Heading home, and my conclusions

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The last day consisted of little more than grabbing some breakfast, dossing around a little, grabbing some lunch and heading off to the airport a bit earlier than necessary. I’d seen everything I had wanted to in Fes and had no intention of dragging my stuff around in the City’s extreme heat. This all went to plan apart from the lunch, the dirhams I had saved for that I accidentally spent on a fridge magnet that was more than I expected… Avoiding the extortionate fixed taxi fares to the airport (and another near death experience at the hands of a mental Moroccan taxi driver) I jumped on the number 16 bus to the airport for way less than a tenth of the price. This really did re-define what I thought being hot meant, I’m almost certain by halfway I’d sweated away all the fluids in my body.

Fes’ tiny airport offered little to amuse myself for the few hours I had to wait, leaving me plenty of time to reflect of what had been a bit of a mixed experience.

Firstly, Marrakech. There were some good moments, absorbing the electric atmosphere of The Djemaa El-Fna at night was particularly memorable, but for the most part it’s a very unpleasant and extremely touristy place in which you get bothered every 2 minutes. I really would urge anyone against going there, especially women. A girl I met on the plane home echoed the comments of the two travelers I'd met in Marrakech, she and her friends had similar experiences in Marrakech, and in some cases worse harassment in not only that city but across Morocco. We had numerous unpleasant stories of pushy touts/stalkers to share... I fell in love with Rabat, it's a great city and so much more relaxed than the other two that I visited. That does come at a price however, Rabat lacks the intreague of Marrakech and Fes, and I did wonder if my reasons for liking it so much was the European feel of the place, familiarity was nice after the culture shock I experienced when I first arrived. Fes is a place I still haven't made my mind up about, it's a much better place to visit than Marrakech, the hassle from touts and faux guides is still a problem but not anywhere near as bad. But still there was something that preventing me from liking the place, perhaps much of it was the odd balance of the quite modern ville nouvelle and the ancient medina where people live scarcely different to how generations centuries before would have. The two just seemed to sit awkwardly together, and travelling between them daily was an odd experience.

The solo travel aspect perhaps didn't help my trip much, whilst my choice of accommodation perhaps contributed (dorms in Marrakech and Fes might have been better) meeting other travellers, especially solo shoestringers like myself was difficult. It doesn't seem to be that big a solo travel destination, most of the westerners I came across were couples oddly.

After having an unforgettable, if overwhelming trip, I was very glad when the plane left the tarmac and I was on my way home.

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Photos

Avenue Hassan II
In the Ville Nouvelle