Bonjour tout le monde! I returned Monday night from my fabulous adventure in Morocco and Italy. It was truly a wonderful trip--so good I think I'll break it into three blog posts. This first one will focus on the first three or so days, which we spent in what is now one of my favorite cities, Fez, as well as a day trip to nearby tourist sites.
After many crazy travel mishaps on a day that seemed to prove Murphy's Law, Ryanair didn't even deliver my suitcase, which was as you can imagine very stressful. I didn't even know if it would ever come--I was rather freaked out. Still, very excited to arrive! And our airbnb, which was a wonderful riad, or old traditional style house, was absolutely beautiful. It had a lovely courtyard and beautiful stucco and mosaics, but most marvelously a gorgeous terrace where Lindsay and I shared a lovely first meal that evening. We could see the city of Fes, with its myriad of low roofs (and lots of satellite dishes, Moroccans love their TV!). We planned to do a guided tour of the medina, or old city where we stayed, the next day,as it is impossible for a tourist to find oneself there--there are more than 9000 alleyways! It is about a thousand years old and is truly like stepping back in time.
So the tour was actually really wonderful. Our tour guide's name was Khalid, and interspersed history and architectural and cultural tidbits with personal anecdotes in a cheerful accent, peppering his words with frequent "ok yes sir"s. He also seemed to know everyone! The medina was busy, as it was a Saturday, a major shopping day. He took us in to many stores and sites. I bought some fabric, a few gifts, and some beautiful leather shoes. One particular thing I was quite impressed by was a house with a plaque where Maimonides had lived--very cool! I suppose I'm also living in the country of Rashi, so there we have two great Jewish sages in one semester. I was overwhelmed by the sites, but also a little nervous about taking pictures, as I didn't want to be super obtrusive or offend any religious people, as photography is technically forbidden in Islam.
We did see a fair number of tour groups, but still itseems to be a place mostly untouched by tacky touristness; although we did get warned about Marrakech, as all told us that was the tourist city, overpriced and not as "real" as Fes! Speaking of Fes, the name has nothing to do with the hat, which comes from Turkey and is spelled with a Z. Just to clear that up. We also saw about a million stray cats; no dogs, since Islam prohibits them as pets, but so many cats!
Also saw a beautiful madrasa, or traditional school, a holy mausoleum, and a number of mosques, which we as non-Muslims could not enter. We also had a delicious lunch of tajine (which just refers to a cone shaped dish which steams the food inside) and the ubiquitous mint tea, without sugar as the Moroccans like theirs with fistfuls of it and we do not.
That night luckily Ryanair had located my suitcase in Marseille and was sending it on to Fes, so I went to the airport and picked it up while Lindsay and her friend Mimi, who is studying in Rabat, enjoyed camel burgers and almond milkshakes. Still enjoyed a nice chat with the cab driver who ended up also driving us the next day! A very nice man who, like many of the Moroccans we met, told me basically his life story and ambitions and was only to happy to be helpful and friendly. He hoped to someday open his own restaurant; he had worked on his father's farm until his father had to sell it due to money troubles and from then on he had worked as a driver for the tourism company.
The next day we had a day trip to Volubilis, an ancient Roman site, and Meknes, which was the home to a massive royal palace and now is a beautiful little city. The drive itself was incredibly lovely, as we drove through hills of orchards and farmland, much of it belonging to the king. Volubilis I really enjoyed, as it is sort of overgrown with wildflowers and plants, and our guide delighted in showing us all of the different flower types. Plus, I saw my first stork!
After a lunch, where I tried pastilla, pastry enveloping chicken and almonds sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, which was delicious, we saw the massive granaries and stables that the king of morocco, a contemporary of Louis XIV, had constructed. We also saw his mausoleum. I was rather excited about it as I had been reading a book about him and the piracy and slavery during his reign, which united Morocco albeit only until his death. He was kind of crazy, but still rather revered by Moroccans as his was a time of relative peace. The book is called White Gold, if anyone is interested.
That late afternoon/evening Mimi and I went to visit her host family from when she had spent a few weeks in Fes; Lindsay had contracted a rather nasty cold so was lying down for a bit. It was cool to see how a real Moroccan family lives, and we did get fed some VERY sweet tea. They spoke French, but like most of the people there it is most definitely a second language and it was strange to me, after living in France with its emphasis on correct grammar, to hear their many casual "mistakes". Most of the time in Morocco we spoke a Franglish, with the occasional "Shokran" or "Salaam". Afterwards we wandered about the medina a bit and got kind of lost, though a random kid on the street helped us find our way back! On our own, we got quite a few cat calls, especially Mimi who is a stunning Nigerian girl and got some interesting calls: "sister of Obama" and "Mama Africa" mostly. The calls on the street don't feel as creepy and predatory as in Europe or the states, but more humorous or more trying to sell something.
