Chefchaouen and Drive to Meknes - Fourth Day in Morocco

20. September 2022

I was starting to think I needed a vacation from the vacation. I needed sleep. But since we lost quite a bit of time driving to Chefchaouen, we woke up early and went to see the Blue City. We already had a bus back to Fes at 13:00.

We really didn't have much time. Sad, but that's life.

Of course, we woke up way over the agreed time and went out to get breakfast a bit annoyed. We walked through the town to the medina and entered it through some sort of gate(?). It was more of a kind of tower that served as an entrance.

It was quiet. Calm. No shops were open at such an early hour. No, we didn't wake up that early again. It was about 9:00. And yet Chefchaouen was still asleep.

It was perfect. And the city was actually blue! Since the shops were closed and there weren't many people walking the streets, we could actually see the blue colour. Everywhere!

We looked for a place for breakfast on Google and set off through all the blue. We took a bunch of pictures, walked slowly and looked around. What can I say? It was blue.

Thank goodness we didn't have high expectations after seeing the new city, so the sights were a welcome surprise. Medina was really blue. Blue! OK, that's enough.

We got to the Clock Cafe and went inside, to the very top of the building for breakfast. Sheesh, that was a lot of stairs. But, oh, they were worth it.

I ordered pancakes. What I got was a stack of American pancakes covered in a super sweet syrup, surrounded by bits of banana, peaches and some grapes. Super sweet. And despite the danger of a sugar rush and then a sugar crash, I ate them gladly.

At the very end, an American sitting two tables away called us over and asked us what language we spoke. We went over and asked how Slovenian sounds to someone who doesn't speak it.

Supposedly like English, but not like English. It was clear that he did not know languages other than English, hehe. A British man sat with him and we talked a little about Chefchaouen. Have we been to the Akchour waterfalls? Yes. Have we tried marijuana? No - why not?

Well, we chatted a little about it. Apparently, weed farms were a source of livelihood for many, so the police didn't burn them down. And although the drug was officially illegal, in practice it was widely used. There were also 'wild farms' because the wind spread the seeds.

Since we were in a great hurry, we soon said goodbye and went on through the blue city. At this point, people were waking up and shops were opening. We walked through the city a bit more until we simply ran out of time and headed back towards the Airbnb.

In the end, a local told us: “In Chefchaouen, two things. Blue city and weed farm.” Well alright, at least we got one of them.

We packed up at the Airbnb and started the trek down the hill (THANK GOD IT WAS DOWN) to the bus station.

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This time the drive wasn't just staring out the window and sleeping. One of the group and I talked about writing and other things for a good hour, probably a little more. She recommended the movie 'Into the Wild' so I'm writing it down here so I don't forget it (I probably will anyways).

I forgot to mention yesterday; although the roads were in good condition, their surroundings were not great. Trash was an omnipresent layer in the bushes and in the ditches.

When I wasn't talking to the friend, I was writing the blog for the day before. And so, almost 5 hours passed surprisingly quickly. All of a sudden we were in Fes.

As per our agreement, the taxi driver - Fouad - was waiting for us at the station and soon we were on our way to Meknes. What we thought would be a fairly boring ride turned out to be a crazy unexpected gem of the entire trip. We had an eye-opening conversation with the driver - Fouad.

(Shout out to this man: Fouad Taxi Service)

There is a lot of information on the Internet about how Morocco is a country that is liberal compared with the rest of the Muslim world but how it still has quite strict laws. According to Fouad, this isn't exactly true.

Gays are indeed not allowed to marry, but in private such unions were not so unusual. In both sexes. Of course, women couples were more appreciated. That, it seems, is the same everywhere. And Fouad spoke as if it was completely normal. As long as it happens in private and no one is disturbed, who is he to judge it? Well, the guy was born and raised in the desert!

Alcohol was also allowed in clubs and restaurants, but mainly in the newer parts of the city. Of course, we did not see such places in the medina of Fes - the oldest medina and the oldest of the capitals of Morocco.

We also talked about other things. The conclusion? Morocco is very liberal! The West really thinks it's discovering some new things, huh?

Fouad drove us directly to our Airbnb in Meknes. The Riad itself (a word for a small hotel) was pretty cool. There were a lot of details and a lot of decorations all over the apartment. Which two of the group did not like. Bah. The only bad thing was that our ceiling opened into the apartment above us - which later turned out to be quite bad as we were told to be quieter. And there were no real walls between the rooms.

Hmmm.

After getting to know the host and the place, we went to the store to get some supplies. And my god. Finally a normal supermarket! Just normal, like in Europe! Finally! We spent way too much time there. We decided to buy pasta and a bunch of stuff for a sauce and have dinner in an Airbnb.

Then. Home. For one night. It was nice. While two of the group cooked, the rest of us chilled out, had fun, and lay in bed. It took quite a while for the food to be prepared, heh. And then. At 22:00. The food was ready. 1 kg of pasta, together with vegetable sauce and tuna.

For 7 of us. Eyo, we ate everything. And then cleaned up and showered. Finally, a little tired from all the food, we went to just lie on the beds (which were quite hard).

Everything was great until about 00:15. At this point we realized we had to go to bed. The next morning would be early again. We were supposed to wake up at 6:30.