I am glad that I got to see Fes, but I’m even gladder that I’m done seeing Fes. It’s a fascinating city, but from the time I stepped off the bus I was being hustled, swindled or ripped off. Urrrgh! I know that the people there are just trying to eke out a living, but it never feels good to know you’re being taken advantage of.
Anyway, I arrived in Fes on Sunday after a scenic, but rainy, 5 hour bus ride from Chefchaouen. Apparently the luggage compartment of our bus was not weatherized, because my luggage (and everything in it) was dripping wet when I got it. Since I’m backpacking this trip I had to put on the wet backpack and leave the bus station with a soaking wet ass. As soon as I walked outside a man asked if I wanted a taxi, so I threw my bag in the back and hopped in to realize that this wasn’t a regular, metered taxi. Oops! By this point I just wanted to get to my hotel, so I paid five times more than I should have for a quick ride down the street. Hustle number one, complete.
On the ride from Chefchaouen I read through the Fes section of my guidebook to figure out where I should stay. I decided to “splurge” and go for a nice hotel in the nice part of town for a whopping $30 USD per night (my own private bathroom where I could wash some dirty clothes sounded very appealing). When I arrived at the Splendid Hotel, I asked the clerk how much the room would be per night and he told me 250 dirhams (around $28 USD). Fantastic! I will stay here for three nights then! I’m not sure if his English was just incorrect or if the dude on check-out day was lying, but it actually cost 350 dirhams (~$40 USD) per night. Still much cheaper than a decent hotel in the States, but I’m counting that as Fes swindle number two.
Sunday night I spent drying out my backpack and its contents, washing some clothes, and figuring out what I wanted to see while in Fes. Monday morning, bright and early, I woke up and took a taxi to the old medina and looked for an official guide to take me through Fes el Bali.
Fes el Bali (the oldest section of the medina) is quite interesting. It’s one of the most complete medieval cities still in use and is the largest car-free urban area in the world (this is a picture of the Fes garbage collection service – seriously!). It’s like a maze with hundreds of narrow, winding streets and dead-end alleys. Some quarter of a million people still live inside the walls of this city that seems like it hasn’t changed much at all since it was built in the 8th century.
My guide, Abdu, was really cool at first. He was funny and showed me a lot of interesting stuff, such as the camel meat stall. Look closely – yes, that is an actual camel head hanging next to me, and some raw camel meat just in front of me. Abdul tried to make me eat some, but I refused.
He also took me to the Medersa Bou Inania (a medersa is a religious school where students come to study Islam), which allows non-Muslims to enter the courtyard. I was not allowed into the actual prayer hall itself, but did get some pictures and a good glimpse at what a mosque looks like on the inside. The building is truly spectacular – all of the dark cedar wood and stucco were carved by hand and the zellij mosaic tile work was also placed by hand, one piece at a time. The intricate decorations cover every surface of the building – it takes your breath away when you walk into the space for the first time.
Next Abdu started taking me into various shops “to see how crafts are made,” including a carpet/rug factory. It was actually quite fascinating to see how the rugs are hand knotted on a loom (I even got to try it), but then they bring out the tea and snacks and expect you to sit and look at rug after rug after rug. I was very clear that I was not in the market for buying a rug, but they continued to come out…and Abdu conveniently disappeared. Sometime during the eternity that I sat in the rug shop, two English-speaking girls came in and we all started chatting. Mandy and Erin (I always seem to meet Erins when I’m traveling!) invited me to meet up with them after my tour finished, and I’m glad I did – they were really cool and fun to hang out with! Eventually Abdu finally reappeared and we set off to see more of Fes el Bali.
I told Abdu that I wanted to see the spice souk, but we ended up in some “pharmacy” that pimps natural cures along with spices. It was not what I had in mind, but I sat and listened to the shopkeeper’s sales pitch and ended up buying a few things. Here is where rip-off number three comes in (and I do realize that all of these are totally my fault). Everywhere else in the world uses the handy metric system for measurements. However, since I’m American, I’m not really sure what one gram of something should look like. I decided to buy some spices and by the time he added everything up it came out to 700 dirhams – eighty bucks for three packets of spices and some essential oil. Rip off number three, complete!
During the various “tours” of the different craft shops, I did get to see some beautiful homes and buildings that I never would have found on my own.
One of the most interesting areas, where I lingered for a long while, was the tanneries Chouwara where animal hides are spread out on rooftops to dry, vats of pigeon dung and phosphorous are used to treat the skins, and men work knee-deep in honeycombed vats of dye to color the leather. It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before!
Eventually my tour ended and we ended up (surprise!) back in the rug shop. I had agreed to meet Mandy and Erin there at 3:30, but Abdu made sure to get me there at 3 o’clock so I could “relax” (and look at more effing rugs). I successfully managed to escape without buying a rug (attempted hustle #4 – FAIL. Woo hoo! I won one!) and ran around with Mandy and Erin for the rest of the day.
There really is a lot to see in Fes, and I’m glad that I went, but after one very tiring and very expensive day, I was ready to try something different. And I found it in Sefrou!
Oh yes, one other interesting tidbit. Berbers (the native people of Morocco, prior to Arab influence) believe that bread is sacred. I learned about this in Rabat at the CCS home base, because we were not allowed to throw any bread away. If we didn't finish our bread, we had to give it to the kitchen ladies and I never was sure what they did with it. We were told that they feed it to animals or needy people. While in Fes, I came across this gigantic pile of bread....
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