Part Three

After our lovely two days spent in Marrakech, we headed to Morocco's capital of Rabat.  We had to take the city bus to the train station in Marrakech, and it wasn't pleasant.  It was hot, and very overcrowded.  Alissa and I had to stand with our giant packs on, and the sweat was dripping.  Luckily, a nice woman and a nice man told us when we arrived at the train station, otherwise we would have had no idea!  We got to the train station and bought our tickets, and then decided to use the toilet before hitting up the train.  The toilet at the train station consisted of a hole in the ground, and you could 'flush' away your business with water that went everywhere.  Fun times.  To get to the train, we had to walk on the tracks.  The train had enclosed cars that sat eight people at most.  We had a mother and her cute toddler and a couple other ladies in our car.  The ride itself wasn't too bad, although there was very little airflow.  The little boy was super cute and well behaved, so he was good entertainment.  When we got to Rabat, we asked the direction we were supposed to go, and headed that way.  Yet again, we were lost and didn't know who to ask for help.  We wandered around for a bit, before finally seeking a taxi.  The first taxi driver we asked drove off because he had no idea where our hotel was.  The second driver called a colleague and asked, and managed to get us there.  Our hotel wasn't too bad.  At least we had our own room and bathroom, and even a balcony!

Rabat is like a modern European city.  Most of the city is relatively new, and that was where we were staying.  After checking in, we once again headed for some dinner, this time pizzas and salad.  We found a convenience store on the way back and grabbed some snacks to watch tv with.  They had a channel that showed American movies, so we watched that mostly, however the music video channel was awesome.  

The next day, we headed off in search of the Medina.  We ended up going the wrong way (of course) but got directions from a nice man.  Turns out, there are two train stations in Rabat, and the one we found the second day was MUCH closer to our hotel, the first one was on the edge of the city.  Good to know.  Anyway, we ended up picking up a new friend, Tarik.  He started talking to us on the street, and at first we tried to ignore him, but then we started talking to him and he was really nice.  He happens to be a tour guide in Marrakech, but was in Rabat visiting family for his birthday that day.  He offered to take us to the Medina and the beach.  The Medina in Rabat is smaller than in Marrakech, and less impressive.  The Medina is situated on the coast, and when we got there we waved to all our loved ones across the ocean!  

Tarik then took us to see the Hassaan Tower and the mausoleum of Muhammed V.  The Hassaan Tower was never completed for some reason.  It turns out, there are three minarets that were made at the same time, I think around the 12th or 13th century:  the Koutoubia Minaret in Marrakech, the Hassaan Tower in Rabat, and one in Sevilla, Spain.  Our plan was to see all three.  The mausoleum was built by the current king's grandfather, and was quite nice.  The grandfather, father and eventually the son will all be buried in that mausoleum.  Tarik was really nice and knowledgeable.  He had to leave to go to his birthday party, and we needed lunch, but we planned to meet up later.  

Alissa and I found a place for lunch that had paninis and fries, and coke in Arabic!  We then went in search for the archeaological museum.  We found it pretty easily.  It was pretty small, and very different from most western museums.  The curator was a nice man who tried to explain a lot of stuff to us in French, and I was so proud that I understood most of it!  Most of the artifacts are from Volubilus, an ancient Roman town, which is outside of the Moroccan city of Meknes.  We then stumbled upon an art museum, which made Alissa very happy.  It was a nice afternoon.

Then we relaxed at our hotel for a bit before meeting up with Tarik and his friend Youssef.  They took us to a cafe, and I tried what I call 'avocado milk.'  Its this popular think in Morocco made from avocados, and it looks kind of like milkshake, but it doesn't have ice cream and its not really cold.  It was good, it tasted just like avocado!  I also had chocolate cake.  We then went in search of traditional Moroccan soup, which the boys told us was really good, and different from soup we were used to.  The place they wanted to take us was closed, so we walked around for quite awhile, but finally found a place outside the Medina.  Tables were set up on the sidewalk, and we had soup!  It was good, kind of like a stew, although mine had some mystery meat in it that I gave to Youssef.  We then wandered back to the hotel and said goodbye to our new friends.  It was a nice evening.  

The following day, we headed to Fez.  

