Fes – Our Last Imperial City

Fes is Morocco’s second largest city, after Casablanca, with a population of about 1 million people. It was the last of four imperial cities on our guided bus tour, the others being Rabat, Marrakesh, and Meknes which we had visited earlier.

The old walled city, Fes el Bali, is believed to be the worlds largest contiguous car-free urban area. Navigating the maze of markets and small shops is not easy and we experienced this the hard way. While bargaining a price for a leather bag we fell behind our tour group and before we knew it we were lost. Some ‘friendly’ vendors told us that the Polish group went that way but both Karolina and I did not feel safe being told where to go by complete strangers. We eventually noticed our group from a distance and were able to stop running… but it was not a pleasant experience. There probably wasn’t much to be afraid of, but I’ve read enough mystery books to imagine how easy it would be to simply disappear in a place like that.

With a group, however, there was nothing to worry about. Most vendors were really happy to see tourists offering great prices and bargains just for you. Some would follow us for miles with an item in hand dropping the price with every step. The trick here seemed to be keeping the ‘walker’ interested, as if you really wanted the item, but didn’t feel comfortable with the price and simply kept on walking; if you really wanted to buy it, the distance walked was on your side. The more annoying street sellers were the ones where I specifically said “NO” in a very firm voice, and kept saying it for 20 more minutes as we walked around the medina.

When walking through the narrow streets of the market keep an eye out, and your ears wide open as well, for donkeys packed with merchandise. At times you might not even see it, but you’ll be sure to hear a loud “Bollock” from the person walking the donkey trough the market. Donkeys are the only way of making deliveries here and they’ll keep on walking no matter what’s in their way.

An incredible site to see were the leather tanneries in Fes. Our tour guide took us to place selling everything leather from a tannery we saw down below. Before entering the shop everyone was given couple of mint leafs and we were told to stuff ‘em up our noses. “Gas mask” – said the person handing out the leafs, oddly enough he also said it in Polish!

What seemed as a funny idea at first, soon was a God sent as the stench of leather was unbelievably strong throughout. Everything around us was fresh, real leather, and it all stank alike. Showing interest in any single item was a bad idea and before we knew it one of the salesmen there would have us touching it, making sure it was real, burning it with a cigarette lighter showing us it’s genuine leather, and asking us how much it was worth to us. We bargained down a purse from 50 euros to 25, but not without first being told that they would never sell that cheap, and that people working down below in the tannery are living off of what we spend there so it is important we spend as much as possible! Eventually, as we were leaving the shop, the price was set at 25. We also visited a fabric shop where the assortment of colors was unbelievable. Also impressive were the weavers that were doing it all right before our eyes. It’s hard to pick an authentic souvenir in Morocco as Chinese made stuff is hard to distinguish at times from the real deal, but when you see a person weaving your scarf it’s definitely worth the few extra bucks they’re asking for. Tuareg blue is what Karolina got.

We finished the day with a shot of espresso. I think Fes was one of the best days on our tour.

Morocco Continued – Volubilis

Volubilis is a Roman ruins archaeological site near the city of Meknes. It was situated near the westernmost border of Roman conquests and was built as an administrative center sometime in the third century BC. While the Romans evacuated most of Morocco by the end of the 3rd century AD the city of Volubilis lived on. It was first reoccupied by Berber tribes and later by conquering Arabs. Had it not been for the fact that it was demolished in the 18th century to provide building material for construction of the palaces of Moulay Ismail in the nearby Meknes, Volubilis could have been the best preserved Roman site in the world!

We exited the tour bus with a light drizzle coming on that half way into our tour turned into a thundering lightning storm. We took shelter in the only building on site with a roof, an old mill I think, but while it wasn’t raining on our heads a river of water was flowing into the building from higher ground around us. With lightning and thunder outside, and water rushing into our little ‘house’, it felt as if it was all going to end very soon! We did however survive and the tour went on.

