Fes and Meknes

Heading into the Fes medina

This morning I was crushed by throngs of people carrying bags full of groceries, was assaulted by smells I could never describe,  stepped in several kinds of poo,  almost fell into an open pit, had my foot stepped on by a donkey, cried silent tears when I saw the horrific working conditions of the leather tanners, had one of the most frightening and expensive experiences of my life, and I can say without a doubt that I loved every minute of it.

The medina (old city) in Fes was started in year 808 (making it the oldest medina in the world), and is still today a living, breathing, labyrinth of a city, enclosed by a wall which limits its physical size but not apparently its population because 500,000 people live within this space. 

As well as all those people there are mosques, churches, schools, and 90,000 businesses selling everything imaginable and more.  The aisles or streets range in width from 2 - 6 ft wide and you have to share this space with people, donkeys, mules, wheelbarrows, buggys and anything else that can negotiate the streets.

In the afternoon we visited Meknes, a fortified city surrounded by impressive and formidable walls, which were built by the slaves and labourers of badass Sultan Moulay Ismail, who made the city his headquarters in the 17th century.

But more importantly to us, Meknes is the city where Paco's father was born, so we had some of own history to absorb.   Paco's grandfather was a medical doctor working in a military hospital in Meknes around 1900, which explains why his father was born there in 1903.  The hospital was housed in a former Roman Catholic convent which still stands today.  Not sure what it is used for now,  because we could not read the sign.

Paco said he was surprised by the waves of emotion that hit him when we passed the convent.   His father didn't spend much time in Morocco and was taken back to Spain when he was still a baby.   There's more to this story and I keep asking Paco to write it all down.  Maybe I'll help him start his own blog!

whew!  Tomorrow another long bus ride to Marakkesh, but I'll have my memories of today to keep me occupied.

Paco's father was born here

Entrance and walls into Meknes

Apartments within the medina

Meat market section of medina - that's a camel head for sale

Entrance to mosque in medina

Leather tannery in medina

End of meat market, beginning of fruit market.  Those black things are bull testicles.

Medina is a no-car zone

My pirate look

Morocco

Rock of Gilbraltar

October 20, 2010 We crossed the Strait of Gilbraltar today.  Gilbraltar is a huge, quite magnificent rock overlooking the Strait which separates Spain from North Africa with the Mediterranean sea on one side and the Atlantic ocean on the other.  The meeting of the two bodies of water cause powerful swirling whirlpools and apparently many people have drowned trying to cross the Strait. 

On the road to Fes

Moroccan landscape

Ferry ride to Morocco

Seven hours on the bus to get to Fes but it wasn't too terrible because Morocco is lush and fertile and seems to grow everything -- bananas, prickly pears, strawberries, corn, melons and lots more -- so it was a relaxing ride just watching the landscape pass by. 

One thing for sure is I never want to be an agricultural worker,  because you have to spend your days wearing unattractive hats either bent over or stretching your arms upwards for hours and hours in a hot sun.  You also have to work well with donkeys (real ones),  because they follow you around so you can fill their baskets with whatever it is you are harvesting,  and then there are the birds, who follow the donkeys but every once in awhile attack the workers hats and cause general all round chaos.   Finally there are the people with sticks who follow behind the donkeys tapping the ground, I think they are dispersing donkey poo, but who knows for sure.  What is certain, is everyone involved is sweating buckets and getting insect bites.

Worse still would be to be a shepard as there are sheep all over the place and they seem to wander everywhere including into fields filled with cows and bulls, so the shepards must walk miles and miles, dodging bulls,  all the while wearing only flimsy flipflops and a sideways handtowel on their heads.

Count me out of sheparding but I may adopt the handtowel head cover cause something has happened to my hair -  it is an awful mess -- and there is also the covering your head thing to respect.

I tried the headwrap techniques Denise taught me but failed miserably and have been going around all day looking like a pirate.