Fez:

Train ride from HELL!  I am not joking, it was horrible.  They sell more tickets than seats, so we were fortunate enough to not get a seat at first.  We stood for about half an hour, then one seat opened up.  Alissa sat, and I stood next to her.  Oh, I don't want to forget to mention that it was sweltering in there, and we had the pleasantness of smelling the toilet pretty much the entire time.  So I'm standing, and all of a sudden, a giant bag falls onto my head, falls on Alissa's head, and the head of the guy behind her.  Not cool.  Eventually a seat opened up a couple aisles away from Alissa, and I took it.  I closed my eyes and plugged my ipod in because I was feeling slightly motion sick.  Poor Alissa spent the entire train trying not to be sick, and she did it!  It was the WORST ever!

Although, we did meet a very nice gentleman who is a professor at the university in Fez, and his wife works at the tourist office.  His family happened to own the Riad we were supposed to stay at, but he recommended we stay at another one that his family owned because it was nicer.  He called his wife and arranged for a tour guide to meet us at the train station to take us to our Riad then show us around the next day.  

We ended up staying at the Riad that the man recommended, and it was fabulous!  It was really pretty and very nice.  In fact, Bono had rented it out the entire place before on his vacation, there was a big picture of him with the owner hanging up.  Our room was quite nice, and we had satellite tv.  We had a large bathroom, and a glorious bathtub that I utilized both nights.  Robes were included!  

Our tour guide Abdul took us to find a restaurant after we settled in.  It was still pretty early, so he took us to a place that wasn't open yet, but they opened it for us.  We had a full three course meal.  The salad course consisted of around 12 different salads that were quite tasty.  I had another lemon-chicken tagine, while Alissa had couscous.  Our dessert was fresh fruit, mint tea and biscuits.  One of the guys who worked there took us up to the roof to have a view of the city.  He also had a fez and robe that we tried on and took pictures of.  Abdul then led us back to our Riad where we each had a bath and perused the tv channels.  I found one that had news in English, but there were a lot of Arabic porn channels which was a bit odd.  

The next day, Abdul picked us up after our delicious breakfast of baguettes, coffee cake, crepes, yogurt, eggs, orange juice, and coffee/tea.  We were a little spoiled ; )  After wandering the first day in Marrakech, we decided it would be a good idea to get a guide in Fez because it is more confusing than Marrakech, and it isn't very expensive.  Fez was declared a World Heritage Site because of the way of life in the souks that has continued pretty much the same for almost 1,000 years.  So a lot of the buildings are having work done to preserve them.  Abdul took us to the tanneries which were very impressive.  It was amazing watching them work.  The smell wasn't the most pleasant thing, but it wasn't too bad, and it was truly fascinating.  We went into a shop and went upstairs to a viewing area overlooking the tanneries, and had a man explain the process to us.  There are many different vats that have different purposes.  First, they place the leather in a mixture of lye and pigeon poop to remove the hair and most of the fat.  The leather stays in there a few days, then it is taken to a giant water wheel where it is rinsed.  Then the leather is placed in whichever vat the color will be, red, brown, yellow, blue and green.  The leather stays in these pools a couple days, and the excess fat is scraped off.  Then the leather is dried and turned into purses, belts, bags, etc.  Fascinating.  

I asked Abdul to take us to an apothecary because I was having an allergic reaction on my hand so I wanted to get some oil or something.  We had walked by one that had an old crazy looking man in it with dead birds hanging and jars full of weird stuff.  I was hoping he would take us somewhere like that, but he ended up taking us to a pretty non-descript one.  I did get some oil for my hand, which helped.  

After our adventurous day with Abdul, we went back and sat next to the pool which was outside our room.  We decided to have dinner in our Riad that night, so we just relaxed beforehand.  For dinner, we had another full three course meal.  Salads, once again around 12, the specialty of Fez called pastille which is pastry filled with almonds, cinnamon, pheasant and spices, a tagine of beef and eggplant, and for dessert fresh fruit, mint tea and biscuits.  I tried a beer from Tangier that was nice.  The pastille was different, a little dry, but good.  

The next day we took the train to Tangier before taking the ferry to Spain!  We stayed one night in Tangier in a pretty nice Riad.  The train ride there was better than the one to Fez, but longer.  Tangier was not the nicest place ever.  We were offered drugs around four times between the restaurant for dinner and hotel which was no more than a ten minute walk.  We decided to go ahead and leave for Spain the following morning, rather than staying an extra day in Tangier.  The ferry was about an hour to Tarifa, and we were back in western Europe!