Strolling through Fes - Second Day in Morocco

18. September 2022

My alarm went off at 8:00 and I woke up in a great mood. Despite the relatively early hour, the room was already hot. Maybe because there were two of us sleeping in it. The air outside, on the terrace, was crisp and clean, cool and calm.

I went to wash up, got dressed and went down to the courtyard where the Airbnb host was preparing breakfast for us. Breakfast! Traditional Moroccan, I guess. Or what tourists would eat as traditional Moroccan?

Before he finished, however, we had a request for him. There was a big cockroach in one of the bathrooms and I didn't know what to do. I asked Akram (the Airbnb guy) if he had any poison. He didn't quite understand me, so I took him to the bathroom. When he saw the bug, everything was clear to him

"Ah, be right back."

I waited and wondered what he would do. When he came back waving his flip-flops, I had to laugh. The good old smackeroos would do! With one blow, the cockroach was finished and thrown into the toilet.

Back to breakfast. Hopefully, the bug story hasn't ruined your appetite. We had a full table, with loads of stuff. A pot of warm milk, a pot of coffee and a pot of mint tea. Also a bottle of orange juice. For food, there were three plates of three types of bread.

One was basic bread, but still different from the one we were used to at home. The other was… we don’t know? Some kind of bread with something white in it? It was a bit hard and the taste was different incomparable to anything I have ever eaten. It was good. The third was again ??? Some kind of fried pancake? Not even bread, I later found out. It had a bit of a nutty taste.

All of it was accompanied by peach and strawberry jam.

We ventured from Airbnb into the city. Into the labyrinth of the medina. We had one goal - the famous Chourara tanneries, where they processed hides and made leather.

At the second turn in the medina, a local approached us. He could take us to the tanneries! He was on his way there anyway and could show us the way!

Hopefully, you thought: "shady" immediately. These kinds of guides, despite saying "I'm not a guide, I'm not a guide, I don't have to pay", are not people you want to follow. Google Maps works perfectly in Morocco - which is why mobile data is essential. It cost us about €1 for 1GB.

We told the guy "No" several times, but he just wouldn't go away, even though he said he was going there regardless of whether he was taking us or not. So we took a different route than he did. The streets would meet again anyway.

We walked. We passed a thousand and one shops and saw a lot more tourists than yesterday. It was fine until we started approaching the road towards the tanneries.

Come on! The guy from earlier was waiting for us at the crossroads! He might have taken us to the tanneries, but it wasn't worth the risk. This time our "No" was more assertive and he finally gave up.

We moved on. Through the alleys; streets that back home would be considered scary and suspicious, but here they were completely normal. At least I think they are.

As we started to approach the tanneries, the smell hit. Apparently, Covid had ruined my nose more than I thought. Because it wasn't that bad.

But our vegan girl... oh, she couldn't stand it. When they invited us to the terrace of a store to see the real tanneries, she literally couldn't stand it. We were given mint leaves to smell, but she still gagged.

I'm not saying the smell was pleasant. It was horrific. I was thankful for Covid at that moment. We took a few photos and then rushed out of the store. Of course, the owner tried to sell us some things, but they weren't really that cheap. Real leather, I guess 👀.

We dived back into the medina, but with no real destination. So we simply swerved and turned until we suddenly came to a kind of square, with a small grassy park.

There were benches and we sat down, recovering from the smells of the tanneries and made plans for the rest of the day. We learned that we are in the Cultural Center of Fes. It looked like it was in the middle of a redevelopment as the buildings were quite new. And yet they fit perfectly with the older ones, made in the same style.

We ventured on, back into the labyrinth. We decided on Google's proposed route through the city, with the main sights along the way.

After a while we got to the middle of the street where Google told us was the Al Attarine Madrasa, a Quaran school. At first, we didn't notice it, but then we found it. There was a large open room to our left, only it wasn't fancy from the outside. Like most of Fes.

But the interior. God. Or rather Allah. After paying 20 dirhams per person, we went through a small door into the courtyard. Come on, it was without a doubt one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen in my life. I don't even know if I have the writing skills to describe it.

But the interior. God. Or Allah, I suppose. After paying 20 dirhams per person, we went through a small door into the courtyard. Bruh, this was without a doubt one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen in my life. I don't even know if I have the writing skills to describe it.

The courtyard was square, with a well in the middle and an open roof, with the blue sky far above us. Everything was paved. In fact, all of Fes is paved, and there is no vegetation in the cracks of the road. Interesting.

Back to the school.

