Vacances d'hiver: Fes

Saturday, March 2nd was our last day in Chefchaouen, and we spent the morning wandering a little bit more, shopping a little bit as well. Then around noon we went to the bus station and got on the bus to Fes, which took 5 hours...luckily I fell asleep for almost the entire bus ride, which was good. Once we got to Fes we got to our hostel, called Funky Fes, and checked in. We didn't do much that night because we were tired and were too afraid of getting lost, so we just walked a little bit in a straight path in the medina, which was really cool--the streets are SO tiny and narrow and SO crowded, but it has a really amazing atmosphere. However, we got a lot of (bad) attention from some men again. Actually, we got a lot of attention on our way to the medina, but on the way back Louise took her scarf and covered her hair and we got much less attention (she's blonde), which was interesting. We got back to the hostel and had dinner there; we ate chicken pastela, which is a type of dish with chicken wrapped in a puff pastry with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on top, and it was really good.

Hostel lobby!

Chicken pastela

We also met these two girls who turned out to be teaching assistants as well! They're teaching assistants in this town called Albi, which is near Toulouse. Their names are Mary and Louise (coincidence? I think not!), and they were from England and Ireland, respectively. They were hilarious to talk to and it was really fun meeting them, but they left that night (after we went to bed) because they were going to Marrakesh.

The next morning at the hostel, we met these two Asian girls staying in the same room as us who were from Australia (well, technically one was from China and one was from Malaysia, but they are living in Australia) named Celine and Tracy, and it turns out Tracy had actually been to Morocco before and so we ended up spending the day with them! We started out by going to this place called Cafe Clock for breakfast. Well, they had breakfast, Louise and I just got hot sweet almond milk, which is SO GOOD.

Hot sweet almond milk. Yum.

Berber eggs, which Tracy and Celine got! I tried some and it was really delicious.

Then we went and saw the Bou Inania madrasa (madrasa means an educational institution), which was very beautiful, as well as the water clock (Google it, it's pretty cool), and then a Moroccan guy that Tracy knows, Mohamed, came and met up with us and he ended up showing us around the medina, which was awesome because we would've gotten SO lost if we had tried to see it ourselves. The medina in Fes is much bigger than the one in Marrakech.

Bou Inania madrasa

Water clock!

So Mohamed took us to see the University of Al-Karaouine, which is apparently the oldest university in the world, and then we went into a carpet shop to see the view from the rooftop, but we ended up just hanging out in one of the rooms there talking to the shopkeepers, who gave us tea, and Louise and Celine ended up bargaining with them for two blankets, haha. We did go up to see the view from the rooftop, which was amazing. Then after that, Mohamed took us to the tanneries (where they make leather), which was really cool, and we got to see them from the roof of this leather shop because that's really the only good way to see them, since you can't actually go INTO the tanneries because that's where they work. After that we walked around a little more, then went to this cafe and I got an avocado shake, which was SO good omfg.

University--we couldn't go in because it's also a mosque.

New friends in a carpet shop!

View from carpet shop rooftop

Tanneries!

Avocado shake. AMAZING.

Then we went back to the hostel to chill out for a while, and later we went back to Cafe Clock because there was a concert going on that night. It was traditional Moroccan music, and there was NO alcohol involved but people were still like, getting up and dancing like crazy--it was hilarious and also really awesome to watch. I also danced a little bit, haha.

The band!

Dance circle lol

We also met more of Tracy's friends at the cafe (she basically knew all the employees because she went there every day last time she was in Fes), and we all talked a bit and got to know each other, which was really great. More friends on Facebook! Yay! Haha.

So after the cafe, we went back to the hostel. I met more people when I got back because I went up to the rooftop where I found four people drinking gin and Coke, and I ended up sitting down and talking with them for the rest of the night. Two of them were from Australia (Jack and Alex; Alex is a girl) and two of them were from Holland, both girls (Etta and Astrid). They were all really nice and we talked for a long time; we had to move off the terrace into the main lounge at one point because we were being too loud. Anyway, we talked for a while and it was a lot of fun! Even more Facebook friends now, haha. But that was my last night in Morocco--the next morning I left for the airport and got back to Nîmes that evening. And thus ends my trip to Morocco. I miss it! I had such an amazing time and got to meet so many great people--I think it may be my favorite vacation so far.

Vacances d'hiver: Chefchaouen

So last night (Thursday night), Louise and I took the overnight train from Marrakech to Tanger, which was about 10 hours long...yes, I know, it's a very very long train ride. But there's a story, so don't worry!

This is the Marrakech train station. Isn't it so pretty???

When we bought the train tickets, we decided to be cheap and bought second class, so we were in a regular compartment (like the ones in Harry Potter, not gonna lie--there was even a guy who came around with a little food/drink cart!) with one older man sitting in it. We started talking to him pretty easily; he was going to visit his son to help with some sort of interview, and he worked in education, which was pretty cool. He was SO nice and had that whole "old wise man" vibe going on, which was awesome. We started off talking about pretty basic things, like where we had been and where we were going in Morocco, what we did in France, what he did as a job, etc.

