Fes - Saying goodbye to Morocco

Getting to Fes was quite an adventure in itself. We walked to the train station with the bikes and once arriving there found out that we were unable to put the bikes on the train, but we could wait for 3/4 hours to get a coach run by the same company as the trains, which apparently takes bikes instead. We decided against this and instead headed over to the other side of Meknes to the central bus station to catch a local bus to Fes instead. This was a very interesting experience as the place was crowded with locals trying to get as many people onto the coaches as possible before they depart. We paid a mere 15 dirhams each (just over £1) to get a place on the bus to Fes (60km away). We then had the bikes bundled into the storage space underneath the coach, which was painful to watch and then people chucked their luggage on top of them, much to our dismay. We were then charged an outrageous 50 dirham for the bikes, but managed in the end to get it down to 20 with the help of a kind local man.

Riding the bus was certainly an experience as well. Whilst heading through Meknes the bus would stop regularly at unscheduled places to try and pick up extra passengers wherever they could to fill up the empty seats and get some extra money. Once all the seats were filled up however they still kept stopping to pick up more people, forcing them to have to stand in the narrow alley between the seats. This caused our journey to take nearly two hours instead of the direct buses 45 minutes!

Once arriving in Fes I made my way into the medina to search for some accommodation. After searching for a while and getting followed by a local trying to get commission I gave up and went out of the medina and instead went to a small hotel recommended to us by Monique at the very cheap price of 200 dirham a night (£16). Once settled in we just got caught up on some writing and had an early night as we were very tired.

The next day after having a nice breakfast that we went out and got ourselves we headed into the biggest medina in Morocco to explore it. All I can say is wow! What an amazing array of colours, smells and sounds. You could find almost anything you wanted by walking around the many different souks, streets and squares. One of the things we wanted to do in Fes as we were flying back to England in not too long, was to buy a few things, to take back as souvenirs. The first thing Carmen wanted was a Kiis (Hammam scrubbing mitt, used for exfoliating dead skin). We found loads of these hanging up at various stalls down one street and Carmen tested a few out on her hand to see which one she liked and did a bit of bargaining with the stall holder and got it for half the initial asking price, a bargain at 10 dirham.

The second thing that we both wanted to get was a tagine dish (a clay dish used to cook food in). We found this down a side turning just a bit further down the same street and looked at the various different ones on offer. Luckily we had an idea of what we wanted and what to look out for when buying a tagine dish, due to some research beforehand. We bargained for this one too and got the price down from 70 to 50 dirham.

Nice tagine pot

 Next on our list was to try and find another place to stay for our last two nights. This turned out to be quite an adventure in itself, but eventually we found one at the same price as the previous two nights but with breakfast included this time, which was an added bonus! Whilst searching for a place we also met some nice people from another riad (Dar Lmallouki) who invited us to join them for a mint tea when we were available sometime.

After all the stress of finding a place for the next day we just wanted to go find somewhere to eat hassle free and then head back to relax, but as is quite often the case in Morocco in big cities, this was not to be the case.

That night we went out to find ourselves some dinner, but we got annoyed with a few people who kept trying to show us different restaurants to eat at, when all we wanted was some street food. They were very persistant, following you around and constantly telling you to come this way, but we were too tired for it all, so it quickly got annoying. Finally we got rid of them and found what we were looking for; some loubia soup (spicy bean soup) at a cosy little street shop.

On the way back to the hotel we dropped into a pattisserie near our hotel and tried to ask if they had any almond croissants, but neither of us was able to understand the other. So to try and solve the problem the owner suggested I come with him downstairs to go on google translate to see if we could work it out. This made for a very funny conversation, as it took a while to sort it out. Eventually we did, but unfortunately they didn't have any. On the plus side though, I did learn the french for almond (amande).

The next morning we moved to our new pension hotel then went out and had lunch at a place called Thami's, which is quite famous on tripadvisor as a good spot to enjoy food, especially fish. So of course I ordered a fish tagine and carmen had some couscous, as this was another Moroccan speciality we had not had yet. They both turned out to be amazing, but I especially liked the fish tagine. The rest of the day was taken up by a few essential bits and pieces we needed to get sorted out before our flight.