Around the courtyard were stone pillars with Arabic writing and other carvings, all in the size of centimetres, millimetres! Then, between the pillars, the wooden planks that formed the arches were again covered with millimetre carvings. Walls above them! They were all covered in carvings! Behind the pillars were the actual walls of the courtyard. Again, carved and painted with Arabic verses, probably from the Quran.

And finally, on one side of the courtyard was a small room with a roof. The students studied in the courtyard when the weather was good, but they moved to the room when the weather was bad.

We listened to a guide from the other tourist group for a while, then went out to go to the upper floor. Here, there were no great details on the walls.

But there were many rooms for students for them to stay in. Simple, small rooms, each with a window. It was a student dormitory. The windows offered a nice view of the rooftops of the medina.

After a long time, we left the Madrasa. Our new destination: the mosque and the University of Karaouiyne.

It was closed. Ah.

Here, a boy offered to take us to the terrace, from which we could see the interior of the university. We followed him. Until we turned into a dark street.

Hell no. Full stop. We exchanged opinions. Let's go back. Fortunately, the boy gave up immediately. We went back and followed Google's path again.

We walked through the alleyways until they opened up again. Opposite us was the Fondouk el-Nejjarine, originally a business centre, now a woodworking museum. The entrance fee was 20 dirhams per person, but it was worth it.

The heat disappeared and the furniture was interesting too. It also has free bathrooms hehe. There were several floors and we slowly made our way to the top to get a great view.

By the time we left, we were getting hungry. It was time to find lunch. We decided on a Western restaurant and headed straight for it.

Actually, not straight at all. We took the time to browse the shops along the way, for books, jewellery, clothes, and everything. It took us quite some time to get to the restaurant. But it was worth it. The food was great and for once, the workers spoke excellent English!

"Culture Box" if you are ever in Fes.

I wanted pizza, but they didn't have it, so I got a chicken burger. Basic, I know. I do not care. Another one of us got the camel burger and I guess it tasted like beef. Somewhat. Okay. We ate and just chatted for a while. We then went and paid, complimented the server on his good English and left.

This time we went down the familiar streets to the Blue Gate and then on to the Jardin Jnan Sbile botanical garden. Ahhh, this was so damn nice too. We walked around, took tons of pictures, and enjoyed the shade of the trees.

Then we were off again – our destination: the tombs of Fes, on a hill north of the city. But before we really started going, we experienced a strange thing.

Beneath the city walls mentioned yesterday, at that gathering place, a group of garbed women approached us with big smiles, and we didn't understand what was going on.

I thought they wanted me to take their picture. Another of our group understood that they wanted one of the girls to take a picture with me. In the end, we took a group picture with the girls.

The women left laughing out loud, glancing back at our group. It was bizarre and we still don't know what happened.

We finally went. Away from old Fes, or rather, to the outskirts of it, where real roads for cars appeared. We crossed the street - that's something you have to be assertive about in Fes. Cars really won't stop for you, you have to go and make them stop.

We went up the hill, along a very lively and wide street, placed in the middle of two ancient walls. Cars whizzed past us, but still, the air was nice.

At the top of the hill, we continued. We walked along the cliff, down the hill for a while, then climbed another hill and finally, we were at the tombs.

We were greeted by one tower and some broken gates. Ruins. Okay? Still, the view was amazing. All of old Fes could be seen on one side of the hill and the countryside on the other. It was peaceful on this other side. There weren't as many people/tourists as on the "city" side of the hill.

The state of the country gave me pause again. It was... a desert. And the city was hundreds of small houses crammed together in a valley. It was... a nice scene. We spent quite some time on the hill with the tomb.

Only with the sunset, did we start to descend and headed back to our Airbnb. To our little palace. With the natural light fading, and us taking a different route than before, we got a bit confused and lost.

But it was Fes after all. The old part of Fes; the medina. All of the streets were connected. Indeed, we eventually reached a brightly lit street with shops and people and continued towards the Airbnb.

Before we arrived at the palace, we went shopping for the next day's trip to Chefchaouen. We would be driving on the bus for a bit less than 5 hours and water and some food would be good.

We bought bread and snacks and jam (and some cigarettes, *sigh* – but they were colourful!) and finally returned to the Airbnb.

Wait, no. We first went and bought some pizza for dinner.

Then! Then we finally went back to the Airbnb. At the palace, we dragged ourselves to the top of the building, to the terrace, and ate in peace, tired and chilled out. Thus ended the second day. A long, very lively day.

Until a surprise came. Our stay in Marrakesh, the last city of the trip, changed its name on Booking.com. That prompted us to look at it again and...

We booked it for October 2022, not September. Fuck! We quickly cancelled the reservation and booked another Airbnb. A bit more expensive but it came with a pool.