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Published: October 20th 2008
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What was supposed to be an 18 hour journey from Granada, Spain to Fes, Morocco became a 45 hour journey due to sea storms and cancelled ferries. After spending the night in Algeciras, Spain, a real dump of a port town, we finally got the ferry the following afternoon to Tangier. From there, we continued on our bus to Fes, arriving at our hotel just after 1 AM. By the next day, our difficult journey was a distant memory, as we immersed ourselves in the sights, sounds and smells of exotic Morocco.
We enjoyed Europe, especially France, but it's exciting to be somewhere that is really different. Let me tell you: the ¨culture shock¨ of going from San Diego to Tijuana is nothing compared to crossing from Europe to Morocco.
Sure, there are internet cafes, cars, and lots of scooters. But in so many ways, wandering around the streets of the medina (the ¨old town¨) in Fes and now here in Marrakesh, you feel transportered back in time. In one quarter, people are making brass plates and tea kettles, as they have for centuries. Turn the corner - watch out for the mule! - and men and children are weaving carpets.
Down the road the spice sellers are standing above their colorful, high piles of exotic spices. Morocco is known for quality leather, so we visited the tannery, where men prepare the skins--using pigeon poo and other such things--the same way they've done for hundreds of years. Thankfully, they gave us a sprig of mint to hold to our nose to mask the smell when we visited! The roads are too narrow for cars to go through.
Mules carry the heavy burdens. If you want a taxi, there are horse carriages, but even they won't fit in the narrowest alleys.
Here in Marrakesh, there is a large square, called Jemma-el-Fna, which is the center of the action. There you will find the snake charmers, acrobats, carnaval games, henna artists, musicians, and hundreds of juice sellers and food stalls. You will see men sitting near rugs loaded with all kinds of exotic animal shells and skins. A ¨dentist¨ has a stand filled with hundreds, or maybe thousands, of actual human teeth. Now I finally know who the tooth fairy sells her teeth to... It is all very authentic, except for the henna artists who are there for the tourists, and the water
sellers with their colorful hats and bells, who I am sure earn more from posing for photos than selling water. Even though there are tourists, they are far, far outnumbered by locals.
I will miss the fresh squezed orange juice and the delicious mint tea. Those who know me (Asaf) well might be surprised, since I normally avoid hot beverages. But the mint tea here is so delicious, it's worth an exception. Unfortunately, I have yet to find it nearly as good anywhere else.
One not so pleasant surprise was when we were walking by the food stalls in the square and waiters physically grabbed Erin and me by the arm and tried to pull us into their sitting area. While they do this, all their co-workers clap and yell. When you sit down, everyone claps. Then they ignore you and go look for their next victim.
We have to say, though, that we have heard horror stories and warnings, but overall, Morocco has been a lot less hassle than we expected. Most of the time, nobody bothers us. When they do, sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's annoying. At least we get to interact a bit with locals, which we
didn't get at all in Europe.
The most interesting thing to do in Morocco is not going and seeing specific places, but just wandering the streets of the medina and taking it all in. We have been here more than a week, and it is still as fascinating and overwhelming as our first day.
There is a lot of beautiful art and architecture everywhere. The beautiful lamps, the colorful tiles, the grand wooden doors. Speaking of all these, I have to mention our guesthouse, which has all of these things.
In Morocco, a riad is a large house, usually 2 stories plus a rooftop terrace, built around a courtyard. At the center of the courtyard, there is usually a large fountain. Ours was built in the 1800s and beautifully
restored. Our room has traditional carpets and lamps and metalwork. It is one of our favorite places we have stayed at ever. Here is our riad's website:
http://www.darkaotar.com
A couple days ago, Erin went to a traditional hammam, a Moroccan bath where she was scrubbed down aggressively and rubbed animal fat (traditional soap) all over her body. I was going to go too, but although she enjoyed it, she said
I probably wouldn't, and from her description, I had to agree.
Yesterday, a woman in the square decorated Erin's hands with beautiful henna.
In Fes, as soon as you enter the old town (we stayed in the newer area and walked), you get to the Jewish cemetary. It is large, with probably thousands of graves, and though many of them are unmarked, it is well maintained. Unlike the ones I have seen in Eastern Europe (see the "In My Grandfather's Footsteps" entry, for example), the locals in the Muslim country seem to treat the Jewish cemetaries with respect. Nearby, there is a still functioning synagogue which we visited. We also visited the old Jewish quarter of Marrakesh. 50 or 60 years ago, there was a very large Jewish community in Morocco, hundreds of thousands. Most have emigrated - to Israel, North America, and France primarily. A couple hundred Jewish families remain in the old Jewish Quarter of Marrakesh, now inhabited mostly by Muslims. Our guide (this is the only place we let ourselved be ¨guided¨) took us to meet one of them. A Jewish grandmother was there with two of her grandchildren. Beautiful children, both blonde and blue eyed,
features fairer than any other Moroccan we have seen. Our guide to the Jewish quarter, who was Muslim, kept saying over and over how tolerant Morocco was, and how tolerant he was. At the end of our 1 hour tour, he told me ¨Now be tolerant, and pay me 200 dirham¨. I was intolerant, and paid him 50 dirham. About $6, but a very fair price here for a 1 hour tour by an unofficial, unlicensed guide. There used to be a lot more unofficial guides here, but the police have cracked down on it, and make everyone get a license, which is expensive to do, before they can guide tourists.
We went to see a performance in Fes, dinner plus a show featuring belly dancers, a magician, and local musicians. It was fun but we got really annoyed because the show started two hours late. They told us to come at 8 PM, so we got there at 8 sharp, but no one but the manager was there, and the show didn't start until a little after 10. All the other guests arrived around 10, so we figured they must have been told the show will be 2
hours late. We also noticed that the trains here have been running late, and breakfast has been served very late, almost at noon. Only a couple days ago, after a week in Morocco, we figured out the reason for all these things. We had assumed that we are on the same time zone as Spain, but in fact it is 2 hours earlier here! Meaning the show DID start at 8, but we got there at 6. Breakfast has been served between 8 and 10, just as we were told. And here we were getting annoyed, thinking these people are just too lax about time. Boy, do we feel like idiots...
Tomorrow night, we fly back to Paris for a couple days, before flying off to India on Friday. Will make sure to check the local time zone when we get there!
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Waldir
non-member comment
Forget
Forget Casablanca and Tangier... Just go to Marrakech, and if possible go to the desert of Sahara.