Fes: Part II (Pictures to Follow)

Wednesday and Thursday were spent exploring the medina in Fes. We started off with guided tour from an official guide through our hotel. His name was Khalib. Khalib took us around the Fes medina, a medina that is very narrow and maze-like, to show us important historical buildings as well as culturally interesting markets within the medina walls. We started at a former religious school where Khalib talked to us a little about his religion as well. There are many rules for Muslims and I think the most important advice he gave to Adam and I was not to judge the Islam faith by what other Muslims do, but to always judge the religion by the example given by the prophet Mohammed. All Muslims should lead their life following the Prophets example, but of course no man or woman is as true as Mohammed. No one can love as deeply, be as true, be as humble etc.
 
The different souks, markets, were probably the most interesting. Again it is difficult going anywhere in Morocco without having goods pushed on you, especially if you are being brought there to learn a little about the industry, there is always an expectation for you to pay back the information you have gathered with a purchase – for which your guide, no matter how official, will always receive some sort of commission. We visited food markets where dates, nuts, fresh fruit (oranges, grapes, cactus fruit), butchers, live chickens and rabbits, and olive sellers lined the streets. We visited the tannery section where the smell alerts you that you are in the presence of some intensive chemical transformations. (Adam was keen on getting a closer look than the bird’s eye view we received on our official tour and was able to sneak into the tanneries on two occasions in the next day.) We visited a section of the medina where all the shops are for the wedding ceremony – in Morocco, the bride and groom sit on very large white or gold thrones during the wedding ceremony that can be rented. The clothing is all white and gold too and very beautifully woven. Even the marriage proposal is elaborate. The prospective groom collects a basket of goods – dates, jewellery, scarves, special cakes – and marches them down the street in a procession with music to the house of his desired bride to ask her for her hand in marriage. Beforehand he would have asked the father for permission to do the procession. The reason that everything is so public is so that the neighbours and the neighbourhood know the intentions of boy and girl and do not start talking badly about their relationship because of misinformed.

The jewellery in Morocco is very beautifully crafted. Mainly with silver and stonework, the designs can be very elaborate. I have purchased a couple of pendants to wear, and it is hard not to bring more home with me…that is until I have to engage in a haggling war with the shop owners. (In fact the place that I bought my two pendants is from some young guy with a big African afro who tells you up front and he even has a sign in his store that he does not negotiate on his prices. It was quite a relief to hear a price and either accept the price or walk away without discussion.

When I thought about Morocco, the first thing that came to my mind in the past were bountiful colours in the markets. I was very pleased to discover in Fes that the colours are in fact a very real part of the Berber culture. When we visited a weaving cooperative, it was beautiful to see the many dyed silks, cottons and wools that had been woven into blankets and scarves. Though we knew we would be paying a little bit more to have seen where the pieces were made, Adam and I couldn’t resist and purchased a couple pieces for ourselves.

The excitement and hustle and bustle of the Fes medina markets are definitely worth a visit. Anything you could want is on sale and you will definitely feel very close to Moroccan culture walking through the narrow streets surrounded by the sounds, smells and sights that Morocco has to offer. The only problem is that after a couple of days, not only does the novelty of the place wear off a little, but the fact that you can no longer walk down the street without the vendors remembering your last conversation and asking you if it is indeed now that you will come and ‘just look’ at their goods, or if it is now that you will talk about ‘your best price’ for something in which you had shown a faint interest. Honestly, it all gets a little tiresome. (Or as I would discover toward the end of my trip, the constant selling gets very tiresome.)

Though we were able to pay our guide and escape to a lunch of our own choosing – a full couscous lunch with appetizer olives and bread and a big bottle of water for less than five dollars! It is these prices that make-up for any downsides that we experience .

In the afternoon, we continued to shop a little more and then ventured to the train station to try and get a refund for our train tickets to Casablanca we were no longer going to use. Surprisingly, we did get an 80% refund without too many questions. However, when we tried to book our next ticket for Friday, we were told that we couldn’t because the train master was not sure of the train schedule for that day since it was the day leading up to Ramadan. Ramadan is the holy month for Muslim people where they must fast, both food and all liquids, all day long. Some interesting facts about Ramadan are that for women, if you are pregnant during Ramadan, you don’t need to fast for the sake of your health and the health of the baby, but once you give birth, you must make up the time. Also, the week women have their period during Ramadan, they don’t need to fast, but at the end of the month, they need to make up the week as well.

Not exactly understanding how the start of the religious month would affect the train schedule, we just had to accept that it did, and buy our tickets on Friday when we arrived.

In the evening, Adam got a very cheap and very well groomed haircut, while I got my hands covered in Henna.  Our dinner was on the rooftop of one of the medina buildings. We entered the first restaurant and climbed to the top before Adam saw that there was a higher rooftop across the street. Then once we had been seated on that rooftop, he spotted another higher one, but we stayed where we were….Though that restaurant was one of the first where we started to questions the cleanliness of Moroccan service.

Adam’s nightly adventures included a cute story about him getting involved with a group of children which we have since deemed the ‘ninja kids’. It started off with Adam walking down our alley and coming across some of the local kids. Being a teacher, Adam always says hello to kids and likes to interact with them in an energetic kind of way. At this time, one of the boys has picked up a friend and was about to body slam him onto the ground. Adam told them to be careful and asked if they were ninjas. Well the kids loved the ideas of being ninjas and started kicking and bouncing off the walls and even Adam. When he tried to end the interaction and get the kids to back off, it was too late, they were ninjas. So the group of children chased Adam down the alleys attacking him like ninjas as he tried to convince them the game was over.

On his way home too, he met another little boy that told him, “Sir. I know from your language you must be lost.” He didn’t want to tell the little boy that he has never really been lost.

The last day was like the others, except for our visit to the Hammam and my decision to cook dinner at home in the hopes it would be cleaner than the last places we had visited and we could try some of the flavours and foods we had walked by the days before. Eating in foreign countries there is always a risk to get sick, but I made sure to cook everything to be piping hot before consuming it, still, I think this dinner was the cause of my travellor’s gut in the coming days. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I go progressively more sick in the following days until I couldn’t keep any food down more than 15 minutes after eating. 

I guess after having no problems doing similar meals in central and south America in recent years without issue, I thought it would be fine, but even buying our food wholesale, I knew we were getting ripped off.  Lesson learned.