Fes

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December 28 - 31, 2006

Completing this entry more than two years after we were in Morocco it struck us how lazy and boring we were in Fes (and maybe all of Morocco). We think at least our initial laziness boils down to a few things. First, we arrived in Morocco right before Eid-al-Adha (there are various names for this holiday used around the Muslim world) and we received conflicting information both before and after arriving in Morocco as to what impact this would have on our visit.

Information ranged to the extreme in many cases, suggesting nothing - absolutely nothing - would be open, moving, or available on the holiday. We were scared enough of this we were frantically checking into an alternative stay for a week in Ireland. We didn’t bite probably because we are simply too cheap. We ended up laying low in Fes after our arrival waiting to see what would be open and available.

Second, it’s hard to recall this now, but coming to Morocco was a big shock after being in Europe for the previous 3 months. It may have been a bigger shock to our system than arriving in Asia from America. Third, we had really high expectations after our time in Turkey and expected something similar from Morocco. We were disappointed that our interactions with people did not compare to our interactions in Turkey. A good amount of that is probably because we do not speak French and we did not meet nearly as many people as in Turkey who spoke our native language (most Moroccans we encountered were bi- or tri-lingual, for sure, just not English-speaking). Our impression in comparing the two countries, and speaking in vast generalizations, is that Moroccans speak about hospitality and Turks show you hospitality.

Not to give away the ending, but when people ask us which country we enjoyed the least in a year abroad our answer is Morocco. We are the first to admit that may not all be Morocco’s fault. So much of your perception and experiences in a country are based on the experiences you’ve already had and we probably would have had an entirely different experience if we had gone to Morocco at another time. That said, here is the day-by-day account of our time….

Thursday

We woke in London to catch our 6:30 am flight at 4 am and walked to the airport (the motel was not scenic, but how often can you walk to the airport?). By the time we got to the airport at 4:45 am there was already a long wait. Ryan Air doesn’t board in groups so the only way for anyone to board early is to pay £2, which we did. Even with the fee, at least half of the passengers ending up in the priority line. We were lucky to get an exit row and the flight was relatively short (3 hours) and uneventful. Immigration in Fes was very slow on the other hand.

While waiting, a bunch of girls came into immigration in leggings and Uggs and we thought they had to be Spanish or Italian. We later realized (after eavesdropping on accents) that it was actually one or two very rich American families being led from their private plane through immigration. They were either able to avoid immigration or they did it somewhere privately.

We left the airport and caught a bus to the train station very near our hotel. The bus was much cheaper than a cab would have been and although the bus was pretty crowded it wasn’t too bad. We were separated from our bags which were in the back of the bus and, packed in as we were, couldn’t help but think there was a decent chance they wouldn’t be there when we exited (they were). The bleached fields and roadside pedestrians made it clear we weren’t in London anymore.

The weather was good in Fes and we didn’t need coats during the day. At night it was very cold. Our hotel, Hotel Ibis, was fine, a chain hotel with about Super 8 level quality for $50 which seemed a bit high to us for our first night in Morocco. After getting settled we went out to get lunch only to find the guidebook recommended restaurant for Moroccan food was too expensive ($10/entrée) so we settled for pizza at a much more reasonable price of $4.

After lunch we went to a few hotels to see how their rooms compared to ours. We also tried to find tourist information to understand how much of an impact Eid-al-Adha would have on our trip because our hotel wasn’t a wealth of information. The tourist information office was closed so we went to the hostel but they never answered their door. Frustrated we returned to our hotel, had mint tea in the bar, and called the hostel and tourist information office before taking a nap.

After our nap we went out exploring to find a place to eat dinner. We found a number of cafes and places for dessert, but only grills with hamburgers and sausages for protein. Naturally we decided to go to McDonalds…. On the way to the McDonalds we found a Moroccan restaurant, oddly only the second we had stumbled across since arriving in Fes.

A consistent theme in our trip is the safe comfort McDonald’s provides when we are tired, a little feeble, or otherwise bored with more exotic cuisines. This particular outlet, a stunning, brightly lit, beautifully furbished embassy, was a stark contrast to many of the neighborhoods we’d walked in Fes and we got a kick out of watching the apparently well-to-do locals drop in for food.

