The four of us then traveled to Morocco! It was a wedding present from A's friends, since they were unable to attend our wedding (quite a nice present). Unfortunately, we weren't on the same flights; our friends had to take a flight hours before ours. Here's a picture of Morocco from our plane. Quite majestic.
We decided that we would meet at the Ben Youssef Mosque in Marrakech. I feel that the main theme of this trip was "Oh, God. Am I going to die here?" I say this because we had many rather odd and scary situations happen to us yet we survived unscathed. A and I arrived in Marrakech, a city known for it's amazing culture and highly experienced thieves. Our cab driver explained in broken English that he could only drive us to a certain point near the Mosque; we would have to walk the rest of the way. After we paid our fare and memorized our driver's vague directions, we found ourselves lost within minutes. One Moroccan helped us get to a mosque, but the wrong one. Another took us to the correct location, only to berate us for money. We gave him only a few coins. Many people in Morocco will help you out, but then demand an atrocious amount of money for their services. I'm sure that most tourists would simply play the men with bills, but we gave the excuse that we are students.
As we waited in the square, I became nervous. I didn't know exactly where I was and we would be an easy target for other Moroccans to bother and swindle. In addition, if we didn't meet our friends here, we had to go to the train station and we weren't sure where we could get a cab. Before I hyperventilated into a stupor, I saw our friends exiting the museum section of the mosque. We were saved! They said we had to get through the marketplace in order to get to a main road and to the train station. We followed our friends, relieved that we would be able to get through the rest of the city with our friends (who had a few more hours experience in the chaotic place). Unfortunately, the marketplace was such a complicated labyrinth that even Theseus would not have been successful in solving! If you don't understand my last sentence, read some Greek mythology. Anyway, our friends were trying to remember their steps with landmarks such as leather pelts hanging on the walls. Even though we got lost, there were shops for clothes, electronics, jewelry, trinkets, and also a cage with a falcon! After a half an hour of feeling completely lost, we found the major square that led to our destination. In this square, many Moroccans were relaxing under umbrellas. Some had animals like monkeys or snakes. One man tried to lay one of his snakes on our friend, but he ran like the dickens. Here's a photo of the square.
We began to journey to the train station, when we stumbled upon a restaurant called La Maison Arabe. One of our friends had heard of this restaurant in a magazine. Apparently the magazine had stated that this was a restaurant worth flying to just for their chicken dishes. We decided to have lunch at this highly-vaunted establishment. My shot is a bit obscured by the foliage, but it was a beautiful courtyard.
Most of us ordered the chicken tagine, which is absolutely delicious! The chicken is cooked in this unique-looking pot with apricots, olives and other wonderful things. Here's a picture of my dish before I devoured it.
After our lovely meal, we headed on over to the train station. We took a train from Marrakech to Fes, a former capital of Morocco. We arrived in Fes around one in the morning. Fortunately, we had the foresight to hire a cab driver ahead of time, who would escort us directly to the hotel. He had to park on the street and then guide us through a maze of streets. Once again, I began to wonder how in the world I would be able to exit the hotel since I was utterly lost. The hotel was called Dar Houdou. It is basically a house that the owner renovated and opens to clients as a hotel. The house only has 3 rooms, which is quite nice, since you don't feel there's a crowd of guests at your lodgings. After sleeping in, I took some shots of the hotel.
The last photo is a picture of the courtyard in the hotel. I took the picture from the second floor. After a wonderful sleep, we awoke close to noon and started our half day tour with Khalid, a native of Fes. He first took us to the Blue Gate, which is a popular attraction. The blue symbolizes the purity of water.
Khalid escorted us around town, showing us a madrassa (school) and a bronze metal shop. A and his friend were specifically interested in learning more about the large covering the men wore. Khalid explained that it is called a jellaba, but A and his friend had already renamed it the "snuggie." Our guide took us to a shop where the boys tried on jellabas until they found the perfect fit. Here's the boys with our tour guide in their fancy new attire.
While the cashier rang up our items, I noticed a small decorated outfit in the store that reminded me of the nice Indian outfits my parents would make us wear for special occasions. I asked Khalid about these outfits, expecting them to be for attending weddings or some sort of formal ceremony. Khalid explained that they were for a ceremony--that of the boy's circumcision. Apparently, some boys are circumcised a little after infancy and they are adorned with this outfit for the event. I was surprised that I never saw any young boys or men look at the outfits and resort to screams of terror.
Speaking of getting "cut short," I must wrap up this first part of my post. I am currently organizing photos for the second half of Fes and our journey back to Madrid. More updates to come!
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