The Crazy Medina

I guess it depends on who you ask, but Steve and I preferred Fes over Marrakech. The vendors weren’t as pushy and it all seemed a little less chaotic. The medina in Fes was a maze of over 9000 streets. We read that its the largest urban area in the World where cars aren’t permitted. In place of cars there are donkeys transporting goods and hauling supplies. 

Steve’s head cold got pretty nasty and after a couple hours of exploring, he would have to rest.  In the medina streets there are color-coded signs marking various routes to different sites. One morning we decided to follow a route through the Medina that would take us to some gardens. We began to follow the signs, but there weren’t signs at every intersection so following the route became quite tricky. We had to back track numerous times and follow different paths, sometimes we would stumble upon the next sign and sometimes we would end up at signs we had already passed. After nearly two hours of navigating the Medina we made it to the Garden- which was closed for restoration! But what really got us laughing was the fact that these gardens were maybe a ten minute stroll from our hotel!! We spent all that time in the medina to end up almost back where we started...

There are several tanneries located in the Medina. We couldn’t find them, so when we heard a tour guide say “this way to the tannery” to his two tourists, we jumped on board and joined them. We weaved our way through the narrow streets and finally started ascending stairs in a building. We were each handed a handful of mint leaves to hold over our noses because the stench of the tannery can be repulsive. We entered a room stuffed full of leather purses. The next room was full of shoes. We emerged onto a balcony overlooking the tannery. The smell was present but it wasn’t too hot out so it wasn’t all that bad. Men were working away in the pits below us. Working in the tannery is considered the most difficult job in Fes. Each man is responsible for his hides for the entire tanning process. He chooses the hide, cleans it, dyes it, cuts it, stretches it, dries it...everything! Men working here are taught by their fathers. There are pits for preparing the hides (getting the fat and fur off)- the magic formula is pigeon poop and lime. Then there are pits for dying the leather. All the dyes are naturally derived from bark, poppies, indigo, etc. After some time here we went to an upstairs room packed full of leather jackets. I saw a stellar white jacket and had to try it on, the worker informed me it was a “Prada knockoff”...I wasn’t sure what kind of leather it was- they use camel, goat, sheep, and cow...it didn’t feel like cow. Could I walk around wearing camel? I don’t know, I guess I will never know...I left without the white jacket. Steve needed to rest so we tipped the tour guide and found our way (with some difficulty) back to the hotel. 

On one medina outing, Steve helped me pick out a little moroccan outfit and a camel for our Christmas tree...

I can’t pinpoint it, but at some point our bodies started rejecting Moroccan food. By the last day we couldn’t stand the thought of eating any more tajine...or any moroccan spices...and I was craving plain black tea with milk. We were getting a little “rumbly in the tumbly” and having the toilet nearby was necessary for both mental and physical security. I searched around for some ginger ale- what was I thinking??!! You can’t just go somewhere and get ginger ale! This is not a Safeway or 7-11! No pepto or apple juice either! We were hungry but feeling blah...We knew there was a Mcdonalds in Fes...we played with the idea of eating there. But it was our last night in Fes- our last meal in Morocco! How could we? But we did. And it was sooooo good! So, I write this with a little bit of shame...our first and last meals in Morocco were at McDonalds. As we were walking back to the Medina we passed the Palace walls and gates. I saw someone I knew! No way!!! It was the Chileans & Americans from the Sahara tour! We were all surprised to see each other again, and coincidently they were staying at our hotel! And coincidently they were not feeling too well either! They couldn’t eat anymore tajine’s! We gave them directions to McDonalds and they went there- the next morning they told us they planned to eat every meal at McDonalds until they left Morocco.

We boarded a train in Fes that would take us back to Tanger. We considerded spending a night in Tanger but read too many freaky stories about the dangers there. This meant we would do a 5 hour train ride and then recross the Mediterranean by ferry in one day. Just the thought of getting on the ferry again made me nervous. We decided not to eat anything but a piece of bread with marmalade for breakfast. We got on the train- which was filthy. Steve picked our seats- but then we noticed blood on them- maybe it was a fight, maybe a bleeding nose, but enough blood to not ignore (did you know hepatitis B remains active in dry blood for a week?!). We backed up a few aisles and found another seat. Not understanding anything about the train ride, we were lucky we only had to switch trains once and found a girl also going to Tanger. At the ferry terminal we were much more confident in buying tickets- while in line to buy tickets a dude came and tried to get us out of line to buy tickets somewhere else. Steve kept saying “no, this guy can help us”...We were on the 5pm ferry and were STARVING!! Nothing to eat all day...Steve went to the overpriced cafe and bought us chocolate cupcakes and doughnuts! I didn’t want to eat it for fear of getting sick again...but I couldn’t starve any longer! It was delicious but I was worried...The ferry ride turned out to be much smoother and shorter! It lasted 90 minutes, only hit a couple waves, and we kept distracted by playing chess. Steve is getting much better at chess - he has been playing against the computer and I’m sure he is memorizing the computers strategies! We landed in Algeciras- and it didn’t seem as bad as I remembered! We were very happy and excited to be back in Spain!