Friday

We had breakfast at our hotel, which was nothing special, for $6 each. Actually, when you think about the price it was quite bad with just bread and cheese and it did not compare to the breakfasts we had in Turkey (which were included in our room rate). After breakfast we came up to the room and watched Beverly Hills 90210 in French. We really didn’t understand it - anyone who knows Amy’s knowledge of French will understand this - but luckily we remembered the important bits (it was the episode when Kelly and Dylan get together after Brenda gets back from France). Good stuff. After 90210, we showered and called tourist information and the hostel before heading out to visit those offices.

Even after confirming the hours of tourist information we found it closed when we arrived. At the hostel we got some general information about when we should avoid traveling because of Eid-al-Adha. We also checked out a room, but without a bathroom or heat we weren’t interested. It was hard enough to stay warm at night with heat.

We were eager to finally eat Moroccan food so we went to one of the two Moroccan restaurants we had seen. We had couscous with stewed vegetables and meat and tagine with chicken, potato and carrot, but the food was nothing special.

After lunch we went back to tourist information again and it was finally open. The guy working was nice but not too helpful. It seemed that his job is just to hang out and distribute the most general information. He suggested we rent a car to see Morocco.

Later we went to an internet café for 2 hours to work on our blog and also to do research on Morocco and see how feasible it actually was to rent a car. We had a nice conversation with the man, Yusef, working at the internet cafe. It was difficult because he didn’t speak much English and, to reiterate, Amy’s French is worthless, so Yusef was switching back and forth between French, Spanish and English to make his points. We followed up the internet café with mint tea and coffee at the bar in the hotel.

We are sad to report that we went to the nice McDonald’s again for dinner. Not only are there two patios with great views, but the upstairs has an intricately decorated ceiling. After dinner we went to the hostel to meet Abdullah, drink mint tea and eat cherry flavored almonds. We talked to Abdullah about going to the desert, what to see in Morocco and what to watch out for in Fes. We set up a guide for the medina for the next morning. When we got back to the hotel, Roger worked on the blog and Amy read the guidebook.

Saturday

We arrived at the hostel around 10 am to meet our guide and we took a cab to the old area of Fes. The trip took awhile because of traffic and the added congestion of holiday shopping (cabs were apparently much harder to come by, as well).

The narrow passages of the medina, chilled by the cool stone, stark walls, and late-morning shade, bombarded our senses. On one corner we found a camel head (unconnected to the rest of the body) and learned that here camel is the most expensive meat. On another corner, and then another, we saw sheep heads, innards, and meat, sitting out in the air. Further on we found, and tasted, camel jerky, olives, bread and a popular treat, nougat.

Our guide led us through a store for a great view over a huge tannery, the view itself a lure to get you to view the nice merchandise, but we weren’t interested in buying anything but the window over the dye pits and drying leather. We ended up going to a lot of shops to “see” how things were made, but found the experience unlike previous windows into local production. The inescapable fact here was that the pretense of working craftsmanship was just an attempt to sell you merchandise (we are told the guide gets a commission of as much as 40%). It grew tiring to keep turning people down, but most people were very nice when we said we weren’t interested. Only one person, a clothing seller, was pushy bordering on inhospitable.

In a Berber cooperative we met a very nice man, Mohammed Aziz, who shared his thoughts on Saddam, Bush (doesn’t like him) and Clinton (likes him). When we told him about Hillary running for president he said he would pray for her. Even though the medina was more about people watching and goods, there are supposedly a lot of “monuments” to visit. We found that on our visit most of these sites were being worked on by UNESCO and were closed down.

Our tour options were a 3 hour tour for 120 MD or a 5 hour tour for 150 MD ($18) and after about 2.5 hours the guide started leading us to the end without asking us if we were done. We suspect it was because the extra 2 hours were not worth his time once he realized we weren’t buying anything.

The next day everyone who could afford it would sacrifice a sheep so everyone was sharpening their knives in the market. The whole area was sensory overload. It was very hard to get a cab back and we paid three times the fare we paid to get there. If it had just been the two of us we would have just walked.

From the hostel we returned to the pizza place for lunch. While we were sitting there a guy came up and pulled bread out from under his armpit (outside his coat) and offered it to us to buy. Um, no thanks? The waiter was very nice and asked where we were from and was happy when we said Aid Said (not sure if that’s how you spell it) - people were happy all day when we said it. We sat at the pizza place watching people scramble for the few available cabs. Women were often left in the dust left and right while men stole their cabs, even appearing to talk the women out of the cabs. Everyone was loaded with groceries or running pre-holiday errands.

