12 Flights 7 Weeks: Fez

Little did I know Azrou was my last happy days in Morocco. The evidence of this is the fact that my 6 days in Fez were documented in barely 100 photos.... so that means this post is all talk and a few pictures.

When I caught the bus to Fez I obviously had a spare seat next to me. This guy sits right down and starts a conversation. It went something like this…

Him: Hi my names –whatever-. I’m 26. How old are you?

Me: 24.

Him: Are you married?

Me: no.

Him: Can I have your phone number so I can get to know you?

Me: no

Him: why not? We could get married.

Me: I have a boyfriend.

Him: Is he in Fez?

Me: no.

Him: So you’re traveling alone.

Me: At the moment, obviously.

Him: That’s brave. Can I have your number to talk about that?

Me: no.

I put my headphones on about then because I wasn’t in the mood. Thank god he got off about a half hour into the trip. It wasn’t the first time a random guy had asked for my number. I’d given out a few fake ones. Any how the trip doubled in time because we stopped a few times at fruit stands and bathroom stops and halfway through the trip I was sure I was getting car sick because I was feeling like shit.

The closer I got to Fez the more I was becoming convinced that I was running a temperature. When I got to Fez I felt like total shit. I had booked a riad the night before and I had picked it because I knew I was going to get utterly lost and it looked easy. So off I hiked sweating and shivering. I got lost. Some dude took me to the riad…. They were all like um we didn’t get your reservation… they showed me to a room anyway. I just wanted to curl up and sleep. I checked my email. And I was totally at the wrong place it hade been the other riad I was looking at. So I was all embarrassed and looking sick and I was like so sorry for the trouble I actually booked in somewhere else. I should be able to find it. One of the guys working there used to work at the place I had booked into so he nicely walked me over.

I got there and I was feeling like death. I filled out the papers and stuff and they brought me tea and were chatting with me and I did my best to be nice. But finally I was like please I just want to sleep. So they took me to my room…. On the top floor. The bright side was that I had the room to myself for the first night.

I promptly curled up in the blankets and shivered a bit before texting my mum. She told me to shower. So I dragged myself from bed and showered. Then I skyped my mum for a bit. She told me to stop drinking tap water… well I hadn’t had a problem the whole time. But it made sense. So after hanging up I went downstairs to ask where I could get water. One of the guys that worked there ran out and got it for me, he didn’t even charge me extra for going to get it. Which was actually really nice because I was feeling like shit. Then I had to climb all the way back to the top floor. It was a really nice riad…

I just wasn’t in the mood to anything but sleep. I woke up that night with my first bout of vomiting. It sucked. I got almost no sleep because I hardly left the bathroom. So I was relatively on time for breakfast.

I had tea and orange juice and toast and yogurt. It 5 minutes to walk up to my room and that seemed to be the best incubation time before vomiting up breakfast. That second day in Fez was horrible and I don’t remember much after breakfast. I had a really high temperature and I slept and messaged friends on facebook and was sick in the bathroom.

I do remember my roommates coming in at one point while I was sort of sleeping but mostly just fevered. Although I wasn’t in the mood for chatting so I just kept sleepingish. I saw them at breakfast the next morning and apologized for being so antisocial. They understood, because I still looked like death. But I had breakfast. And repeated yesterdays routine. So I slept and was sick all day and still had a fever. It sucked. The most I saw of Fez was the view from the roof of the riad.

That’s a super famous attraction over there, it’s the Roman Tombs. I only saw them from afar because you had to take a taxi there or walk through a sketchy part of town. I was too sick to consider the trip anyway.

Then it was my last day in my riad and I was supposed to meet up with my couchsurfing host. My fever had broken over night and I was feeling half as sick as I was the day before. So I was like yeah I can pull it together and do this! I packed up my stuff, pulled it together, and headed over to the bus station to wait for my host.

I waited two hours. Without cell service! Let me give you a tiny rant on cell service in Morocco. Fez is a pretty big city. 0 cell reception. I had 0 reception in Marrakesh as well. oddly enough I had grand reception in Merzouga and in the desert! Like what the hell! And then a smidgen in Azrou, which was perfect because I needed it when I got off the bus. So I was peeved and sick in the bus station. I’d asked to borrow this guys phone at a sandwich shop. He was really nice and let me use it twice.

