"Expensive shrubbery - Part 2" BEWARE AROUND CATHEDRAL Tip by karenincalifornia

So let's back up in my story. While I'm getting the Muslim guy to write my kids' names in Arabic, my husband is shooting photos of the cathedral. He finally stops what he's doing and sees the gypsy woman doing a chant and holding a sprig of rosemary to our son's forehead. Concerned that she might be putting a curse on him, my husband tried to intervene with no success.

So now fast forward to where my son is asking me to pay 5 eurodollars to the gypsy lady for the sprig of rosemary. I said "No way", which immediately caused the gypsy lady to become agitated and spew forth a few angry gypsy expletives, and then pretty fluent English. She said, "Look, I am poor. I have no money. I need 5 Euros."

Putting my negotiation skills to work, I said, "Look, I am not paying 5 euros for a twig, but I'll give you this," and I pulled out a coin that had a 20 on it. What are those, anyway - 20 eurocents?

At this point, she was deeply insulted and became livid. This approach usually works well on me in my professional life, too, so I immediately pulled out another 20 eurocent piece and offered that as well.

By now she was yelling and screaming. We were uncertain what kinds of horrible curses she was heaping upon us, but we knew they were not good. At this point, I just wanted to leave with my Arabic names and get the hell out of there.

But then, by some stroke of luck - not good for me - coins started falling on the ground out of my coin purse right next to the gypsy lady's feet. By the time I could stop this flood of money spilling out onto the pavement, a total of 8 eurodollars had spilled out onto the pavement right next to the gypsy woman's feet.

Convinced at that point she had some kind of magical powers, and not wanting to be the recipient of an evil eye, I said "Oh all right! Here, take them all!"

Lesson learned - you can't turn your back on your kids for ONE MINUTE - even when they are 18 years old.