morocco

our little three-day trip to fes was full of interesting experiences. it was maja's first time out of europe, and it was kind of eye opening even for me to see the cultural shock she suffered..

right out of the airport, we already saw how many (most?) of the locals - especially the ones working in any commerce or tourist related activity - help each other by lying and manipulating the less informed tourists. we asked for directions to the bus stop that would take us to the city, and we were immediately told that "the only bus to the city leaves from right here". it was a 20 dirham (~2€) bus, but we knew there was another "local" bus for 4 dirham (bus 16). we asked some more people and followed the locals to the outer part of the parking lot and found the stop.

we got off at the central train station, and there we made our first bad decision... without a map or any information, we thought it would be a good idea to walk to the hostel, thinking it wouldn't be so hard or far, and we could get to see something interesting.. well, we were VERY wrong.

we asked for directions about thousand times (mostly with our very poor french, as most locals don't speak english), and nobody was very sure where we wanted to go.. we were lucky to find the place after around one hour, and actually we were never walking in circles or going the wrong direction.. we were only super confused all the time (as were the locals giving us directions).. also, bear in mind that it was around 35 degrees and we had our backpacks!

alright, so far it all seems negative, so i'm going to change the vibe.. the hostel was pretty awesome.. the staff was super friendly and attentive, the main common room was beautifully decorated and a great place to socialize, and the guests were also pretty cool.. not to mention the food, that was delicious and included in the price.. the local bread, the freshly squeezed orange juice.. and everyone's fave: the harira soup. also, it was ramadan, so they offered two breakfasts, one in the morning for the non-muslims, and another one at 7:30pm, when the muslims had their breakfast (which for us was dinner)..

breakfast @ the hostel

there's a lot of different information on ramadan, but the basics are that they can't eat, drink, have sex, wear make up and other things, from 3am (before the first prayer) until around 7:45pm (before the last prayer).. people give various reasons for why they do this, but the one i thought was interesting and made sense is that this way they know how the more unfortunate people in the world feel.. also, during ramadan they are more motivated to help those actual more unfortunate people.. they will give them food, even invite them for breakfast (the one in the evening)..

also, pretty interesting is that after the last prayer and after they eat, drink and do all they can't do during the day, the streets suddenly become alive, with people, live music, everybody walking around, people watching, "partying"... specially in the new city, as the medina (the old city) gets pretty ghostly..

back to maja's cultural shock.. after just a short walk around the medina the day we arrived, she quickly fell for literally the first scam artist that approached us.. from the first minute i had a bad feeling about it, and i warned her many times, but her naiveté and lack of experience took the best of her, and since i didn't feel like we were in danger, i let her learn the lesson... i'll have a post exclusively dedicated to the scam artists, so i'll keep the details for later.. anyway, by the end of the first day, she was pretty overwhelmed with everything, and i thought that if we just went with the plans to go sightseeing around the medina the next day, she wouldn't be able to enjoy it at all, so when she asked if we could go on an organized day trip to the middle atlas mountains with a couple of other hostel guests, i immediately accepted it..

to be honest, the trip was pretty much nothing like what the brochure photos sold. still, it was a nice day and a much needed break from that chaotic city.. actually, i'd say more of way to dip our toes and ease into the culture than a break, after all, we had only been there half a day..

first stop was the tiny lake aoua... i can barely find it on google.. it was just a body of water on the way to the ain vitel waterfalls, which was the reason we decided to take this tour, and it was exactly the one that was simply a completely different place from the one on the brochure.. oh well, we only realized it when we went back to the hostel..

lake aoua

ain vitel waterfalls. not like the pictures we had seen!

at every stop we took, immediately men and/or kids with horses or donkeys would swarm around us trying to sell a ride, and as it is usual there, no matter how many times we politely said no, they'd insist until we ignored them, then they'd move on to the next person (and then the next guy with a horse would come to us).. kinda distracting from the natural experience, but i guess it's part of the whole package!

donkey and horse rides offered at every stop

then we finally got to the highlight of the tour, the barbary macaques (monkeys) of the cèdre gouraud (or aballou akhatar) forest, a cedar forest.. they were very much used to the tourists feeding them, and while they were not as "aggressive" as the ones in the monkey forest of bali (as in they didn't jump on your head and grabbed your stuff), they were still pretty smart and fast to distract/scare and take whole bags of bread or peanuts from the people.. there was also this gigantic 900 year-old, 42-meter cedar tree.. impressive.

a 900 year old cedar tree

after that, a quick stop in azrou to walk around and have lunch, and then head back to fes, rest, dinner with the hostel people, then hang out at a shisha bar with a couchsurfer and other travelers, have a look at the beautiful activity post-fasting and finally, bed time.

the next day, our last, a little bit more immersed in the culture, we went to check the usual interesting spots around the medina.. there's a ton of material about what to see there, but most of them recommend just getting lost, and though i agree that's best, i'd suggest one to try not to venture too far from the few main streets.. not because it's dangerous, but because you might end up waking in circles for hours without seeing absolutely nothing of interest.

another tip i can give is to start the day going to the tanneries (the leather dyeing pits) early in the morning, before the streets get crowded and the smell is too strong to stand.. then you can work your way back to the bab boujloud (the main entrance gate, on the other side of the medina), stopping for shopping and checking out the other attractions, like the qarawiyyin university (it was closed when we walked by it, and later we couldn't find it again) and the medersas (a type of islamic school).

close up view of the tanneries (the white ones were having their colors changed)

tanneries and the surrounding old town

bab boujloud, susprisingly empty (you can't see the ground when it's crowded)

also, there are red, brown and green signs to indicate where some of the important sights are, but beware, they're not necessarily useful.. we followed the signs to the sbil gardens maybe for an hour all over, up and down the medina, until we were out of it and literally 5 minutes away from where we had started, and after we walked some more 10 minutes, we found it. closed!

one more thing.. like in so many cities before, thousands of stray cats. everywhere!

like i said, it was an interesting trip, with highs and lows.. generally speaking, the people are very friendly (some with bad intentions, but you learn to spot those and deal with them pretty quickly), the culture is interesting, the food is amazing and the history is outstanding. also, the prices are fairly low for pretty much everything (expect to haggle a lot though, it's part of the culture).

past this first shock, i hope to be able to visit more arabic countries with maja, i believe they have a lot to offer, and you just need to manage your expectations, and also maybe get off the beaten path. we, for example, are not big fans of crowded cities, we prefer nature, so maybe next time we'll focus on the natural aspects and then see the city more superficially..

we'll see... now is time to focus on the move to AUSTRALIA!