Finally my host and his friend show up. We had to go pick up another girl who was couch surfing with him and had been in the city. She needed to grab her stuff and go to the airport so we went. I sat in the car feeling very sick! Turns out she had lost her laptop or it was stolen from the place she was staying (which was my host’s friend’s place and where I’d be staying). So it was a long drama filled night and I was tired and sick and was like just drop me off at a hostel please. I want to sleep. My host was like no I don’t want a bad review just stay the night and we’ll see the city tomorrow.

It was like 2am by the time I spelt that night. I really didn’t want to stay because the bathroom was disgusting and dirty and I was sick and still vomiting. I had my own room… but the door was broken so I couldn’t open it from the inside. So I had to quell my vomiting and general sickness all night till it was morning and I was like can someone help me! and one guy opens the door and he’s like sorry we should have told you the door is broken. I’m like thanks for the heads up. Like what the fuck!?

Then I was like fuck this take me to city centre I want a riad to waste my last 2 days in Fez. So I did just that after giving him a piece of my mind. And to date that is my worst couchsurfing experience. But I got to another riad and thank god they had room! And a laundry service! Because I was in desperate need of clean clothes!

Since it was around 11am when I got there so I had to wait for them to finish cleaning the dorms and I was talking to a guy who was also waiting for a bed. He was really nice and super well travelled so we hit it off in the chatting department. He offered to walk around the city with me after we dumped our stuff in the dorm. But I was like I’ll head out later, I really want to nap and give into my sickness a little longer.

After a four hour nap I felt much better. I decided I could venture away from a bathroom safely so I went out into the city! It was my fourth day in Fez and my first day seeing the sites!

Now word of advice about streets and navigating the sites in Morocco… in the old Medinas street signs are like chupacabras… they’re mythical things that some people have claimed to have seen. Because surely they must exists because riad’s give you a street address but I never saw one posted! And the map I got from my riad aka the only sort of maps you get are these ghetto photo copied ones with half of everything missing. I was like okay I’m going to see the tanneries. And the university because they look easy to get too…

Nope. Nope. And Nope!

The only reason I found the tanneries was because I found a large group of Asian tourists going in the general direction I wanted to go… so I followed along. Turned out to be a great move because I made it. When I asked how to get in this old guy was like here it’s crowded going up the front way. I followed him up the back stairs. The best and maybe only place to see the pits is on the balcony of a leather store. I wasn’t hassled to buy anything but I had heard that was a problem. It was worth the exertion to get there!

The white pits are full of pigeon poop… apparently it’s a good dying agent.

It reeked though! I thought I was going to vomit on the floor of the store. So I found a bench and sat down to breath deeply through my mouth. Once I was feeling up to standing I took a few more pictures and decided it was time to back to my riad because I was feeling shitty again… literally haha.

I would like to believe that I had developed a stellar sense of direction in Morocco so finding my way back to the riad that first day was so damn easy! I grabbed water and some ramen on my way. I had a nap then when my new buddy came in that evening we chatted then we had dinner on the roof. I had my ramen and he had oatmeal and lectured me on how I should eat better if I wanted to feel better. I understood that but I knew the possibility of not keeping it down was very good. He just laughed. We talked a lot he was telling me about his travels and his sort of girlfriend who lives in Vietnam. And it just seemed like he needed someone to talk too. So I listened.

Then it was off to bed and up earlyish. We had a new dormmate, a girl on her own for two days before she met her friends in Paris. She was starting to feel sick, it sounded just like what I was just getting over. We talked for a while before she went off to do something or other and I was like okay I need to find that university! It’s the oldest in Morocco and I had thought I’d planned my route the day before to walk right past it so I was bummed that I had missed it.

When I got close and asked a guy (in French thank you!) where it was he smiles and points at the doors behind me. and then he told me that they’re only opened a few hours a day and ad a female I couldn’t go in and that I’d be lucky to get a glimpse inside as it was. I thanked him and took a few more pictures of the doors before walking on. Seriously the best attraction in Fez and I couldn’t go in!