The next morning we haggled for some saffron to bring back to our families, then caught a taxi to the train station and were off to Rabat and thenext blog post!
After many crazy travel mishaps on a day that seemed to prove Murphy's Law, Ryanair didn't even deliver my suitcase, which was as you can imagine very stressful. I didn't even know if it would ever come--I was rather freaked out. Still, very excited to arrive! And our airbnb, which was a wonderful riad, or old traditional style house, was absolutely beautiful. It had a lovely courtyard and beautiful stucco and mosaics, but most marvelously a gorgeous terrace where Lindsay and I shared a lovely first meal that evening. We could see the city of Fes, with its myriad of low roofs (and lots of satellite dishes, Moroccans love their TV!). We planned to do a guided tour of the medina, or old city where we stayed, the next day,as it is impossible for a tourist to find oneself there--there are more than 9000 alleyways! It is about a thousand years old and is truly like stepping back in time.
So the tour was actually really wonderful. Our tour guide's name was Khalid, and interspersed history and architectural and cultural tidbits with personal anecdotes in a cheerful accent, peppering his words with frequent "ok yes sir"s. He also seemed to know everyone! The medina was busy, as it was a Saturday, a major shopping day. He took us in to many stores and sites. I bought some fabric, a few gifts, and some beautiful leather shoes. One particular thing I was quite impressed by was a house with a plaque where Maimonides had lived--very cool! I suppose I'm also living in the country of Rashi, so there we have two great Jewish sages in one semester. I was overwhelmed by the sites, but also a little nervous about taking pictures, as I didn't want to be super obtrusive or offend any religious people, as photography is technically forbidden in Islam.
We did see a fair number of tour groups, but still itseems to be a place mostly untouched by tacky touristness; although we did get warned about Marrakech, as all told us that was the tourist city, overpriced and not as "real" as Fes! Speaking of Fes, the name has nothing to do with the hat, which comes from Turkey and is spelled with a Z. Just to clear that up. We also saw about a million stray cats; no dogs, since Islam prohibits them as pets, but so many cats!
Also saw a beautiful madrasa, or traditional school, a holy mausoleum, and a number of mosques, which we as non-Muslims could not enter. We also had a delicious lunch of tajine (which just refers to a cone shaped dish which steams the food inside) and the ubiquitous mint tea, without sugar as the Moroccans like theirs with fistfuls of it and we do not.
That night luckily Ryanair had located my suitcase in Marseille and was sending it on to Fes, so I went to the airport and picked it up while Lindsay and her friend Mimi, who is studying in Rabat, enjoyed camel burgers and almond milkshakes. Still enjoyed a nice chat with the cab driver who ended up also driving us the next day! A very nice man who, like many of the Moroccans we met, told me basically his life story and ambitions and was only to happy to be helpful and friendly. He hoped to someday open his own restaurant; he had worked on his father's farm until his father had to sell it due to money troubles and from then on he had worked as a driver for the tourism company.
The next day we had a day trip to Volubilis, an ancient Roman site, and Meknes, which was the home to a massive royal palace and now is a beautiful little city. The drive itself was incredibly lovely, as we drove through hills of orchards and farmland, much of it belonging to the king. Volubilis I really enjoyed, as it is sort of overgrown with wildflowers and plants, and our guide delighted in showing us all of the different flower types. Plus, I saw my first stork!
After a lunch, where I tried pastilla, pastry enveloping chicken and almonds sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar, which was delicious, we saw the massive granaries and stables that the king of morocco, a contemporary of Louis XIV, had constructed. We also saw his mausoleum. I was rather excited about it as I had been reading a book about him and the piracy and slavery during his reign, which united Morocco albeit only until his death. He was kind of crazy, but still rather revered by Moroccans as his was a time of relative peace. The book is called White Gold, if anyone is interested.
That late afternoon/evening Mimi and I went to visit her host family from when she had spent a few weeks in Fes; Lindsay had contracted a rather nasty cold so was lying down for a bit. It was cool to see how a real Moroccan family lives, and we did get fed some VERY sweet tea. They spoke French, but like most of the people there it is most definitely a second language and it was strange to me, after living in France with its emphasis on correct grammar, to hear their many casual "mistakes". Most of the time in Morocco we spoke a Franglish, with the occasional "Shokran" or "Salaam". Afterwards we wandered about the medina a bit and got kind of lost, though a random kid on the street helped us find our way back! On our own, we got quite a few cat calls, especially Mimi who is a stunning Nigerian girl and got some interesting calls: "sister of Obama" and "Mama Africa" mostly. The calls on the street don't feel as creepy and predatory as in Europe or the states, but more humorous or more trying to sell something.
The next morning we haggled for some saffron to bring back to our families, then caught a taxi to the train station and were off to Rabat and thenext blog post!
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