Our plans to rise early to escape Meknes were thwarted by sheer laziness on our behalf. However due to our recent bouts of illness we are blaming it entirely on a lack of energy.
When we did leave the hotel, it took some doing to get us both with our backpacks to the top of the hill. The train station was comfortingly European and the French language announcements were almost completely understood. The train was delayed but we didn't mind one iota as the sun was shining and we got to watch a nosy rabble of football fans arrive on the opposite platform.
The train made a pleasant change from buses and we thoroughly enjoyed having both leg room and comfortable seats. We didn't get one person trying to sell things and there wasn't a beggar to be seen. The journey was extremely quick and before we knew it we were following some young boy to our chosen hotel. After inspecting the room and negotiating a better price we took a few moments to freshen up and then set out to explore.
As usual, the first thing on Rob's mind was food so we stopped at a café
For Food. We ordered cheese sandwiches but as usual we received anything but. This time we were presented with a salad and two potato omelettes with one piece of plastic cheese each.
It was quite a long walk from the new town to the medina but there was plenty to look at. We found ourselves immersed in souqs before we had even neared the medina. Lonely Planet warns of the possibilities of getting lost for hours in the medina and even of having to resort to paying a local child to lead you out again. Sunset was looming in the not too distant future so much to Rob's dismay I refused to wander aimlessly in the grottier area that we had stumbled across.
Eventually after walking through a sizeable souq filled with frenzied locals, we stumbled across what we thought was the entrance into the main central medina. We quickly discovered that not all gates have to be open and instead we were stuck in the middle of a strange market. I am not one to jump to conclusions but it looked very much like young boys selling stolen goods.
The main entrance to the medina presents
two choices; the high road or the low road. We took the lower one and followed the general flow past all the stalls that crowd the road. We haven't been in a medina this intense since Marrakech so everything was pleasantly strange still. There are so many people pushing you down the narrow road that you barely have time to take in and register the bright colours and the strong smells. In retrospect this is probably quite a good thing because the sensory overload gets forgotten when you realise that each stall is selling similar items for tourists and that the strong smell is probably emanating from the dead animals skins that you are brushing past.
Well past the sundown call to prayer we realised that the light had disappeared and without knowing how safe it was, we decided to head out of the medina. It was a long walk back to the new town and we didn't make it any better by our usual navigational errors.
The guidebook only has one cheap option for food in the area of the hotel so we headed there for yet another tagine. We got there and found two other English
couples there but we were too lazy to find anywhere else. The food was the worst we had encountered thus far and the owner was another of this breed that reminds you that his tip isn't included when you come to pay. Despite all this, we enjoyed sitting and spending some time over a meal.
We are now back at the hotel room and I am content because I not only had a hot shower but we are about to split chocolate bar between us and have a beer. Luxury indeed. Night Night. Stob.
Morocco's Flag
Map of Morocco