I walked on. I took tons of pictures…

And got spectacularly lost! I was starting to feel sick as fuck again and I just wanted to get to my hostel. And this one guy was following me trying to get me to let him show me around and he was doing a weird follow me from behind, walk at my side then disappear and then appear ahead of me. It was freaking me out. So I stopped to ask some police officers for directions… in French. English was not as common as in Marrakesh or Merzouga. But I can proudly say my French got me through!

It was an accident that I stumbled upon the gate that lead out of the medina to my riad. My half hour outing turned into a 2 hour getting lost and stalked clown operation. So a nap and bathroom break were called for when I got back to my riad.

My last day in Fez was really fucking hot. I checked out on time and stored my luggage I was considering a walk about the medina when I found a guy from Connecticut and we were chatting and I was like I’ve been craving a milkshake since I got sick. And I’m finally feeling well enough to get one but I don’t know where to get one. And he’s like there’s a McDonald’s not to far. Let’s take a taxi I’ll pay because now I really want one! So off we went on a McDonald’s quest!

McDonald’s is crazy efficient there. they have people with tablets taking your order and printing your receipt so when you get to the counter all you do is pay and get your food. It was nice.

See how cool I am! How American! I kept it down for a whole 4 hours! I was totally on the road to recovery!

That evening it was off to the airport! And I’d be meeting with my friend Kelly the next morning at London Stansted airport! But first I had the funniest airport experience ever!

So you get dropped off by taxi right in front of the entrance. There were 5 of us in the cab so it legitimately cost $0.75 to get to the airport. I go inside and you have to fill out a departure card with your visa number and all that. You get the visa number stamped with your entrance stamp. Then I went to security and I still had half of my two liter bottle of water so I took a few more drink then went to go chuck it and the security guard is like that are you doing? I was all scared and told him I was throwing it away. He’s like well you can take it with you! So it went through the scanner with everything else. I didn’t take out my liquids or electronics and only had to take off my boots because they have steel toes. And then I was like I hope I can find my gate… how could I miss it? There were 2 flights out that night about 2 hours apart and there were only 6 gates!

A German girl comes over to me at one point and it like do you know what gate the flight to London leaves from. And I wasn’t trying to be snarky but I was like there are 6 gates and we can see them all. We can hardly miss the flight. It was a true statement. They didn’t even post that we were boarding from gate 3 but as soon as the person was behind the desk there it was evident that gate 3 was my gate!

And it was off to London! And the promise of better water and food and my bff!!

Cheers,

12 Flights 7 Weeks: Marrakech

I’ll preface my whole Morocco adventure with the fact that I choose it as a destination for a few reasons.

1- my ticket was £19 there and 18 back

2- Morocco would mean I’d be setting foot on a new continent!

3- My favourite book series (Daughter of Smoke and Bone) takes place in Marrakesh and the Atlas mountains and a Kasbah…. I wanted to see that… so I did!

Now I’d been doing some research on Morocco and what do and see and what cities to stop in because all I’d done was book my flight into Marrakesh and out of Fez and not much in between. I’d read a bit about the culture so I was mentally preparing myself for the stares besides I have blue hair, that’s always a stare factor. As you remember in my one post when I talked about what a hard time I had, my mental preparation just wasn’t enough. But I’ll do my best not to whine too much in this post since I whined back there. 

I had decided to couchsurf for the three days I was there. I did an extra intensive selection process for my hosts in Morocco because I couchsurfed Marrakesh, Azrou and attempted Fez. So I had a host in Marrakesh, Nait. And he was meeting me at the airport. I told him to look for the girl with blue hair as I figured I would be the only one with such a do… I was if you were interested.

