I checked in at the Riad Versus and this is my room:
This morning I was up at 8:00 and headed out to get some cash and try to get a sense for things.
Those pictures above were taken in the car-accessible part of the medina, so easy enough to navigate. Once I started wandering in the alleys, however, it was a different story.
I take great pride in my ability to navigate new places, and frequently find myself giving directions to other tourists (which happened, for example, in Monaco), but, sure enough, the medina had me beat quickly.
I decided then I would join a medina walking tour I had been offered by the riad. An Australian couple were already signed up, and I could join them and split the 200 dirhams (about $30) cost.
I returned to the riad for breakfast (which was very nice, but not served until 9:30) in the courtyard.
Over breakfast I met an American tourist named Umesh who is on a two week, 18 country trip! After this trip he will have been to 95 countries, including North Korea earlier this year.
After eating Umesh and I went up to the riad's rooftop terrace to take in the morning view.
At 11:00 our tour guide Hamid came and the Australian couple and I headed out for three hours. First the bad part: mostly the tour was an overpriced shopping trip. Worse, it ended with an extremely overpriced lunch stop that in the end we simply refused to eat at. Not surprisingly this seemed to upset Hamid, and he basically ditched us, putting us in a cab to send us back. Cabs are super cheap, so this was not a big deal, but it was a poor way for the tour to end.
Despite that, I still found the tour worthwhile because a) I only have one day in Fes and there was no way I could have moved as fast and confidently through the medina without a guide; b) the shops were actually quite interesting, and I felt comfortable saying no to buying anything and simply accepting the demonstrations, samples, etc.; and c) I learned some interesting things from Hamid.
The medina itself is fascinating--apparently the largest car-free urban zone in the world. The number of streets/alleys is something like 10,000, and most of the buildings are extremely old, some as old as a thousand years.
Since there are no cars, donkeys and mules continue to be an important mode of transporting goods, and we ran into many of them laden with all sorts of things, especially leather. This one had just been unloaded.
As the focus of our tour was presumably getting Hamid commissions, we were mostly in commercial sections of the medina, but I had observed earlier that many of the alleys seem to be purely residential (which also means they may have tourist riads).
We must have gone to five or even six shops, but the highlights were:
The Berber carpet/blanket weaving factory, where we watched a man weaving a blanket on a loom (the women, who make the carpets, do not seem to actually work in this location, nor, apparently, do they use this style of loom).
The shopkeeper and his assistant served us mint tea and displayed various carpets and blankets to us. Most of the carpets and blankets are made of wool or cotton, but they also use agave cactus fibre, which I found pretty interesting. I also learned that Berber carpets are distinct from Persian/Turkish carpets, at least partially because they are significantly thinner.
The jewelry store we stopped in took much too long, but I enjoyed photographing the displays for a bit.
It was kind of nice to visit stores in this capacity, because I really did not feel bad about not buying anything in a store I had not come into on my own initiative, and the shopkeepers seemed to appreciate having their wares photographed.
The most interesting store was a traditional pharmacy.
Here their most prominent product is argon, which is unique to Morocco.
A lady sits on the floor and works with the argon by hand, breaking it open, smashing it, grinding it into oil.
We were given samples of argon in both edible and cosmetic forms, as well as all sorts of other natural remedies, skin care products, and perfumes/deodorants. I came out of there smelling quite extraordinary.
The number one reason I was keen to come to Fes instead of just Marrakesh is that I had read about the leather tannery co-op. This was also partly why I decided to do the tour, because I had lost confidence in my ability to find the tannery, and figured it would be easier to deal with the tipping/buying hassle if I had a guide. Maybe there is a way to see the tannery without entering a shop, but I assume not. In our case, the guide sent us with a shopkeeper up through several floors of leather goods to a rooftop terrace.
Along the way, an elderly gentleman handed us sprigs of mint to hold to our nose, because the tannery smells awful.
From the terrace we had an excellent view of the tannery down below.
The shopkeeper gave us a lousy explanation of what was going on, but luckily I had read a little bit about it. This website (http://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/06/the-mysterious-mima-mounds.html) gives a good overview, as well as pictures that are far better than mine! I could have stayed up there half an hour at least watching the work, but the shopkeeper was in a hurry to try to sell us stuff, so we had to go after about ten minutes. I took some video of the work as well:
Once our tour ended in the cab, I separated from the Australian couple and got a better-priced, three course lunch consisting of bread, olives, Moroccan soup with fresh lemon, a tangine of beef and vegetables, and dessert consisting of a large bunch of grapes, a banana, and two oranges! (I had to take the fruit to go).
Then I took a cab to the Gare de Fes to buy my train ticket to Casablanca for tomorrow morning. Really I probably could have done this tomorrow, but cab rides are so cheap I figured I would go today so as to have a more relaxed morning. While cheap, cabs are not as easy as I expected, because the cabbies do not seem to speak much French at all. I had to go through two or three before finally finding one who understood where I wanted to go. Granted, my French is dismal, but I figured I could be understood with "a la Gare de Fes" and "le train." Later I met a Moroccan who told me the cabbies are "from the countryside" and only speak Arabic.
Anyway, once I got there, I was extremely impressed by how clean and modern the station is. There are automatic ticket vending machines, which no one seemed to want to use other than me, as there was a queue at the counter of over a dozen people. That left me to choose between three or four identical machines and easily buy my ticket. At 116 dirhams the trip to Casablanca (about four hours) is well under $20! I guess I will find out what type of trip that buys me tomorrow.
Back in the medina, I went for a haircut and straight-razor shave, then a coffee at a cafe. These cafes are interesting to me, and I will have to remember to photograph one. I have only seen men at them, and the coffee is always served with water on the side. This is where I met the Moroccan who told me about the cabbies, because a young guy insisted on sitting with me and talking to me while I drank the coffee. Ultimately he was a tout trying to sell me a desert tour, but I rejected that easily enough and we talked about some other things, like drug use in Fes (presumably he was also going to try to sell me drugs if I expressed interest).
After that I relaxed in the riad for awhile and then headed out to get some street food for dinner. I bought a sandwich of grilled meat (very tasty, but may make me sick, I'm afraid, because it was ground beef and probably not adequately done) and a churro-like, donut-shaped pastry--all for less than $2. It began to rain unexpectedly, so I hurried back, trying to duck under awnings along the way.
No comments:
Post a Comment