Rabat – The Moroccan Capital

After Casablanca we drove to Rabat, Morocco’s capital city. Rabat is Morocco’s third largest city with some 650,000 people and in my opinion is much more tourist friendly than Casablanca that we saw earlier in the day.

First on the list was the Royal Palace. This was the only time we were able to take photos of guards or any uniform officer in Morocco. We were told upfront by our tour guide not to take photographs of any police or army officer without their consent, even from the safety of our tour bus as there have been instances where the bus was later stopped and the unlucky photographer was forced to format their card on the spot. Naturally we were all camera happy once we found out we could snap away this one time. This Royal Palace, as the case turned out to be with all of the palace’s we saw, was extremely large, very well guarded, and very unapproachable by tourists. I wish there was at least one we could visit, like the Buckingham Palace that is accessible to tourists while the Queen is away.

Mausoleum of Mohammed V was next. It holds the remains of the late king and his two sons; King Hassan II and Prince Abdallah. Armed servicemen again stood guard all over this very beautifully decorated building but were cool enough to pose for a photo of two. Located across a very large square is the Hassan Tower that was intended to be the largest minaret in the world at the time of its construction in 1195 AD but construction was stopped only four years later once the Sultan heading the project had died.

Kasbah des Oudaias was our last stop of the day. It had a very Greek feel to it due to blue and white colors all over the place. We walked down narrow pathways till we got to the very top of the fortification with a beautiful view of the coastline Rabat. There wasn’t much there in terms of shopping, which was a welcomed change from all the busy souvenir shops we had encountered pretty much everywhere we went. It was nice to simply have some mint tea and relax…for exactly 15 minutes before we had to move on again back to the bus…

Morocco – Santa On Vacation

It took me a few minutes to set up my mini tripod and angle the camera just right to get both of us and the Hassan II Mosque in the frame. I set the 10 second timer on the camera and ran towards Karolina to stand in for the photo. This is the photo we got:

It’s Santa!!! There is no other explanation of how this man just happened to walk into our frame, smile and all, perfectly aligned with us right when the 10 seconds ran out. He wasn’t just standing still, he was walking and smiling into our camera! This had to be Santa magic.

Casablanca – Just Another City

I must admit when Karolina first suggested Morocco as our vacation destination the only thing that came to my mind was Casablanca. Age old Hollywood marketing did it for me and the line “Here’s looking at you, kid” popped right up, for a good reason too as it was voted the 5th most memorable quote in 100 years of cinema by American Film Institute. But our tour guide was quick to point out that not one scene was ever shot in Casablanca, in fact, the entire movie was shot in a Hollywood studio with an exception of two scenes shot in Paris, France. This meant only one thing; Casablanca FAIL.

Casablanca has something else thought, one of two mosques in Morocco open to the public. And what a sight it was.

Hassan II Mosque is the largest mosque in the country and fifth largest in the world. It does however have the worlds tallest minaret at 210 meters (689 feet). Inspired by the verse of the Qur’an that states “the throne of Allah was built on water”, about half of the mosque is built over the waters of Atlantic. With room for 25,000 worshipers it sports a convertible-like roof that opens up in just a few minutes with a push of a button, same goes for lowering some of the heaviest chandeliers in the world for routine cleaning, it even has heated floors. It took all of sever years to build this mosque with it’s inauguration in 1993 and it is really breathtaking in person. It’s pricey to get it, 14 euros to walk through with a dedicated guide, but this is really the only thing Casablanca has going for it touristwise.

Making a nice round circle back to the movie, since Casablanca was not shot in Casablanca disappointed tourists like myself had nothing to compare the movie to. That is until about seven years ago an American lady came up with a brilliant idea to actually create Rick’s Cafe. We’re told it looks close to the movie on the inside, but because of tourists like us stopping by the establishment now requires reservations in advance to avoid crowds simply strolling trough with their cameras. FAIL, again.

