After a long train ride north, I finally arrived in a city called Fes. Its in a river valley and the city extends up on either side of the mountains. The hostel I stayed at was a bit "fancier" than the last one I was at but not as friendly. It felt much more institutional rather than a cozy riad. A riad is a guest house where there is a small garden or patio in the center with rooms on either side. The patio is open air, making the riad pretty chilly in the evenings if its not heated. The patio of this riad was covered over but still open air which was nice but cold. The rooms had heaters but they were only turned on when people started going to bed. Can't complain, in Marrakech we didnt have heaters. It wasnt too cold, more like when you are camping in the summer sort of chilly.
Anyways, after being in busy Marrakech I was excited meet other like-minded people who wanted to do a day trip outside the city. We hopped on a train to Meknes (about 30mins) then took a "grande taxi" to a near by town where there is a site with fantastic Roman ruins. The site is only 50% excavated as once Morocco became independent of France, the funding for the site was completely pulled. The site is called Volubilis and was the Roman capital city of northern Africa between about 25 BC and 280 AD. If marble from the site hadn't been taken to build the palaces in Meknes, it would have been the best preserved Roman site in the world. Most of the buildings were also destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It is an amazing site with many reconstructed floor mosaics depicting Roman myths and gods. It was interesting that the mosaics have been left uncovered and open to the elements but I guess that's what happens when funding for such a huge project is cut off completely and left for a government that has bigger priorities to deal with. Most of the statues and more fantastic finds are housed in the Louvre (Paris) and the museum in Rabat, Morocco.
I had no desire to see the medina or anything else in Fes so headed off to a small city called Chefchauoen farther north. It is known to travelers as the "Smurf" city because all the buildings and houses in the Medina are painted white and many shades of blue. Wikipedia doesn't tell me why though. Someone told me that the town was painted blue for a movie a long while back but I can't find anything that says that.
Chefchauoen was amazing! I had such a lovely time there and met some great people. It was really fun to wander the medina through the maze of streets and get totally lost. It was so easy to find my way out of the medina so I was never lost for long. It was such a relief to be able to walk the streets and not get grabbed by a shop owner to come into their store and look at their goods or be yelled at and followed because you didn't go into a shop. On the other hand, I did feel safe enough to wander the medina by myself for a couple hours but in that case I got more offers of marriage and cat calls than any other city I visited in Morocco. It was entertaining to hear what the men on the streets would call out... well I should say "boys" as they were all under 20. Most actual men wouldnt say anything to me, just stare... which is creepier. Anyhow, I got lots of offers to be traded for camels or Berber rugs and the boys would say things like "hello flower"... and "wow wow so beautiful"... I was trying not to laugh right in their faces when they would say things like that. It was interesting that they would never say something until you had completely walked passed them then they would say hello and start trying to talk to me.
Christmas was amazing! It was pretty neat to be in a country where there was completely no sign of Christmas on Christmas day. We all slept in late after having spent the previous evening drinking wine by the fire in the riad. An amazing harty breakfast prepared by the riad owner then off for a long hike in the mountains! (I took pictures but they are on my "big" camera and Spanish computers seem to be unable to handle my camera right now so no pictures of the hike uploaded yet.) We hiked up one of the mountains surrounding Chefchauoen then to the next town over. We wandered the town for a short while and saw a old lady transporting a shipment of straw bales from the edge of the town to her house on the other side of the town. There were no roads through the town, just narrow paths, hence why she was carrying the bales. It was pretty incredible because she had 4 bales strapped to her back then over her shoulders with thin rope. These were full sized 20kg bales of straw and she had 4 on her back! I complain about carrying my backpack which only weighs 18kg. She had to make multiple trips to get all the bales to her house. The other amazing thing was that she had 2 kids with her, one was a girl no older than 4 years old and a boy that was probably 7 or 8 years old. The girl had one full bale on her back and carried that through town while the boy just followed behind, carrying nothing! I should have taken a photo, that little girl was amazing!
After the hike we spent the rest of the day hanging out on the roof top terrace sun tanning and chatting. Dinner was at a restaurant near by then more wine by the fire.
I am back in Spain after the most wretched travel day of my entire trip so far. It involved a sketchy bus, poor attempts at hailing taxis, closed ferry ports, arguing with more taxi drivers, getting help from an incredible Moroccan man (made my day!), hurrying to catch another ferry, waiting an hour to then get on that ferry, waiting even longer on the ferry for the ferry to leave the port, huge swells and an awful ferry crossing to Spain, missing the last bus to Malaga, and wandering the streets of Algeciras to find a hotel that was both open and had a free room (being boxing day). The day was saved when I got to finally connect and skype with my family to wish them a Merry Christmas! The day was terrible at the time but now I can laugh at it...
Pictures!!
Tomorrow I am headed to Sevilla for New Years! Should be exciting... I am looking forward to the fireworks!! Then off to Portugal for a couple weeks!
Happy New Years... have a fun night ringing in the new year!!!!!
K.
