fes/meknes/volubilis

this weekend i ventured outside of rabat with four friends east to fes. fes is an incredibly beautiful old town (it just celebrated its 1200th anniversary) and its only about 3 hours away by train. so, meghan, lindsey, noorin, debbie, and i headed out on friday afternoon. we arrived at the fes train station at around 7:00 pm.

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an open letter to fes

dear fes,
first impressions are very important. you are a beautiful, historical city with lots to see and do. you should welcome visitors with open arms. so why, dear fes, do young men have nothing better to do on a friday night than cruise the train station? seriously, shmoes of fes, do you really think that leering at a woman under a greasy mop of dark hair is the best way to get her attention? moroccan women respond to white pointy shoes and "hello beautiful"? "You have nice big asses" is the best way to get 5 american women to come home with you? for all women everywhere, let me just say, "NO."
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shmoes aside, some guys just wont take "get the hell away from us" for an answer. i understand that a large group of tourists will always attract a certain amount of attention from scammers. we attracted one such boy. i cant imagine that he was over 18. but as we tried to find the name of our hotel to call and let them know we would be there shortly, mr. scam artist decided that we would enjoy his 'hotel' much more.

"you are welcome my seesters! i have very nice hotel for you, come with me"
"my seesters, i am speaking to you, hello? you are welcome!"

After ignoring him for a few minutes we finally say "no, we have a hotel, thank you, no."

"my seester, is very good hotel, is in lonely planet. yes, family hotel, very nice! you come with me!"

"NO! leave us alone! we have a hotel! go away!"

"my seester, you are paranoid! we love you here! you come to my hotel yes?"

At which point we walk away to find a pay phone to call our hotel. the medina, or old city, of fes has over 9,000 streets and alleys and does not allow cars (only donkeys). it is the largest medina in the world. the proprietor was to meet us at bab boujeloud, the blue gate, and walk us to the hotel. otherwise we might have very well wandered the medina all night with no clue as to where we were. so after calling we hear,

"my seesters, i also have car, very good for 5 persons, very cheap!"

every town has official taxis called petit taxis that are all one color. in rabat, taxis are blue, in fes they are red, and in meknes they are white. they all have a little sign on the top that says petit taxi. they have meters (except apparently in marrakech). do not be fooled by cars that are the right color, but nothing else. mr. scam artist had two large red vans.

"i dont want anything that kid thinks is ok!" i exclaimed, and my whole group started to cross the street.
"my seester, you are paranoid!"
"um, yeah!"

and that was the end of that.

the man from the hotel, dar bouanania (tell your friends!) met us at the beautiful blue gate and walked with us for a few minutes on the windy streets of the fes medina. we arrived at a wooden door that opened into a magical place. many riads, beautiful old homes, have been turned into hotels. we opened the door and there were gorgeous tiles on the walls, the floor, everywhere. it was so beautiful! such a sanctuary from the dirty medina.





in the morning we decided to check out the rooftop terrace. the view was incredible, just breathtaking.




as i mentioned, the medina has over 9,000 streets. actually, i think its closer to 10,000. there is no rhyme or reason to the streets; they seem to go wherever they feel like going and you can either encounter a dead end, pitch black that seems to go nowhere, spaces only a child could fit through, a beautiful mosque, a university, a fantastic crafts shop, or cheap knockoff armani shop. fes's location is at a crossroads of several berber tribes, moroccan styles, and jewish artwork. everything comes to the medina to be sold. so, how do you know if you are buying a hand made moroccan camel leather purse, or a cashmere scarf made in india? and how do you find your way out? you need a guide, who comes to you for only 250 dirhams for the entire day (roughly $25 split by your group) and gets a commission from every store where you buy something. our guide, amina, was a charming woman who was recommended to us from some previous volunteers. she asked us what we wanted to see, and off we go.




the tour was a combination of shopping and sight seeing. we started at the blue gate, moved on to a madrasa, a mosque, lots of history about fes, and then walked through the residential area. this is where you might find yourself on a tiny road to nowhere. thank god for amina. then we arrived at the carpet shop, which is at the end of a random alleyway. it is an old riad which was turned into a cooperative, so families and carpet makers from all over morocco send their wares there to be sold. we get a tour of the shop and the looms and some information about carpets and the different kinds. there are moroccan, berber, and jewish carpets, each with distinctive styles. the carpets of fes usually feature "fes blue." a charming man gives us all of this information while we sip mint tea and his assistants roll out different carpets onto the floor as examples. then the sales pitch begins.




"this is art, if you see anything that touches your heart you should buy! for when in your life will you have this opportunity again!"



my friends meghan and debbie begin considering different rugs, which was great fun. at one point mr. charming rug salesman comes up to me and says, "excuse me for asking, but how old are you?" i inform him that i am 26 years old.

"i have very nice son, you would make wonderful wife for him! i promise you 100 camels, a week long wedding, you will live in the finest house!"

i inform him, no, i'm sorry, i have a boyfriend we've been together for three years. really, i'm not available.

