Fes Weekend

I had my first trip away last weekend, where I went to Fes, approx. 3 hours by train from Rabat. I went with a group of volunteers, seven of us all together, which was heaps of fun. We stayed at the most beautiful hostel ever, which was about $25 AUS a night. The only drawback was the bathrooms, which were, in the fahion of Fes itself, a little medieval.

I am completely in love with Fes, it really fulfilled all my expectations of Morocco; thousands of tiny alley ways, beautiful architecture, thousands of little shops, donkeys, yummy food and drinks - especially the coffee and the fresh orange juice. No cars are allowed in the medina, but you can still get run down by donkeys or the occasional hand-pulled cart if you don't pay attention to the cries of "Balak! Balak!" - get out of the way. It's something straight out of medieval times, with very few modern add-ons - aside from the ubiquitous satellite dishes. I especially love that it has all these riads hidden behind plain doors, so that it can look like you're in a really dingy alleyway outside but when you go inside there's a stunning courtyard surrounded by beautiful balconies.

We had a guide take us around for the day, because it's just impossible to find your own way around the first time - and probably the second or third time too! We visited the tanneries, which didn't smell as bad as I thought; I managed to get out of there only having bought one handbag, but i may have to go back for an ottaman when Damien gets up here. And maybe get myself another handbag too... The cutest thing I think I've seen so far was a litter of very young kittens nesting in amongst all the bags - major 'awwww' factor. Cats are everywhere here, and seem to be looked after by everyone.

We also went to the jewellers, where I completely blew my budget, the tapestry weavers, and then to the carpet sellers. It was an incredible carpet shop, but we were all very intimidated by the hard sell tactics of the salesmen - especially when the cheapest was approximately $400 AUS, and that was something about the size of a bathmat. But it was nice sitting there drinking mint tea as they brought out all these beautiful carpets for us to look at - seriously a big tease.

The next day we went to a nearby town called Meknes. At least they called it a town, but it seemed to be about the size of Adelaide to me - and probably had a lot more people in it! We took a trip out to see some Roman ruins, which was lovely because we got to see something of the countryside. It was really lush and green, with lots of olive groves and goats and donkeys and stuff. I loved getting out of the cities for an afternoon, 'cause I can really feel the pollution here settling into my chest - I feel like I've smoked half a pack of cigarettes most days.

It was quite hard settling back to the routine in Rabat on Monday, I don't think my feet came back to earth until at least Tuesday. I'm going back to Fes this weekend for a day, as another volunteer wants to go back and get a bag she loved, and also I think I will take any chance to see more of it. We're not going to have a guide this time, so hopefully we don't get lost for too many hours; as long as we can make it out by night I'll be happy!