Anyways, after being in busy Marrakech I was excited meet other like-minded people who wanted to do a day trip outside the city. We hopped on a train to Meknes (about 30mins) then took a "grande taxi" to a near by town where there is a site with fantastic Roman ruins. The site is only 50% excavated as once Morocco became independent of France, the funding for the site was completely pulled. The site is called Volubilis and was the Roman capital city of northern Africa between about 25 BC and 280 AD. If marble from the site hadn't been taken to build the palaces in Meknes, it would have been the best preserved Roman site in the world. Most of the buildings were also destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. It is an amazing site with many reconstructed floor mosaics depicting Roman myths and gods. It was interesting that the mosaics have been left uncovered and open to the elements but I guess that's what happens when funding for such a huge project is cut off completely and left for a government that has bigger priorities to deal with. Most of the statues and more fantastic finds are housed in the Louvre (Paris) and the museum in Rabat, Morocco.
I had no desire to see the medina or anything else in Fes so headed off to a small city called Chefchauoen farther north. It is known to travelers as the "Smurf" city because all the buildings and houses in the Medina are painted white and many shades of blue. Wikipedia doesn't tell me why though. Someone told me that the town was painted blue for a movie a long while back but I can't find anything that says that.
Chefchauoen was amazing! I had such a lovely time there and met some great people. It was really fun to wander the medina through the maze of streets and get totally lost. It was so easy to find my way out of the medina so I was never lost for long. It was such a relief to be able to walk the streets and not get grabbed by a shop owner to come into their store and look at their goods or be yelled at and followed because you didn't go into a shop. On the other hand, I did feel safe enough to wander the medina by myself for a couple hours but in that case I got more offers of marriage and cat calls than any other city I visited in Morocco. It was entertaining to hear what the men on the streets would call out... well I should say "boys" as they were all under 20. Most actual men wouldnt say anything to me, just stare... which is creepier. Anyhow, I got lots of offers to be traded for camels or Berber rugs and the boys would say things like "hello flower"... and "wow wow so beautiful"... I was trying not to laugh right in their faces when they would say things like that. It was interesting that they would never say something until you had completely walked passed them then they would say hello and start trying to talk to me.
Christmas was amazing! It was pretty neat to be in a country where there was completely no sign of Christmas on Christmas day. We all slept in late after having spent the previous evening drinking wine by the fire in the riad. An amazing harty breakfast prepared by the riad owner then off for a long hike in the mountains! (I took pictures but they are on my "big" camera and Spanish computers seem to be unable to handle my camera right now so no pictures of the hike uploaded yet.) We hiked up one of the mountains surrounding Chefchauoen then to the next town over. We wandered the town for a short while and saw a old lady transporting a shipment of straw bales from the edge of the town to her house on the other side of the town. There were no roads through the town, just narrow paths, hence why she was carrying the bales. It was pretty incredible because she had 4 bales strapped to her back then over her shoulders with thin rope. These were full sized 20kg bales of straw and she had 4 on her back! I complain about carrying my backpack which only weighs 18kg. She had to make multiple trips to get all the bales to her house. The other amazing thing was that she had 2 kids with her, one was a girl no older than 4 years old and a boy that was probably 7 or 8 years old. The girl had one full bale on her back and carried that through town while the boy just followed behind, carrying nothing! I should have taken a photo, that little girl was amazing!
After the hike we spent the rest of the day hanging out on the roof top terrace sun tanning and chatting. Dinner was at a restaurant near by then more wine by the fire.
I am back in Spain after the most wretched travel day of my entire trip so far. It involved a sketchy bus, poor attempts at hailing taxis, closed ferry ports, arguing with more taxi drivers, getting help from an incredible Moroccan man (made my day!), hurrying to catch another ferry, waiting an hour to then get on that ferry, waiting even longer on the ferry for the ferry to leave the port, huge swells and an awful ferry crossing to Spain, missing the last bus to Malaga, and wandering the streets of Algeciras to find a hotel that was both open and had a free room (being boxing day). The day was saved when I got to finally connect and skype with my family to wish them a Merry Christmas! The day was terrible at the time but now I can laugh at it...
Pictures!!
Spice market in Marrakech.
Souqs (markets) in the medina (old town) in Marrakech.
Medina gate in Fes.
Leather shoes sold in the souqs. I noticed that a large amount of Moroccans prefer to wear these shoes (more like slippers really) or actual fluffy bedroom slippers when they are outside the house. Yup.... pink, fluffy, soft, bedroom slippers out in the dirty, chicken poop, donkey pee covered streets.
There are cats EVERYWHERE in Morocco. They are kind of gross and creepy... not cute at all. On our Christmas hike we had to pass along a path just outside of the medina where there were caves full of stray cats and the path was completely covered with chicken feathers and bird parts. Reminded me of a certain someone picking "chicken parts" out of her soup at lunch time... I laughed to myself at the memory.
Medina in Chefchauoen. The man on the right is wearing a typical Moroccan coat. Its floor length, made of a thick material, and has an awsome pointy hood! They look exactly like the Ewoks from Star Wars.
Lovely water fountain on a stairway in Chefchauoen.
Blue!
Main arc leading to the main street of Volubilis.
Happy New Years... have a fun night ringing in the new year!!!!!
K.
Lots of variety & new experiences! Love the spice market too. XO Mom
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