"well," he says, "i wish you long and happy life with him! i hope he is everything you want him to be! but if he is not, you come back here, i promise you will live like a princess!" and darn, it was always my dream to be married to a 21 year old and live in fes with all the carpets i could ever want!

next we went to the famous tanneries and were all hit on by our exuberant guide, who pretended he couldnt speak english for the first 5 minutes, and then broke into perfectly accented american english. he could also do british, australian, and south african.




the next stop was the berber apothecary who gave us a demonstration of all kinds of delicious smells and herbal remedies for everything that ails you. the moroccan black seeds actually worked and i bought some. i also bought, a small bag of 45 spices called ras el hanout (top of the shop) for women who cant cook. (on a side note, i mentioned to my class this morning that i cant cook, and they told me that i had to cook to get a good husband. but honestly, i seem to be getting plenty of marriage proposals anyway, so i'm not to worried.)

and the last shop was the cloth weavers. honestly, it wasnt the best cloth shop, but i did recieve another marriage proposal. "if you marry me, you can have an entire shop of scarves!" tempting, but no camels...

my friend lindsey received the best marriage proposal of the day.
"you and me should get married. we would move to the desert. we would have two camels, you, me, and allah!"
they do know how to make a girl go weak at the knees.

we took a briaf tour of the carpenters and joiners quarter and then were ready to fall down after a day of walking the cobblestone streets, so we bid farewell to amina back at the blue gate, went back to the hotel to pick up our bags, and caught our train for meknes. first class was sold out so we had to take second class, which is only slightly cheaper and has no assigned seating. which means screw granny and the kids on their way home from the holiday, step on people and shove them in the face to get on that damn train. we americans are not comfortable with shoving granny, seeing as how she cant really get around all that fast and has been separated from her son by a swarm of people, which means we all get shoved extra hard when we *gasp* wait to let her climb onto the train.

despite that we found seats without a problem and spent a charming hour chatting in french with two sisters who were traveling with their mother to meknes for the weekend. their mother loved lindsey's blond hair and said she had a son who would be perfect for her to marry. for good measure, she said there was another son for me and a cousin for noorin. by the end of the ride we were all basically family and one of the women, who is studying french literature at the university in fes, gave me her phone number and told me to call her if i am ever in fes again.

our hotel in meknes, the majestic, was fine. it is in the new town, a block away from the train station (which we didnt know when we got into our taxis, but realized when they drove us around the block and stopped). it is not expensive. the staff is very very nice. that was the best thing about the hotel. but really, it wasnt anything special, like a gorgeous tiled converted riad.

we decided to head to volubilis in the morning, despite the rain, which was a good idea on many levels. it is a half hour drive from meknes and everyone gets a grand taxi. these are used for long hauls and are pretty cheap. we were overcharged, given what some of the other volunteers were charged, but it was 400 dirhams for a driver to take us all out and then wait for two hours while we walk around, and then drive us back with a few scenic stops. about $10 per person. and we were overcharged. i love morocco.

volubilis is an archaeological site with roman ruins. i dont know what people generally think about this place, but i though it was pure magic. that was a combination of a cool archaeological site, really fun, go-with-the-flow people to see it with, and unpredictably incredible weather.

when we arrived, it was drizzling a little bit. we all did a little bit of slip n' slide in the mud and i resolved that it would be a perfect day if i could manage to not fall on my ass. there are amazingly preserved mosaics and lots of pillars and stones. it was really beautiful and fun to walk around. then came the torrential downpour. we huddled under meghan's umbrella up against an ancient stone wall as the wind blew the rain right into us and soaked us all completely. at which point we decided we were finished with volubilis. all of a sudden we looked up and saw slashes of blue in the dark sky. soon the clouds swept up the mountain and the sun came out and the entire world sparkled and shone. we could see another storm coming through the valley and the previous storm on top of the mountain, but we were in an oasis of sunlight in the middle of brilliant green and ancient stone.









some time later when we finally left, soaked and happy, our driver took us up the mountain for a panoramic view of moulay idriss, a tiny town on the hillside. then we headed back to meknes for lunch.

as i may have mentioned, women in morocco dont really go out to eat or to sit in cafes. that makes finding a lunch spot, or a cafe to duck in from a storm quite difficult, since all cafes are filled with men. they tend to stare, make comments, or assume you're a prostitute if you frequent cafes. but we found a place to eat finally, after which we realized it was pouring and we had hours until our train. during a brief break from the rain, we spotted a patiserie called la tulipe. now there's a place that women can frequent, we thought, and headed in. well, we were wrong, but we wanted hot chocolate and tea so we just sat down and hung out for a few hours. a few women ended up coming in, but they were all with men. still, we could have done worse.

finally, soaked and loaded down with bags, we got on our first class train and headed homeward. it was a fantastic weekend and a great first trip, proving my friend neaka right. this place is crazy, totally and completely insane. and awesome, so much fun, and always an adventure.