So I caught my early flight down to Marrakesh. I exchanged money. And went out to wait for Nait. We met up easy peasy and off toward his house we went. First idea was to catch a taxi. Seemed smart to me. We couldn’t get one so we caught a bus to city centre then a taxi from there out to his house because despite what couchsurfing website said he wasn’t very close to the city…

Yes that blue dot was me. It was a 15 minute taxi ride and granted the taxi was super cheap $2 for the both of us one way. But god those taxi rides took years from my life. First off Taxi’s there aren’t the same as say a New York taxi. They jam you in. Nait and I usually sat in the front passenger seat together then there would be 3 or 4 people in the back seat! And they were crazy drivers. Between the other cars, pedestrians, tuk tuk, motor bikes and animals we were always swerving and accelerating and stopping and it was a bit nail biting. And I was honestly a little sleep deprived and nervous and having a little case of anxiety when suddenly on the radio comes none other the Taylor Swift. And the song Shake It Off will forever have a deep and profound meaning to me thanks to the taxi ride in Marrakesh.

We get to Nait’s place and it was an apartment complex legit in the middle of the desert…..

and he lived up on the third floor. Before hand I had known I would be staying with him and his family but it was still a bit of a shock. It was a 1 bedroom apartment with a main room, bedroom and bathroom. He had two little girls and his mum lived in with them. So there were 6 of us in this tiny ass apartment. And the first thing we do is have lunch.  We washed our hands and they prayed before and we all sit do to eat together. Lunch was served in the typical everyone eats from the same bowl and drinks from the same cup fashion. Thank goodness Nait’s girls were 5 and 3 because they ate messier then I did. But the mess wasn’t what shocked me the most. They set down the dish and I was like okay I recognize the lentils and bread… but there was something in the middle of the lentils that I had never seen. I was in Morocco less then 2 hours and I was eating lamb stomach and drinking mint tea! It was crazy and fantastic and epic. And surprisingly lamb stomach tasted good.

Nait had some business to do so I sat in the café by his house and let my parents know of my fun so far in Morocco. And the fact that there was a rather frustrating language barrier. On couchsurfing there’s an option where you can say there’s the possibility of a language barrier and there were a number of hosts that I politely turned down for this very reason. Turns out Nait was really handy with google translate and I had thought his English wouldn’t be a problem. My smattering of French that I remembered from living in Nancy helped on this trip but Nait didn’t speak French. It was really tough.

After work Nait and I went into Marrakesh city centre! And fuck was it overwhelming. I knew it would be. I’ve seen pictures of ‎Jemaa el-Fnaa (the main square) so I was expecting a lot of people. Nait took us through the souks (the markets)

and into Jemaa el-Fnaa where I had orange juice.

Seriously I don’t think I’ll ever get over how good the juice is in Morocco or how cheap the fruit for sale is. I also ate snails…

They were actually good. Whatever spice they had on them was spicy and salty and good. I also tried berber fruit…

It’s the fruit you see on cactuses. It had big seeds in it but it was good. Nait was actually really nice and took tons of pictures of me so that was cool because he doesn’t have a camera and all he asked was that he could copy the photos onto his computer before I left. I have an abundance of me photos!!

Koutoubia Mosque is the largest mosque in the city. It was completed under the reign of the Almohad Caliph Yaqub al-Mansur (1184-1199), and has inspired other buildings such as the Giralda of Seville (i've seen that! hehe) and the Hassan Tower of Rabat.The minaret was designed to prevent a person at the top of the tower from viewing activity within the king's harems. The Umayyad-style minaret is constructed from sandstone and stands 77 metres (253 ft) high. It was originally covered with Marrakshi pink plaster, but in the 1990s experts opted to remove the plaster to expose the original stone work. 

And then it was dark and time to head home for the night.

I was sleeping in the main room with the kids and grandma. We slept on pallets on the floor. Essentially it was a very authentic slice of Moroccan life. A wee bit uncomfortable in the fact that it was out of my comfort zone but I did my best to shake that off the next day.

If you read my Morocco post I did while on the road you’ll know that I had a very tough first day and felt so out of my depth in all the stares and things men were saying to me on the street. After a very whiny message to my mum and a kick in the ass from her I was ready to deal with the next day. She reminded me of why I had chosen to go to Marrakesh. So I resolved to walk around the city the next day pretending to be Karou because she’s a hardcore character and strong in the mental department. So yes at 24 years old I walked around pretending to be a fictional character to cope with my surroundings. It did wonders for my mood though.

I woke up to on of his daughters playing with my hair. It was a big entertainer to them. That and American money. I gave them each a dollar and they legitimately went insane.

