Blogs from Fes, Fès-Boulemane, Morocco, Africa - page 22

Hi everyone Well I've made it to Fez and the good news is the sun has come out! I'm really enjoying Morocco so far, especially wandering around the old towns and getting lost in the network of alleyways. We spent a couple of nights in Chefchuaon, which is a picturesque little town up in the Rif mountains. I spent hours exploring all the bright blue streets there and staring in wonder at all the food in the markets! Everyone on the truck has started fantasising about our favourite foods already and conversation always turns to food talk quickly, no surprise for anyone who knowsme! It's not that we don't get fed well, in fact we get more food than back home, it'sjust always a variation on one pot stew, with a different name each night! I've ... read more

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes time. Vision with action can change the world." ----Joel A. Barker This workshop and subsequent trip up to Fez was a great excuse to go visit my host family from training in Sefrou. I took the train up to Fez on Friday and ran into a couple other volunteers in the train station. Bart, who was in training with me, happened to be in Fez with his parents also, so we all met up in the old medina. Begin used to Marrakech, Fez seems so clean and calm. I think Marrakech has a wild side to it that Fez is just too stately and scholarly to possess. It had been a long time since I had been in Fez and I stared open-mouthed at ... read more

Next stop was Fes. I was really looking forward to experiencing Fes el Bali (Old Fes) which is still a residential and working neighbourhood comprising a labyrinth of over 9400 narrow and twisting lanes and alleyways. You can still imagine what it was like back in the Middle Ages. It's so easy to get disoriented and lost; it really helped to have a guide. Have to pay attention too or you'll get squashed by a rampaging and heavily laden mule. When you hear "Balak, Balak" or "Attention", you have to quickly hug the nearest wall. There are separate areas for the tanneries (absolutely stank with the treatment of rotting hides), woodworkers, clothes dyers, metalworkers, carpet sellers, embroiderers, weavers, and herberies. Also went to a mosaic and pottery workshop. You don't realise how much work goes into ... read more

Fes, Morocco I went to Fes hoping that it would be a more authentic experience than the tourist favorite Marrakech, but a close look reveals otherwise. There are no "hand dyed, hand woven fabrics anywhere in the medina," admitted the salesman from whom I just bought my "hand dyed, hand woven" scarf. "Regardless of what the kick-back guides tell you," he added. The tanneries are still dying leather for various goods but the more I dug the more I came to question the statement "the dyes are all natural...blue is from cobalt...yellow from saffron, etc." I was able to draw out of one kid, "well, yes, some saffron but also other things." I knew it! And often most of the stores near the tanneries were stocked with factory produced goods rather than items actually from the ... read more

The morning bus ride (9-hours in total with the CTM bus line) took me north to the legendy town of Fes. On the bus I met Adilson, a 67-year old Brazilian man who was traveling around Western Africa. Upon arriving in Fes in the late afternoon, Adilson and I tried our luck finding accomodation in the Center Novielle area of Fes. We quickly learned that the Youth Hostel was sold out as were many of the cheap hotels. So we cabbed it over to the Medina section of Fes and found a simple room at the Cascade Hotel (once again I was looking at shared toilets and showers...but at least there was no additional charge for the shower). The hotel did feature a nice rooftop terrace which overlooked the small but busy square just inside the ... read more