In and Out of Africa: Part Deux

Our half day tour wrapped up quickly. We proceeded to eat at a fine Moroccan establishment and quickly looked into a textile store where they had someone working a loom to weave a rug. Here's a photo of said loom.



The afternoon was so much fun, we requested Khalid to give us a full day tour the next day. This time, we had to wake up early. We began to walk down the busy streets filled with shops and customers. Here's a shot of the typical market streets.



That day, we were able to see the big stuff, such as the tannery, one of the more popular attractions to Fes. We walked up several small stairways and came into a large showroom filled with leather bags/shoes/jackets etc. Needless to say, the place smelled like a barn. Here's a picture of the immense merchandise.



We went over to the balcony where we had a great view of the tannery; here, you can see all these vats of dye for the leather.





The group of white vats is a dye made of ammonia and pigeon poop (ew). The owners showed us a wide variety of leather--camel, goat, cow etc. Our friends bought a good deal of leather so they can make purses at home (I forgot to explain that I was with a bunch of creative artists who have a full understanding of how things are made, while I think it's magic).

We also had the opportunity to enter a house that was under renovation. They took us to the roof and we were able to see a lot of the city. Look at all the satellite dishes on top of houses! Apparently, you can buy a satellite and then you have 2,000 channels of tv for free!



What's really interesting about Fes is the immense amount of stray cats in the area. Most people in the community leave out milk and food for the cats and the cats all look very clean. Khalid explained to us that Fes families do not own dogs. Apparently, Muslims believe that dogs are dirty and to have a dog in your house means that angels won't enter your dwelling. However, if any of the stray cats enter your house, it's a sign of luck. Here's a picture of a cute kitty before she scurried off.



As the day wore on, we walked on over to the Royal Palace, where the king has his ambassadors stay. We aren't allowed in the palace, but I was able to take a picture of the front.



It was very beautiful. As we were finishing our tour, Khalid took the boys and showed them a jellaba dance that the men do at night. The boys tried to sing along, but their Arabic was shoddy;).

The next day, we had to leave Fes and head back to Spain. We left with a heavy heart--and heavy bags. One of our friends went to the post office early that morning in order to ship their souvenirs back to the States. The rest of us were going to meet him at the train station, where our train was to depart at 10:50am. When we arrived at the train station, we were surprised that we couldn't find our friend, so A and I boarded the train in order to get our seats. As we waited for our friends, the time of departure loomed closer. At 10:43am, A looked at me and said,
"I'm going to go back to the station and try to find them." I became very scared that he would get out of the train and I would be going to Tanger by myself. I looked at A nervously and said ok. Those next few minutes made me crazy. Finally, within minutes of the train's impending departure, the rest of the gang came into the compartment and we were off.

Our next destination was Tanger, a city on the coast of Morocco. From here, we headed to a ferry, which would take us back to Spain. We were really excited about the ferry because we were hoping to see the Rock of Gibraltar while we sailed. Unfortunately, things went differently. First, it was raining. When we arrived at the ferry station, a man came to buy our tickets. It was quite odd. After we paid for our tickets, we received our papers, but they were wrong. All of us had tickets with names such as "Fatima" and "Jamal." I was sure that we would try and board only to have the authorities notice that our passports were wrong and we would be arrested. Somehow, we were able to board. Our ferry was scheduled to depart at 6:30pm, but the rain and wind was so rough that we were delayed and departed near 8pm. It was already pitch dark outside, so we lacked any visibility. The ferry began to disembark from the dock and both of our friends instantly became seasick. For the rest of the ride, A and I were on the cafeteria level while our friends were one floor above, trying to breathe fresh air. I didn't realize that the wind was so harsh; our ferry cut through strong waves, making the vessel sway dangerously. Every now and then, the water would splash to our window, it got so high. I started to remember a story I read where the people died after their ferry capsized and I grew fearful for the umpteenth time that day. A man came scurrying about the room unwraveling small garbage bags and handing them to every table. Even though we didn't speak the same language, we all understood that these were our "complimentary barfbags."

The waves died down as we left Africa. We ventured outside, but could only see small amounts of city lights. The ferry was so crowded that we had to walk over many people who were sitting on the floor or sleeping. We looked like a group of refugees fleeing our home country. Finally, we docked in Spain! We were quite relieved to exit the ferry and get back on dry land! We planned to take a 10:30pm bus to Malaga, where we had hotel reservations, but we found out that we missed our bus and there were no more buses until the morning. We were recommended to stay in some cheap hotels close by so we went searching. We checked into a small hotel where our toilet was in our shower. Gross.



We were in Algeciras, an Andalusian city with strong Moroccan influence. We looked for food in the area and could only find Moroccan food, which made our post-seasick stomachs queasy. We decided on buying some items from the grocery store to make sandwiches. The next morning, our friends left the hotel early in order to travel to Malaga, where they were renting a motorcycle and journeying around the Spanish countryside. A and I chose a more lazy route; we slept in, bought tickets and took a bus and train back to Madrid. It was a scenic ride home. Even though many of my pictures came out fuzzy from the movement of the bus, here's one with windmills. I've never been so relieved to get back home to Madrid!