After a while, these three guys came to our compartment and didn't sit down (one put his stuff in the compartment though), but were just standing around in the hallway for a long time, and finally the one who had his stuff inside sat down, and the other two went away. We kept talking to the older man (never learned his name unfortunately), and after some more time the other two guys came back and sat down. Louise and I still kept talking to the older man, but eventually we all started talking to the three younger guys too. There was one who talked much more than the other two, and he was mostly talking to me; his name was Yassin. Another was named Abdul but he barely talked because he didn't know French or English very well. The third guy...whose name I forget...had some pretty awesome dreadlocks going on; he talked at the beginning but then he kind of passed out. So basically, the ones talking were me, Louise, the older man, and Yassin. We talked for SO long, about so many things, and even had a pretty intense philosophical discussion about religion and miracles. Yeah, I know. Pretty insane for an overnight train ride. I didn't talk much during that conversation since I don't know much about religion and generally don't like to talk about things I don't know about...but it was definitely interesting to listen to! Anyway, the older man got off first, maybe around midnight or so, which is when Louise tried to get some sleep but I kept talking to Yassin for a while. He ended up inviting us to stay with him and his family so we could experience "real Moroccan life." He apparently helps take care of this private villa that his sister owns and rents out, and also invited us to go stay there whenever we want, which is very nice but seeing as I grew up in NYC and am never completely trusting of any sort of offer like that, I was a little wary. He even tried to convince me to stay in Morocco longer so that I could go with him, but seeing as I have a plane ticket already and need to spend a good week applying to jobs and all that, I declined. Anyway, we finally stopped talking around 2 or 3 in the morning (can't remember), because I was exhausted and wanted to try and sleep. So that was basically the end of the conversation, and then Yassin and the dreadlocks guy left at around 4 (I think), and then Louise and I slept. Abdul left at some point while we were sleeping. Anyway, all in all it was a really interesting and fun ride on the overnight train, and it was really awesome getting to meet people. Yassin gave me his contact info and we are now Facebook friends. =)

Finally, we got to Tanger at around 7 this morning, walked to the bus station and took the bus to Chefchaouen. We arrived around 10, spent a while in a taxi trying to find our hostel (apparently the map they had on HostelWorld was wrong), but we finally made it and spent the day basically just wandering about, because it's a pretty small town and there's not much to do. It's SO beautiful here though, oh my god...it's in the mountains and the houses are all blue and white, and the streets are small and winding and it is just...amazing. One of the main sights here is "La Source," which is this waterfall where their water originates from and where they also do their washing! Pretty cool. There were also these baby goats running around by the waterfall and they were SO CUTE. OMG. I wanted to pet one but it kept running away =( There are also tons and tons of stray cats here, which is the same as Marrakech. Don't know why there are so many, it's kind of ridiculous. Lots of photos now!

Tanger in the morning.

Mint tea as part of breakfast, mmmm.

And now for lots of blue.

Yay blue!

La Source

BABY GOATS! aka kids.

Chefchaouen!

Door. On the mountain.

I just liked the contrast of bright colors =)

Soooo many beautiful rugs, I wish I could afford them T_T

Our hostel!

View from our hostel terrace. Yup.

Terrace!

Our room--cute right?

Snow on the mountaintops!

Best. Kefta. Ever. THERE WAS A POACHED EGG IN IT!

Basically, I love Chefchaouen and want to live here forever. It's just so peaceful and stunning...a perfect place to just relax and do nothing. Except maybe shop. The region is known for its wool products, which makes sense since they're in the mountains and it gets cold. That last photo, though, is of our dinner, which we had at this little restaurant right by our restaurant called Assada, which is fantastic. If any of you ever come to Chefchaouen, go there!

Vacances d'hiver: Marrakech, Day Three

Our last day in Marrakech was absolutely fantastic; it really showed me how wonderful people can be sometimes! We started off the day in the Majorelle Gardens, which are these really beautiful (and famous) gardens designed by Yves Saint Laurent. There is also a Berber museum there, which was pretty cool, so I got to learn a little bit of Berber history. Photos:

 

 

Bamboo!

Cool door =D

Yves Saint Laurent "Love" exhibit!

After the gardens, we walked through a new part of town to the Saadian tombs, which is a mausoleum that contains members from the Saadi Dynasty, including the sultan at the time. The area itself was pretty small, but they were definitely the most beautifully decorated tombs I've ever seen!

Once we saw the tombs, we went to lunch at a hole in the wall that had grilled skewers, and it was deeeelicious. Not only did we get skewers, we also got a dish similar to cassoulet, two huge rounds of bread (the bread in Morocco tends to come in circle shapes), a tomato dip for the bread, and a spicy sauce for the meat. Oh, and olives. It was so freaking good. The guys who owned the place were also really nice and after we finished lunch we took photos with the grill guy, haha.

Yummmm.

SKEWERSSSSS

Having finished a wonderful lunch, we headed back to the medina and did more shopping in the souks. Here's where the fun part comes in. So we stopped in this small shoe shop, and we were looking at the shoes for a while, and tried on a couple pairs, but he didn't have some styles in certain colors or vice versa, so he would run off to fellow vendors to find the right shoes for us, which was so nice and helpful! Then, while we were trying on shoes, he offered us tea. That's right, tea. In a tiny little shoe shop. And it was completely free! We said yes, and he brought us tea, and we sat down and had tea and chatted with him, and it was so nice; he was actually being genuine and it was just amazing! Anyway, we ended up buying a pair of shoes each, for a pretty good price too--we didn't even bargain because he had been so nice. Plus, the price he told us was around what we were willing to pay anyway. We also ended up getting a photo with him and exchanging emails so that we could email him the photo. So nice! So we left the shoe shop, content with some nice company, tea, and new shoes. We went back to Place Jamaa El-Fna and got henna done for 5 dirham (less than $1), then got a glass of orange juice each because there are orange juice vendors EVERYWHERE in Marrakech. Because there are orange trees everywhere, probably. Turns out our OJ vendor was also really nice and when I was trying to take a picture of his cart, he invited me to take a picture with him! So we got photos with the OJ vendor too. =) Haha. After that, we just went back to the hostel until we had to leave for the train station, because that is where our next part of the journey begins!