In the evening we went to visit the guys from Dar Lmallouki and brought them a little gift of some sweets we got from a stall on the way. We were greeted warmly and given mint tea and some really tasty homemade biscuits to enjoy and had a nice chat with the owners about Morocco. This was a nice night and learnt some interesting things from the owners about Moroccans, especially their affinity for languages. We left eventually to head back to get some sleep.

The following day we chatted at breakfast with Julien, a blogger from France who was staying at the pension as well. He was getting paid to stay in Morocco and then write a blog article about it. We were very jealous when we heard this, as this would be something we would just love to do!

After breakfast we headed out to explore the ruins on the hills around Fes. Whilst going up one of the ruins we came across some kids, one who tagged along with us trying to demand money, because we were on the same hill as him. He kept following us demanding money, but we kept refusing, until finally he left saying "fuck you." A pleasant encounter to say the least.

Some lovely views from atop the hills around Fes

We saw lots of locals drying out animal hides on the hillsides we were climbing as well, in a whole range of colours, black, brown, white, and red, hundreds of them. This was quite nice to see, as inside the medina of Fes there is a similar attraction where you can go to see the hides being tanned at a cost, so it was nice to see a different part of the process for free instead.

Pile of hides, drying in the sun

We finally made our way to a hilltop bastian, which we went in to explore as it had been converted to a weapons museum. It was showcasing guns, swords, cannons, armour and other various weapons from thousands of years ago, up until the 18/19th centuries from different countries throughout the world, it was quite interesting.

The Bastian where the weapons museum was

In the evening we got chatting with an American guy who mentioned a music concert displaying African music with free entry at a hotel very close to where we were staying. So as it was close we decided to go along and have a look. Unfortunately once turning up, we were told by a waiter it was only a concert for Moroccans, so we were rather disappointed as we had been quite looking forward to this. Later that night though we heard from the American that he had gone and there were quite a few non-moroccans there, so we were even more disappointed and additionally annoyed because we were told wrong.

Instead of going to the concert, we headed to get some food. We went to Thami's again to get his fried fish, but he said he had none left, so we decided to go somewhere else. As we left though he was kind enough to give us a potato cake complimentarily, which was very nice of him. We ended up in a place called snack Omar instead where we had Moroccan KFC, at least that's what the owner called it. I must say it tastes a lot better than KFC though! and cheaper!

Once getting back to the pension we stayed up late into the evening chatting with four people who were currently volunteering in Malaga, Spain, doing some work helping Erasmus students. They kindly invited us to visit them when we are in Malaga, which we shall do for sure!

The next morning we packed all our bags and left them at the Pension along with our bikes, this was in preparation to take them to the airport later, whilst we went off in search of a few souvenirs. We bought a couple of magnets, for half the advertised price for Carmen's family, as it's a tradition of theirs, and we also bought a couple of leather bracelets to remind us of morocco. These were bought from a nice Moroccan guy who said we could pay whatever we wanted for them. Then finally we bought a charm for Carmen for Martisor (as it was 1st March) to put on her bracelet, which we again bargained for and got for 2/3rds of the price. We felt that we were getting better at this bargaining stuff!

We had a late lunch at Thami's again, where this time we got the fried fish we wanted. It turned out to be worth the wait. Unfortunately we didn't have quite enough money to pay for it, but he happily let us off of this and sent us on our way with a smile.

After packing up the bags and bikes we said goodbye to the people at the Pension and headed off to the airport. Cycling to the airport felt like being back in England already, with rain the whole way. So by the time we got to the airport we were completely soaked after riding for 20km.

As our flight was the following morning we spent the night in the airport. Although we didn't really get much sleep at all as it was rather cold as they didn't close the doors. Before boarding the plane I had a last minute scare when I thought I had lost my debit card. Luckily we eventually found it after 15 minutes when it fell out of the inside of my jacket! (dufus!) So it's back to England for a few days to drop off the bikes before heading off to Spain to continue our journey by foot. See you there!