A long catch-up

Sorry for the long delay between posts. There was definitely no wi-fi to be found in Fez, and our time in internet cafes was short as the Arabic keyboard was very hard to navigate.

Well, to catch you up on my journey thus far:

We saw Charlotte off at the coach station, then killed some time before meeting with Sophie, a friend of ours that we met in Budapest last summer. We had dinner outside at a restaurant in Covent Garden, then a beer in a pub across the way. It was great to see her again, she is a lovely person! Then Rob and I were off to the airport to spend the night, as our flight for Morocco left very early in the morning. After hunkering down for the night, we realized we had gone to the wrong airport, and after a speedy taxi ride and some running, we just barely made our flight. Phew!

Fez. An amazing city! We stayed in the medina (old town), and only saw the newer areas of the city on the way in and out again. On our first day we spent 4 hours with a guide who took us through the 14 square km maze of narrow streets. We were able to walk into factories (small rooms with a few people and some Moroccan wine) where we saw craftsmen making leather, lamps, teapots, carpets, etc. All were made by hand with intricate detailing.

The streets themselves are something else. Narrow enough that you constantly have to dodge carts, donkeys and people going the other way. Camel heads, donkey legs, and entire skinned carcasses hang in front of the butcher shops, all for sale. Chickens march in front of cafes, seeming to own them. Dozens of very healthy looking stray cats wander along the sides, looking for a piece of dropped meat or other treat. A rare motorbike will zoom through, the only motorized vehicle that can navigate the narrow streets and sharp turns. It was all very overwhelming to say the least.

The food was amazing. We ate very well, and very inexpensively. Frisbee-sized discs of delicious fresh bread could be bought for 1 Dirham (about 15 cents), perfect for filling with grilled meat, dipping in a lentil soup, or scooping up the leftover couscous. Rob discovered a wonderful “spicy sauce”, which had amazing flavour and we then requested for everything. I bought some spices, and will try to replicate it at home. And then there is Moroccan tea. Green tea with sugar is poured in a glass filled with fresh mint leaves. Yum!!! We had many glasses of that.

We also made friends with some of the locals. Our guide from the first day was our age, and we ran into him a few other times and shared stories and information. Hamadan, another guy about our age worked at the restaurant we ate our first meal at. We ended up going to a shisha bar with him and his friends, run buy a reggae-loving Berber from the Sahara. By the time we were leaving, we couldn’t walk down the path from our riad to the main gate without chatting or shaking hands with a local we had befriended. What an amazing feeling!

Despite all that, we decided to leave Morocco one day early. It seemed there wasn’t much else to see in Fez, and yet not enough time to explore a whole new city. We took a 5 hour bus from Fez to Tangier, the port from where we could head to Spain. The ride was wonderful – lovely scenery and glimpses into life in the villages of Morocco. There were several places we stopped at that we were tempted to just stay in. I think Rob and I both would love to come back and explore this country some more.

We're in Spain now. We spent a night in Tarifa (the Spanish port), then made our way to Granada. We got in last night, stayed in a random pension we came across, moving to Oasis hostel (on EC's suggestion) today. Granada is great so far... but I'll save it for another blog!


**** I had a million pictures uploading, but the wi-fi network is pretty spotty, so it timed out. Hopefully more later!