Alright, part two of my 4th of July weekend.
We got to Fes and decided to go straight to the hotel that Abdul Rahman (the staff person at the school who coordinates school-sponsored weekend excursions and helps students plan if they want to travel on their own) had booked for us. It was a decent hotel, with in-room bathrooms that had real toilets! I stayed in a triple with Kelly and Olga. After we showered, etc, we took taxis to the new medina (old city- Fes is so old that there’s the old old city, and the newer old city, and then the actual new city) to try to find food. Sadly, there really wasn’t anything around there, so we started walking back. We realized it was 4th of July, and then we stopped at a McDonald’s. How American of us. I tried the McArabia sandwhich, which was flatbread with a halal patty and some sauce. It wasn’t anything special, but it was fun to try it. We sat and ate at McDonald’s, making comments about how the clientele at the Fes McD’s is so different from the clientele in the US- here it’s obviously the upper middle class, and the restaurant itself is very nice- two levels, outside terraces, a playground. It was interesting. And now I’ve tried it and I’ll never eat McDonald’s in the Arab world again, inshahallah. Outside McD’s was this huge fountain that sang. I promise, it did. And it had lights- pretty much it was dancing in time to the singing. And we made fun of the people that were parked on the side just watching it until we realized we were mesmerized by it too. It was quite the experience.
Afterwards, we just went back to the hotel. It was very hot, so it took me a while to get to sleep. In the morning, we woke up at 7:30, got ready, and went to meet everyone at 8:30. I tried to get a coffee from one of those little coffee vending machines, but my café au lait was bidoon (without) milk and it was gross. We walked to find a café for breakfast- I had a croissant and fresh squeezed orange juice. We found taxis, and then had a really hard time convincing them to take us to the tanneries in the old city. But apparently it’s illegal for them to just tell you they can’t take you.
A little bit of background: the old walled city of Fes is the world’s largest no-car zone, as designated by UNESCO. It’s amazing how winding and maze-like the streets are. Our plan was to find the tanneries, but in the end we had to ask for a guide to get us there. We found someone who worked at the tanneries who took us there and showed us around, and then I’m sure he got a commission off everything we bought.
The tanneries were quite a sight. We stood on the terrace of a leather shop that overlooked the tanning pits. When you walk in, they hand you a sprig of mint to mask the smell, and you think, “Oh, it can’t be that bad.” But it is. We stood up there and looked for a while, and then the guy told us all about it. Donkeys carry goat, sheep, and dromedary (which apparently are not camels) skins into the tanneries. First they put them in the white pits with lye and salt to cure them. Then they wash them, press the water out, and put them in pigeon poop to soften them- apparently the ammonia in the poop helps soften up the leather somehow. Then the wash and press them again, and then they dip them in the color vats. The common colors- red (poppyseed), brown, and black- are in the pits, but the expensive ones- yellow (saffron), orange (henna), blue (indigo), etc- are hand-dyed. It’s so amazing. And I can’t believe that people do this their whole life, just stand around in those pits, 6 am to 3 pm every day. It’s amazing. And then you walk around the shop and you think, “If I came back in a few weeks, I’d see that leather they were just tanning made into products.” And the guy said if you want a leather jacket and they didn’t have your size, they’d custom make one in 4 hours for you. That’s awesome. I bought a present for my sister here. It smells like pigeon poop. =) Afterwards, the guy took us to his friend who does Berber weaving. We didn’t really see the weaving, he just showed us finished rugs, scarves, tablecloths, etc. I bought a present here, too, but I won’t say for who. It’s a surprise!
Afterwards, we decided to just make our way around the Fes medina. It was certainly an adventure. We didn’t go down any tiny streets, but it was still really crowded and fun and an amazing adventure. I want to go back sometime in not so large a group so there’s a little more flexibility in what we do. I could have separated from the group, but then we would have just met back in Rabat, because there’s no way we would have ever found each other. So one day I’ll go back, maybe with just one or two other people, and really spend all day exploring. After we walked around a bit, it started getting hot and people started getting hungry. We eventually made our way out and caught taxis back to the train station. We found a restaurant near there and just ate pizzas. Then we took a 2:50 train back to Rabat. We had a whole compartment of the train to ourselves, which was nice, but because it was supposed to have air conditioning, the window didn’t open. And, of course, it didn’t have air conditioning. So we sweltered for 3 hours. But finally we got back to Rabat. We unpacked, showered, etc, ate dinner, and went to bed.
Today the new classes started. A ton of people got moved to the afternoon, but I didn’t. I started the Beginning 3 level. It was fun. And now I’m hanging around cause most of my friends have afternoon classes. I’m about to go to the bank so I can pay for next weekend’s excursion to Marrakesh. And then I think tonight we’re going out to dinner somewhere. Hopefully I get a fridge and stove soon so I can start cooking myself dinner.
Up next: a blog post especially dedicated to my grandparents to reassure them that my trip to Marrakesh will be safe.
Ma salaam,
Aisha
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