Two Weeks, Two Continents, Part IV: Marrekech

Alternate title: Fez but Flat

The worst thing about an overnight bus is not sleeping on the bus, but the awkward arrival time. We left Fez at about 8 at night and arrived in Marrakech at 6 am. Which is way too early to do anything.

Being so early, we wanted to give our hostel a bit of time to wake up before we arrived so we decided to walk from the bus station to our hostel. The taxi drivers didn’t seem to get this message. As we walked down the street every a few feet another taxi would pull aside and offer us a ride. After about 20 no’s we were finally far enough from the bus stop that the taxis stopped swarming. Good effort guys, but you’d think after we rejected the first three taxis the others might have received the message.

We still ended up at our hostel pretty early and ended up awkwardly sitting twin the lobby for a bit. Eventually, we abandoned our bags at the hostel and set off on an adventure into the city.

Our hostel workers in Fez described Marrakech as “It’s Fez, but flat.” This described the medina pretty well honestly, and thank heavens for that. My calves were in sore need of a break from all the hills. Marrakech does have something Fez doesn’t: big museums.

Our first stop after breakfast was the Bahia palace. We heard this was the prettier palace in Marrakech, and since boats cost 70Dh we went for beauty. And boy was it beautiful. Carvings and mosaics litter the courtyards and the ceilings were covered in amazing murals and tiles.

I love the use of Arabic in the carving at the palace. Arabic is a beautiful language, both to hear and see. I could stare at the calligraphy for hours wondering what it says and appreciating the gentle curves If the words.

After the Bahia palace we stumbled into some tourist signs pointing the tapestry museum. When you don’t know much about a city randomly following tourist signs is a pretty good way to spend your time.

The museum was filled with the history of Moroccan rugs and the different styles and techniques. I loved watching the videos of artisans at work weaving. Weaving seems like witchcraft to me. I can’t wrap my head around how the thread stays in place and out comes a rug. Not the mention how wool twists into usable thread with no adhesive or anything. Rugs are crazy, man.

A lot of the rest of our day was spent wandering the medina and seeing the city center. Several times we ended in the famed Jemaa el-Fnaa square. They say this is the busiest square in Africa and I believe it. The place is absolutely massive with stalls and street performers constantly trying to get you to buy from them. My friend was approached by several shoe shiners looking for a client. Luckily no one wanted to shine my old tennis shoes so I was only bothered my every other type of vendor on the square.

Unlike the medina which is overwhelming but cool, the square is mostly just overwhelming, You can’t stop for a moment without being accosted by several different people. I wasn’t really a fan of the square. But it was cool to see once and a good landmark to use to navigate.

For our lunch we went to. Sort of Moroccan fusion restaurant where my friend got herself a camel burger. I had a bite and can confirm that it tasted a lot like a regular beef burger. The difference was in the texture which was a little more dense than a typical burger in the US. It’s always a little terrifying trying a new meat as your you never know why you are getting into.

 

Next was back into the medina for a few hours to some window shopping. My favorite section was the lamp market. I’ve always loved the lamp aisles at hardware stores and here was a whole section of an old time medina illuminated by gorgeous metal lamps. If I had more money and a proper house I’d be swimming in Moroccan lamps because I love them so much.

After a good wander we went back to our hostel for the night. I got to eat dinner at the hostel with a whole bunch of other guests as we chatted over tagine and bread. Hostels are great for meeting people and I chatted with some polish people for quite awhile. It’s always interesting to see different people’s perspectives on travelling. There is always that question of “why did you come here?” Which I feel like 90% of the time is answered with a “Why not?” It seems like most travelers do it just because. After all, why would you need a reason to explore the world?

The next morning saw us heading out bright and early onto a three day desert adventure. My second day in Marrekech after we returned wasn’t really noteworthy, pretty much I wandered and bought souvenirs for my family. I’m terrible at shopping Im way to indecisive about everything. Even when I have a set shopping list I’ll dither over it for ages trying to find exactly what I want. I’ll save you the boredom of reading about my suffering and just let you know that in the end, I did successfully get my souvenirs.

And that was Marrekech! It was a nice city and I liked getting to wander around so much. My next entry will tell you about my favorite part of my Moroccan trip: my trip into the Sahara.