Besides the mosque Casablanca doesn’t really have anything else going for it in my opinion. It’s a busy city with financial centers and modern ZARA type shops all around. I never found the Casablanca magic I was somehow looking for and that was also reflected in our guided tour itinerary; we were first a bit surprised that we only had half a day in Casa but now we know it was more than enough.

Last of Marrakesh – The Man Who Knew Too Much

We visited Marrakesh twice during our trip, once at the beginning of our guided tour, and then again on our way back to Agadir. The second time around we ate lunch at Dar Es-Salam, a restaurant made famous by Alfred Hitchcock’s 19556 classic “The Man Who Knew Too Much”. The movie itself was actually shot inside, as opposed to another movie with a famous title that were entirely studio filmed, but I will get to that later.

During our first stay in Marrakesh, nearly a week earlier, we had the pleasure of witnessing Moroccan pride at its finest. Morocco was playing a football (soccer) match with their eastern neighbor Algeria in the fourth round of qualifying for the CAN2012 (Coupe d’Afrique, or Africa Cup of Nations). Morocco doesn’t hold any political ties with Algeria, and their dispute over western Sahara region looks similar to the DMZ zone between North and South Korea. Everyone was wearing Moroccan bright red colors, people were riding their cars and scooter with flags, small children shouting national slogans, it was a crazy evening to be out and about the city. Morocco won the match 4-0 which was the topic of every discussion the following day.

Moroccan Adventures – Marrakesh

Karolina and I spent the last two weeks traveling through Morocco. The trip began with a week long drive trough Morocco’s major cities; Agadir, Marrakesh, Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes, and Fes, with a long 500km track back to Marrakesh and then again back to Agadir for a second full week of beach resting. With a new continent came a new culture, religion, customs and people that while overly helpful really just wanna make a buck off of a busload of tourists. There’s a lot to tell and show so my next few posts will be purely Morocco based. Hope you enjoy ‘em.

Marrakesh

Known also as the “Red City”, Marrakesh has a population of around 1 million people and if I was a betting man I’d say all of them work at the largest market in Morocco known as the Djemaa el Fna. This market recently made headlines when a bomb exploded in a busy touristy cafe about a month ago, which explained the hundreds of police officers and dozens of security checks we came upon all throughout our trip. Morocco cracked down on any extremism through a show of force and never during our trip did anything of that sort even cross my mind, safety was well advertised all around us.

Djemaa el Fna is also considered the busiest square in Africa and while I have nothing else to compare it to I am willing to believe it. From ‘dancing’ Cobra snakes, eatable snails, dry fruit stands, and the most delicious orange juice vendors in the world to souvenirs galore and any major brand knock off you can imagine, it’s all here. Prices very, and I don’t mean by article but by your nationality. Item cost is generally divided into three categories; Americans, Germans, and everyone else including poor eastern Europeans like us. But no matter where you’re from you should generally never pay more than half of whatever price is given to you initially. Bargaining is in the Moroccan blood and sometimes you’re even invited to do so with a hot cup of mint green tea. Always bargain, ALWAYS! And even when you’re absolutely sure that the vendor won’t go any lower, start walking out of the shop and see what happens… “OK, sold!”.

The market feels a little empty during the day, especially since all of the food vendors setup their tents in the evening hours. The night is when all the true c0llors of this desert market come out. Be ware when taking photos though, look out for people that intentionally ‘jump’ into your frame and then chase you down for money for their image! And when deleting the said photo doesn’t work just walk away, that usually worked for me though one Moroccan did tell us to go ‘F’ ourselves. All this over a photo I didn’t mean to take and promptly deleted showing the person that I’m not going to pay for a photo I no longer have. It’s all a scam anyway.

More on this city in another post.

Morocco Bound

After three solid months of work it is time for a little vacation

Morocco will probably be the most exotic destination I’ve ever been to. First half of the trip will consist of a guided tour of all major Moroccan cities while the second half will be spent in Agadir where we plan on purchasing smaller, local, day trips. Not knowing what my internet connection will be like for the next two weeks I hereby sign off and will try to update as soon as that is possible. Cheers everyone!