That second day I spent the time with the family while Nait worked. We went to the park with the girls. It was a little awkward since they spoke no English and very little French.

We had lunch and it was over lunch that I had my first run in with conversations about being single. Turns out Nait’s wife is my age 24. Now the conversation went close to this…

Nait: How old are you?

Me: 24

Nait: Are you married?

Me: No. I’m single.

Nait: What’s wrong with you that you’re not married?

Me: Nothing. I was going to school and I like traveling. What’s the typical age a girl gets married here.

Nait: 18. What’s the typical age in America?

I then explained that it just depended on people’s circumstances. And he was floored by the fact that I wasn’t looking to get married any time soon. I’ve got some great stories for later about what men had to say about me being single at 24. After that very awkward conversation we went into the city centre again because I wanted to do a bit of shopping. We stopped for an avocado juice. To be honest it was just avocado with sugar and milk but damn was it good!

I hunted out postcards and Nait took me to his friend’s apothecary.

I learned about traditional medicine in Morocco. How to tell if Aragon oil is pure. How to make mint tea.

Then I got to pretend to be looking for food for my chimaera!

And then we went to his friend who was a cloth merchant so I could get my head wrap for my excursion into the desert in 2 days.

A bit more walking around in the Spice markets

and it was time to call it a night. So we went back to his flat and I hung out with his girls. They wanted me to brush their hair, it was just an excuse for them to then brush my hair. They were honestly the cutest thing!

My last day with Nait was an easy peasy day. We woke up late, hung out till lunch time when we had couscous. I learned the secret to eating couscous with your hands. I was still a messy eater but I ate all the meals with my hands. And they were so good! Even the ones that I had no clue what I was eating because of the language barrier. I decided to spend my last night in Marrakesh in a riad (a hostel that’s in an old manor house kind place) because my bus left at 8 the next morning.

I said my thanks and goody byes to Nait. Despite the barrier and the frustration I really did have a nice stay. It was just a whole new level of all things new.

I got lost on my way to my riad but asked for directions in French thank you very much! And ended up having a guy walk me there and he gave me his number and was like hey hit me up and we can go out for drinks tonight, since you’re single. My single-ness was always the first thing someone asked me. I was just like maybe, I’m really tired. That was the end of that though.

I checked in and it put me out a whole $6 for the night. That was the cheapest I’ve ever stayed somewhere. And it was also one of the prettiest!

Like seriously! And that front door!! The blue made it hard to miss! How heavenly! But I wanted to go out on the town and get wonderfully lost in the souks! So I did. I bought a pair of comfy pants. I had to haggle and I hate haggling but I did a decent job… I think. I only paid about $7 for them when he was asking about $20.

I wandered for about an hour before I made it to Jemaa el-Fnaa. And shit was it bustling so late in the night!

So Jemaa el-Fnaa roughly means "the assembly of trespassers". Jemaa el-Fnaa was renovated along with much of the Marrakech city, whose walls were extended by Abu Yaqub Yusuf and particularly by Yaqub al-Mansur in 1147-1158. Historically this square was used for public decapitations by rulers who sought to maintain their power by frightening the public. The square attracted dwellers from the surrounding desert and mountains to trade here, and stalls were raised in the square from early in its history. The square attracted tradesmen, snake charmers ("wild, dark, frenzied men with long disheveled hair falling over their naked shoulders"), dancing boys of the Chleuh Atlas tribe, and musicians playing pipes, tambourines and African drums. Today though it’s where most people find dinner. There are hundreds of stalls with food and they are all vying for your business and will offer low prices.

After seeing the Mosque again (the tower features in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone books and I had a silent fangirl moment each time I saw it) 

I was ready to head back to my riad. I figured I’d have a tough time getting back… nope turns out it’s actually easy to get to and from Jemaa el-Fnaa. On my way back I decided I wanted cake so I stopped and the guy there was so excited to practice his English and I got some tasty things to eat for about a dollar!

Don’t they just look yummy (they totally were)! The next day I was off to Merzouga! I had a 12 hour bus ride ahead of me! but I was prepared! And I had the allure of my fancy Kasbah!

Cheers,