After lunch, we had tea at a café outside near our hotel and watched people, transiting large families, a kid with a hacksaw - just another day in Fes. We were surprised by the diversity of appearances. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a corner market for some snacks for New Year’s Eve in case everything was closed.

Another nap for Roger and more work for Amy on the computer and, again, some internet time wound down our evening. We ventured out to a local café for dinner, which was good considering we couldn’t understand the waiter and he couldn’t understand us (the point method yielded chicken for Roger and spiced minced beef for Amy - plus fries and rice). It was good and the cheapest meal we’d had so far in Fes. We noticed at the cafe that there were a couple of bottles of water and also two glasses which appeared to be the water glasses for the restaurant. We wondered if our glasses were part of the collection before we ordered soda. It didn’t stop us from drinking it though.

Sunday - New Year’s Eve
One important aspect of Eid ul-Adha is that it commemorates Abraham’s readiness to obey Allah and sacrifice his son. At the last minute of this sacrifice, Allah spares Abraham and allows him to sacrifice a goat instead; some accounts say a lamb. Animal sacrifice is an important part of the feast. This sacrifice of sheep or goats is shared with family, friends and the needy.
So upon waking, needless to say we were on a mission to see some sacrifice. We left the hotel around 9 am to try to find butchers. We didn’t see much at first except someone building a fire pit off the street. Eventually we saw some blood in the street, which is startling even if you know the circumstances. Eventually we saw a few blood-covered butchers carrying bags of knives. Butchers will walk the streets, blood, knives, and all, and cars will pull over to pick them up.

We could hear and see some sheep around town. Around 10 am the action really started to pick up. There were fire pits spread out around town and in the parks where people would bring their sheep heads and feet to be cooked. While we were wandering, a group of men in the park working one of the fire pits invited us over and entertained us. We watched for a bit and, at their invitation, took some pictures. We were joking and having fun even though we didn’t really understand them because they were speaking French. Eventually they began to ask us for something but we could not understand. We have been happy to pay for pictures in the past and had already decided that we would give them something for the holiday, but we didn’t want to be insulting, either. While we’re trying to figure out if they are asking for money or not and while this is happening the young men transform into all business mode - no more joking interaction with the tourists. As we prepared to leave they ask for a dirham and Roger gave them four, which admittedly is not much, and it seemed to upset them. The whole experience turned unpleasant quickly despite our effort to ferret out the best course of action. We hate paying for interaction but since we were planning on it anyway it just made it unpleasant for them to ask.

During the day only the cafes were open but during the evening restaurants began to open. So we sat at a café and had tea and watched more of the action. We saw a man walk by with a container of intestines and numerous people out selling skins. It was definitely not a day for the faint of heart.

We had lunch at the restaurant at the train station (train station always equals good food). The waitress asked us to point out what we wanted. Amy had minced meat and Roger had chicken kebabs. But then all of this food started arriving - first salads, then our main course and cokes, then fries, then fruit and yogurt. We figured it would be a little pricey because we were at the train station and we never saw a menu. But nothing else was open and how else were we going to celebrate Eid ul-Adha? We weren’t sure if the extra food was part of a set meal or not. We would later realize this was just going to be our most costly dining experience in Morocco. The bill was over 300 dirhams ($35) and, even ten months on the road we fell into a rather obvious pitfall.

After lunch we rested in the room for awhile before heading back out. At night there were people everywhere, mostly families with children, walking around and enjoying the holiday. We went to the bus station and bought a ticket for the next morning before we went to the internet café and returned to the hostel around 7. We left a note and nougat for Abdullah to thank him for his help while we were there and, naturally, returned to McDonald’s to celebrate the holiday the way many of the locals do. The place was packed with people inside and out - most dressed to the nines - and it really was like a huge party.

On the way back to the hotel, we noticed that the sidewalk was much bloodier than it had been earlier. Maybe the difference between Americans who open presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Some Moroccans slaughter in the morning, some at night? We intended to ring in the new year at the hotel bar with some mint tea and Casablanca beer. The bar was very vibrant, if pricey, and had good people watching with many people from different countries celebrating. We went upstairs around 11:30 pm and watched the end of Titanic and then the New Year’s celebration in London before falling asleep. Rocking in the new year in Fes (actually not that different from what we did this year in Boise, except no animal sacrifice).

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Photos

Happy New Year!
We don't want to ruin the surprise but this is our favorite part of Casablanca.