Day 8
Our tour started off by going to a mosque that used to also
be a school where young men would study the Koran. We were there on Friday,
which is the holy day, and had to go the mosque first thing otherwise it would
be closed except for those who were going to worship. Our tour guide for the
day was very religious and told us that he would have to leave us at noon so
that he could go to mosque. He also informed us that after noon most of the
stores would close. Friday afternoons are the only times many of the shop
owners ever take any time off. Because of this, we had to get as much sightseeing
around the medina as possible before many of the shops closed.
Walking around the medina we realized why it was so
important to have a guide: it truly was a labyrinth. The layout of the city
kind of confused me as well, as there are two separate parts of the medina,
plus the new town. The two sections of the medina were once separated by a
river, but they have since put a road on top of it and now cars can go through
it. it is the only place within the medina you can see cars. Everywhere else
only mules and donkeys are allowed…not that any other vehicle would be able to
navigate through the narrow streets and up and down the steps. At one point in
our visit we saw an older woman atop a donkey; clearly she needed a scooter,
but only a donkey could bring her around the ancient city! |
| garbage truck in the medina |
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| the tannery. the white basins are filled with pigeon poo and lime |
The highlight of the day was the tannery, which is
world-famous for making beautiful, buttery leather in the heart of the medina.
Upon entering the stores that surround the tannery, you are given mint leaves
to hold to your nose so that you don’t have to fully take in the foul smells of
dyes and pigeon feces (they use pigeon feces and lime juice to soak the skins
in to make them soft before the dying process). The tannery consists of dozens
of tubs filled with different colored dyes, and in the back the pigeon feces
and lime juice. Even on the holy day there were men in the vats stepping on
leather and making sure they got completely soaked and dyed. It was truly
incredible to see, especially since we so often take for granted the quality
and beauty that can come of handmade things instead of the cheap and easily
accessible machine-made products that are so readily available to us.
The store we were in was filled to the brim with bags of all
sizes, wallets, traditional Moroccan slippers, belts, and seat cushions. We
spent quite a bit of time in the store talking to one of the men who worked
there we almost caused our guide to miss mosque! Luckily the leather shop did
not close and we were able to walk through the empty medina after lunch and
finish our shopping…and finally be showed to the second floor leather coat
section!
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| I love this cat |
After we finally tore ourselves away from the leather goods,
we ventured outside of the medina to see one of the king’s three palaces in
Fes. It is also one of three palaces that you can take pictures of the outside.
The other palaces you aren’t even allowed to take pictures of the walls
surrounding them! It was lucky for us, because the gate for the palace is
really beautiful…and I got to pretend that I was knocking on the king’s door
(cheesy…but whatever).
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| King? You there? |
Day 9
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| overlooking Fes |
This was our “free day” in Fes…and let me tell you, it was
not free. We did so much and it was one of my favorite days of the entire trip.
We didn’t have a guide for the day, so we ventured into the
Fes medina BY OURSELVES. Our driver wasn’t allowed to be a tour guide for us,
which meant that he couldn’t walk with us, especially in Fes, since that’s
where he is from and people would probably recognize him. We had him drop us
off in front of a gate and in we went. We were very careful to make note of any
turns we made, and did not stray too far from the larger street we initially
found ourselves on. We took a right off the street and found ourselves away
from any tourists and in knick knack shops that were full to the brims and
where the shop owners spoke no English. Just beyond, we found ourselves in a
square filled with craftsmen making various artifacts out of coper and silver. The noise
from the banging of brass against metal was insanely loud, but it was so cool
to see people hand-making huge pots.
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| Making a copper pot |
After successfully finding our way out of the medina, we
treated ourselves to a hammam. Now I wasn’t entirely sure what a hammam was.
All I knew was that it was a bath of sorts, but we were told we were going to a
nice one, so I thought I would be in a private one. But no. even though it was
a nice hammam, it was still a traditional one.
Upon entering the locker area, we were extremely confused,
as no one spoke English, and we had a series of receipts and tickets we were
supposed to hand off to various people. we finally reached the downstairs
locker room with our robes, black soap, and towels in hand. My mother and I
being uncomfortable around each other naked, we slyly took off our clothes and
slipped into our robes. It wasn’t until we entered the hammam, where we saw
naked women (except for their underwear) being scrubbed on slabs of marble by
other women, did we realized that we looked absolutely ridiculous. We took off
our robes and entered the sauna, unsure how we were to know when it was our
turn to be scrubbed. A woman eventually came in and took my mother, and then me
out to the scrubbing area. I was escorted to my own slab of marble, where I was
then doused in water by a bucket of water and began to be scrubbed by a woman
wearing a rough black glove with black soap on it. she scrubbed my skin until
little black rolls starting coming off. Fearing of slipping off the marble
slab, I was instructed (somehow) to turn over and got a full body scrub down.
