierce to intimate the victim so that the victim would just give and take instead of hesitating further. After much incidents that had happened in many countries, I think I have grown some wisdom at last!
Next: to Pisa for the leaning tower!
Thanks for the tips on trickster. I’m travelling to Europe with my wife without children for merely 2 weeks in a tight budget. Initially only 2 of us going but eventually, my sister and brother in law and a friend of mine are joining us also! 🙂 Though I’ve been there once like 12 years ago during my school time in London, I’m being forced to become their tour guide this round! 🙁 So I have to plan everything for them now. Good luck to me la!