Blogs from Fes, Fès-Boulemane, Morocco, Africa - page 5

Anyone that tells you that travelling is 100% pure, heavenly joy, is lying through their teeth. The truth is traveling consists of extreme highs, some pretty low lows, and everything in between. For me, the highest of the highs occurs even before I leave home. For months leading up to a trip, randomly a thought will enter my head and interrupt whatever I am doing, reminding myself of my upcoming trip. It always brings a smile to my face, as if I have the best secret ever, that no one else can possibly understand. Then in the days leading up to travel, I can feel the excitement literally coursing through my veins. The idea of not knowing what is about to occur is both exhilarating and somewhat scary. The actual bulk of the trip is usually ... read more

Fes. Ancient city. Quintessential Morocco. Not to be confused with fez, a hat, usually with a tassel, often red, worn throughout Morocco and many other countries. We ended our day in Fes, and awoke the next morning to something closer to the Morocco which had imagined. Our visit to Fes began with arrival at Riad Fes. This being our first experience with a riad, we were stunned by the beauty and by the service we encountered. It was almost oppressive to our American tastes to have someone catering to our every whim, but we decided we must accommodate and managed to carry on under the burden. Although Fes has two medinas, the larger was the one where we spent time, and our riad was on the upslope edge of the medina, giving us panoramic views of ... read more

One of the local dining delicacies of Fes is Pastilla – Pigeon Pie. Now it is easy to understand how a meal would grow around an ingredient so abundant and readily available. But I was quick to learn that allow they are everywhere that actually pigeon meat is more expensive than chicken meat in Morocco. My host at the Dar Rbab (a Dra is a Moroccan guesthouse), Mohammed, pointed out that not all restaurants serve it much anymore and that ones that do would try to clandestinely substitute chicken for pigeon. Shame on them. But I was not to be deterred. Mohammed and I devised a plan whereby when he phoned some potential restaurants to enquire on availability of Pastilla that he claimed I was a visiting food critic and I knew the difference between the ... read more

Heute ist Feiertag (Eïd al-Kebir). Deswegen sind die meisten Geschäfte geschlossen, und die Gassen der Medina leer wie wohl sonst niemals im Jahr. Die Gärber und Färber (siehe Fotos) arbeiten nicht. In den Strassen der Medina werden zum Teil die Schafe weiterverarbeitet. Geschächtet wurden die Schafe zu Hause, dort wird auch das Fell abgezogen, und das Fleisch und die Innereien weiterverarbeitet. Das hat uns während der 5+ Stunden Zugfahrt von Tangier nach Fes eine nette Einheimische erklärt. Es begann schon damit, dass die Schlange zum Kauf der Zugfahrkarte ca. eineinhalb Stunden lang war. Nachdem wir gemeinschaftlich den ersten Zug versäumt haben (zwei US-Amerikaner und das erwähnte Mädl), hatten wir genug Zeit und die Gelegenheit um die lokale Kultur erklärt zu bekommen. Wegen dem Feiertag ist ganz Marokko auf den Weg nach Hause zur Familie. Weihnachten halt. ... read more

The taxi door was held shut with Sellotape and bumper stickers. A string of brightly coloured beads hung from the rear-view mirror, bouncing frenetically in response to the many bumps and potholes that littered Fez’s side streets. As a typical student, I was desperate to ‘see the world’; find somewhere untouched by tourism and all manner of other clichés easily recognizable in an early twenty-something. For me, it became about the ‘Coca Cola Test’; it’s a relatively well known fact that, even in the most remote countries in the most obscure and rarely frequented parts of the world, it’s almost always possible to buy a Coke. Whether this is from a languid street vendor, sitting beneath a parasol beside a dusty road or served in an iced glass inside an air-conditioned, Westernized shopping palace, Coke is ... read more