After a very quiet first night in Casablanca where we finally got to watch movies in English while waiting for the other S&M to arrive from their long-ass flight from Vancouver, we arrived in Fez excited and ready. Our first real introduction to Morocco was our drive to the medina of Fes el-Bali (Old Fez) from the train station. Imagine playing your favourite car racing game without the speed but just as much heart pounding excitement and no road rules. This is what the drive to the entrance of the Fez medina felt like to us. For some reason our driver liked to drive in the middle of the road and sit on the horn. Parking, if you can call it that, was yet another adventure. He seemed to park in the middle of the road with cars and bikes honking and trying to manoeuvre around him while he just grabbed his keys locked the door led us to our new home.
 |
| Our crazy stairs (thanks Sara for the pic!) |
Getting from the entrance of the medina to our place was crazy, it was a labyrinth of narrow streets leading in all directions from the main medina artery we entered on. A labyrinth in which we got lost several times over the course of the days that followed. We’ll get back to the beautiful Fez medina in a second, but let’s first tell you about the place we called home. We stayed in the heart of the medina in a three story traditional home with a rooftop patio and CRAZY small steep stairs. The stairs and the entrance to the bathroom have left lasting impressions (physical and metaphorical) on each of our heads. The owner of our ‘home’ is a British man who renovated this home and a dar (a traditional home with an internal courtyard) down the street to look as it would have originally. Both places were gorgeous and covered with customary Moroccan tiles (all made by hand) and each took two years to renovate. It was such a treat to stay here and a perfect home base from which to explore the marvellous medina.
 |
| Medina of Fes el-Bali (Old Fez) |
The Fez Medina a.k.a medina of Fes el-Bali (Old Fez) is Morocco’s first World Heritage Site and both the world’s largest living Islamic medieval city and car free urban area. The medina can be quite overwhelming and intimidating at first with its narrow winding streets (lane ways is probably a better term) with shops, souqs (markets) and kissariat (covered markets) all along selling everything you can imagine, from spices, to shoes, to goat heads and hoofs. Also hidden throughout the medina were food stands, workshops, hammans (Turkish style bathhouses), fountains, medersas (theological colleges) and mosques (350 of them). The medina is alive and full of people. As no cars can get in goods are transported either by cart or by donkey. Tourists were far and few between off the main drag and getting lost is a certainty and TONS OF FUN!! You never know where the next turn will take you. To a newcomer, the medina might look like a maze of chaos but it is actually quite well organized. All the souqs (markets) and stores were organized by type in various locations throughout the medina. The produce and meats were always by the entry gates and the metal workers or tanneries or other markets were grouped together somewhere inside the medina. While in this medina, we really felt like we stepped back 100 years … minus all the cell phones and satellite dishes.
 |
| A view of the tannery from up top |
During our stay we had the opportunity to visit the oldest tannery in the Fez medina. For those that don’t know, a tannery is where the tanning process is applied to hide to produce leather. The first thing you notice when nearing a tannery is the smell. And does it ever smell. Thankfully we were there on an off day so the smell was much milder than normal. Tourists are often offered a sprig of mint to hold up to their nose to take the edge of the smell (as we were). The smell is due to the major components used in processing the skins, which are pigeon poo and cow urine (for potassium) with ash. They also use less intrusive ingredients later for colour, such as indigo, saffron and poppy. The leather products we saw in Fez are out of this world – if you are going to Morocco and are looking for leather goods, make sure you buy them in Fez as the quality, prices and variety are unbeatable!! Fez was definitely one of the highlights of our Morocco trip. If you ever visiting Morocco, do not miss Fez.
Now on to Fez’s bigger and way more modern sibling, the city of Marrakech. From the moment we got off the train it was obvious that this city was nothing like Fez. From the McDonalds and KFC greeting us at the train station to the millions of cars and motorbikes in the medina, we realized that we had stepped into a new ball game.
Our apartment in Marrakech was nothing short of extraordinary... yet again. It was located steps from the train station and it housed two bedrooms, a large kitchen, a massive living room area and two balconies that were to die for. We had a housekeeper/breakfast cook that came by every day to make us food and clean up the apartment. The only down side to this whole place was the water pressure in the shower which can be compared to a dripping faucet. AND this was when it was on full blast. If you have ever seen the Seinfeld shower head episode you should know what we are talking about.
 |
| The food stalls at Djemaa al-Fna |
The new Marrakech resembles any French designed city with big buildings and large boulevards with the exception that the streets are lined with orange trees and are much grittier, dirtier and dustier. The old Marrakech (the medina) is nothing like the Fez medina. It is large and very very loud with lots of cars and motorbikes zipping all over the place. There are tons of shops lining the streets, however, unlike their Fez counterparts, these shops all sell the same merchandize. The attraction of the medina is the mayhem and bustle of the Djemaa al-Fna: the main square and open-air theatre. The Djemaa al-Fna square used to be the site for public executions about a thousand years ago hence its name which means “assembly of the dead”. This square comes alive at night with performers of all sorts. From snake charmers to an old man humming through a microphone with an eagle tied up next to him to the Gnaoua musicians. This makes for an unforgettable experience. There are orange stands selling freshly squeezed orange juice along the centre and outside of the square which S made sure to visit every chance she got. Around sunset there are hundreds of food stalls that set up shop in the square all under white sheets with their smells and sounds luring you in for some good Moroccan treats. Before we sign off we wanted to mention that we both had different expectations in relation to the architecture and style of Morocco. We were expecting beautiful ornate carvings everywhere but discovered upon arrival that this detail can only be found at Mosques, theological colleges and palaces. As well, we can’t forget to mention that from now on Morocco will be known to us as the cat capital of the world. There were cats everywhere, just everywhere. Including inside the Casablanca airport at the check-in counter.
 |
| The dar where we had coffee while we waited for our place to be cleaned |
 |
| S&M squared :) |
 |
| Fez Medina |
 |
| The favourite mode of transport in the Fez medina |
 |
| Some of the gorgeous architecture - look at that detail! |
 |
| The river running through the medina |
 |
| Goat heads (click on the link above for the hoofs) |
 |
| The pottery market |
No comments:
Post a Comment