My skin ached and was red. When I thought I could take no more the woman tapped
me and pointed me to a shower with shampoo, indicating that this was the point
where I washed my hair and showered off. Some women after their shower were
sitting in front of sinks where they were rinsing themselves off. Not knowing
what this was meant for, I stood around awkwardly and confused until another
woman grabbed me and brought me to another room. Luckily, this table was made
of plastic, so I was not nearly as terrified of slipping off when she covered
my entire body in soothing mud. After about 3 minutes of laying in the mud, she
came back and rinsed me off by bringing over buckets of water and pouring them
over my head. I felt like a little baby in a bathtub. The last step of the hammam
is to hang out in a pool that looked deceptively like a hot tub. It was
actually the opposite—almost ice cold water. We sat in there laughing awkwardly
with the Moroccan women who could not say a word to us or ask us what we
thought of our first hammam, except for one woman that so kindly helped my
mother and made sure that she did not walk out of the hammam halfway though
when she thought she was done.
Our day of beauty continued with a massage and a haircut (I
almost walked out with bangs), and feeling as clean as we had ever. If you’re
ever in Morocco, you MUST get a hammam. It’s quite the experience.
Day 10
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| in Volubilis |
Our last full day in Morocco, we had to leave Fes early to
fit in Volubilis, Meknes, and Rabat all into the same day. We arrived in
Volubilis around 9 AM, just in time for a cold, rainy tour of the ancient Roman
city. Only half of the city is excavated, but there are still quite a few
well-preserved mosaic floor in the ruin. Since I had been to Pompeii, Volubilis
was not too impressive, though it is always interesting for me to learn about
the Romans. I can’t believe the land they covered and the cities they built.
The fact that they had running water for fountains and sewers in their cities
is incredible to me. The facts that stuck out the most to me during our tour is
that the public toilets is where people talked about politics and society, and
that Romans ate laying down and were bulemic.
Though it was a cold and rainy day, the wildflowers peeking
out from the ruins were very beautiful. My favorite part of the city is that it
is situated just outside of Moulay Idriss, the most religiously important city
in Morocco that also looks like a camel. We were not allowed to go there
because we are not Islamic.
Our next stop was Meknes, which was once home to one of the
most terrible kings of Morocco. The city has 3 walls because the king was so
paranoid about getting overthrown. We did not spend much time in this city, but
we did see the prison that the king kept to people who were accussed of conspiring
against him. The prison is underground and now has skylights in it, but when
prisoners were kept there they were kept in complete darkness. It was kind of
weird because it was huge with high vaulted ceilings, but I can not even
imagine how miserable I would be wandering around endlessly in the dark just
waiting to starve to death. |
| man with his donkey full of flowers in front of Moulay Idriss |
Our last stop before I final riad was Rabat, which is the
capital city of Morocco. It is really clean and beautiful and right on the
coast. We enjoyed seeing the foundation for a huge mosque that was never built,
along with a marble mausoleum with beautiful Moroccan tile work inside. We even got to go up to the
King’s permanent residence…well, we couldn’t go that far, but we got to see the
palace in which all of the government is housed, much like the Moroccan version
of the White House.
My favorite part of Rabat was the kasbah (in some parts of
Morocco a Kasbah is an enclosed, walled area of the city), which was right on
the water and had a beautiful view of the Atlantic Ocean and the two beaches of
Rabat. After taking in the scenery and the beautiful day, we were ready to head
to our final Riad, which was just outside of Rabat in La Salle.
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| underground prison |
Trekking for 10 minutes through the narrow medina in La
Salle had us confused and a little worried as to if we were ever going to find
our final place of rest. Luckily, the trek was worth it, and we ended up in a 2
year-old 4 bedroom riad. The riad is owned by a British woman who came over to
morocco about 12 years ago and never left. She designed all the rooms, and made
them all different themes. It was one of my favorite riads because of the homey
décor and its placement in a medina we would have never gotten to experience
had we not stayed there. We wandered around the crowded medina for about an
hour, being the only westerners in sight. We went around dinner time, so the
markets were bustling with people buying groceries for dinner and random knick
knacks and clothing sold at the various stalls. AND WE DIDN’T GET LOST!
We returned back to the riad for one of my favorite meals of
the trip, which also happened to be entirely vegetarian (VERY un-Moroccan). It
was the perfect way to end our incredible trip….until we had to wake up at 4 in
the morning and wait for hours in the airport because our driver insisted that
we would miss our flights if we left any later. BUT, all driver hatred aside,
it was an incredible trip!
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| mosque foundation |
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| mausoleum |
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| outside of the King's palace |
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| Mom looking over the Atlantic and the beaches of Rabat |
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| so many beautiful doors in Morocco |
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| after our last dinner |
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