Two Weeks Two Continents Part III: Fez

Alternate title: Fezzes Are Cool

After the blue city it was time for something a bit bigger, or a whole lot bigger: Fez. Why Fez? you ask, cause Fez is cool. Or maybe cause fezzes are cool, I’m never quite sure where Doctor Who ends and I begin.

We got into Fez at about 10 pm, so once we made it to our hostel it was time to flop int bed. But when morning came we were well enough rested and ready to go.

Our hostel in Fez had an excellent breakfast including delicious Moroccan tea and freshly cooked over easy eggs. Hostel breakfasts are such a toss up that really good ones are noteworthy.

After stuffing myself with hostel food it was time to explore. We started with a mission to reach the musée Batha, an art museum that we knew little about. We got pretty turned around on the way. If I could have one wish granted it would be that offline google maps would give walking directions. Fez has so many non drivable streets that getting turned around is inevitable.

We did eventually make it to the museum. It no cost 20Dh so it was very plainly worth it, but nothing inside was extraordinary. They had some cool mannequins wearing traditional clothes which I thought were very cool, and they had some nice pottery and metalwork. Like the museum in Tangiers this one was inside an old palace, so the tile work in the garden was beautiful. Moroccan gardens are much more wild than most that I see in Europe, rather than manicured lawns and hedges, they have ancient trees and leafy groundcover. I really love them.

Next we stumbled into the King’s palace, well his Fez palace anyway. From the outside it’s mostly a just a wall with a green roof, but it does have some very pretty Moroccan doors. Morocco is full of good doors and these weren’t especially noteworthy, but they were royal, so we snapped a picture. My friend was very amused by the guards outside who were all clustered in the shade, not quite the unmoving stony faces at Buckingham Palace, but still a palace guard.

Next we followed some random tourist signs and found my favorite place in Fez the Jardin Jnane Sibilant, a gorgeous botanical garden which is a free public park. My favorite part is that it is filled with water. There was a huge lake and a big fountain the shot at least ten feet into the air. They also had majestic old trees, a cactus garden, and a bamboo forest, all within one park. The weirdest thing was the birds. On one side they had a big bird cage which on one side, held either some pigeons or some doves, we were not sure. The other side had a peacock and his peahen posse. His feathers were glorious. He was sitting up in a branch so you could see his tail spayed below him, nothing beats a nice peacock.

We sat by the big fountain for awhile, appreciating it’s prettiness. Then the workers of the park betrayed me by turning it off. This gave us the kick in the pants we needed to head out of the park and into the medina.

They say the medina in Fez is the oldest in the world and also the biggest, I believe them. It is fit to bursting with shops and vendors winding through twisting corridors. It’s always bustling with people and vendors calling out trying to get you into their shops.

I started getting amused by the conversations the vendors had with themselves. They’d call out “Hello, where are you from? How are you?” And I would ignore them all, then a few would reply to themselves “I’m fine, thanks.” No matter how nice they seem don’t talk to the vendors unless you are interested in their shop, or they will certainly try very hard to pull you in.

The Fez medina is rampant with people trying to guide you to this tannery or some other one. They also can’t wait to ask for money to guide you to wherever you want to go. Ignore these people, especially the children. Don’t encourage them by accepting their offers.

I bought a trinket from one of the stalls and got to watch once again while they scrambled to find change. Everyone in Morocco wants to be payed in cash but no one has change. You’ll watch the vendor run down the street to find a friend who has some change he can give you. Even our hostel had to promise to give change to someone the next morning after they arrived. Cash culture is fine, but having change is sort of a must.

We ended up getting a lunch with a view from a little cafe we stumbled upon. They had a rooftop terrace which gave a wonderful panorama of the city and the mountains bedside it. They also had some really dope tagine. After much study, I think my favorite tagine is Kefta, also called meatball on many a English menus. It’s very delicious.

After that we took on the perilous task of trying to escape the medina. Between google maps, and random tourist signs, we eventually made it out of the medina and out into the world. Here we had a new goal, to go to the bus station and get tickets to Marrakech for the next day. We had forgotten to pick up tickets when we arrived the night before so had to make an extra trip. This actually turned out to be a great thing as it allowed us to discover Fez’s secondary bus station that is right next to the medina. This station was about a 15 minute walk from our hostel and the other is an hour walk. So our original oversight turned into blessing.

Tickets acquired we wandered in the market for a bit longer before heading to our hostel. There we ended up talking with the other people staying there and forming a group to get a light dinner.

We ended up eating at a little French restaurant near our hostel where I got to be a super millennial and eat some avocado toast. But worry not boomers, it was only about $3 so I have not broken the bank with my indulgence. After that it was home to my bed.

Day 2

On day two we decided to wander down a different road from the roundabout by our hostel. This road lead us a bit farther out from the tourist heavy area and we found a trade school. Unlike most colleges this one had a sign out front inviting tourists to come in and take a look at their exhibition space where they sold the students work. The room was jam packed with all the Moroccan handicrafts we had seen in the market, my friend ended up buying a few reasoning that although probably not the best price she could get, it supported the school and its students. It also had actual price tag, no haggling required.

We were also allowed to peek through the windows into the classrooms. We saw a room full of looms which was pretty neat. However, when a guy waved at us from his class we decided we should stop distracting students and move on.

We ended up by my favorite park and stopped to see my fountain, once again running happily. We watched a guard hustle across the park to yell at some people innocently sitting on a wall. Apparently you should only sit in the benches in Morocco, wall sting seems frowned upon.

At the park we made a game plan to head up to the tombeaux de Merindes where our hostel said we could get a good view. they was right as we saw many good views from above Fez.

Before we even reached the tombs we found a treacherous cliff path my friend and many others were eager to climb in to get a cooler view. I pulled together my courage and inched across the path carefully placing my feet. In reality, this path was nothing too dangerous as long as you were careful. But when I can stare down at my feet and see cliffs on either side with no boundary, I get a but antsy.

On the way to the tomb we passed the musee de Baird Nord which we knew nothing about, and was closed until 2, we agreed to stop in on our way back and continued on.

The tomb turned out to be nothing special, a few ruins overlooking the city. But they too had a great view. When in Fez definitely make the walk up there. The hill is very gentle and the view is more than worth it.

Despite spending a good amount of time sitting and ogling the view at the tomb it still wasn’t quite time for the museum to open. We decided to kill half an hour sitting at a cafe while my friend had coffee. This ended up as an awkward mistake.

We were outside the main tourist area and in a residential part of town. At the cafe it became very apparent we were female as everyone else was male and it seemed we weren’t really meant to be there. We were sitting outside, and no one bothered us, and they were nice, but it just felt wrong.

Let me say that as a female traveler with a female buddy, I have not felt unsafe in Morocco. Nor have I felt judged or out of place without a hijab. I don’t feel preyed upon or inferior, but in some situations I have felt my gender more than I ever have before. This was that time. Inside the tourist area, it’s almost a nonissue, so from now on my friend and I will be staying out of the residential bit of town.

We booked it out of the cafe as soon as my friend had payed for her coffee and we ended up sitting by the museum gate. We shouldn’t have needed to wait, as we arrived about 15 minutes after they opened but the workers were going by their own clock so the gate did not unlock until half an hour after the posted opening time. The museum, which turned out to be an arms museum was not worth the wait but it was worth the 10Dh fee so it turned out okay.

After about an hour in the museum we headed back near the medina to grab some dinner lunch. I got to try a miorrocan pastille, which is a nice flaky pastry filled with food. Mine was vegetarian and it ended up basically being a fajita in a pastry shell, which was a okay with me.

We also had some jawhara for dessert, which is a specialty in Fez. It was a layered pastry and cream desert and it confused my taste buds at first because it was a bit spicy. Spice and dessert rarely mix in America so this took me a moment to adjust to. But it was very delicious once I got used to the idea.

We spent another hour in the medina where my friend exhibited her terrible bargaining skills. Pro tip, don’t ask the vendor if they’ll go lower, tell them a lower number and see how they counter. As I have said before don’t be afraid to leave a bad deal.

After that we headed back to our hostel to grab our bags and hop on the night bus to Marrakech. Fez was nice. The medina could definitely be overwhelming, but in a lively, exciting way mostly. Not sure I’d want to see it in the peak tourist season though.