Our
next stop was the city of Fes. The medina dates back to the 9thcentury making Fes not only the religious capital, but also the
oldest city in Morocco. We took a tour from a registered city guide
(as recommended by a random man on the train!). The city is divided
into 5 parts which contain their own shared over, Koranic School
(Madrassa), mosque, and hammam.
Fes is also home to the largest and oldest tanneries in the country. The tanneries have been passed down from family to family since the 11th century. Each co-op is made up of about 25 families. Each person in the family is utilized; from the young children who go around collecting pigeon poop to the adult tanners. It's a very labor intensive process and each skin takes a few months.
One
of my favorite moments in Fes was spent outside the medina walls in a
small square in a local neighborhood. It was just after lunch and
Teresa, Nate, and I were sitting on the edge of a small garden in the
middle of the square relaxing and watching the old men gossiping in
their circles while the women hurried home with their arms full of
groceries, or picking up children from school. Despite the warm
weather everyone was dressed in traditional Islamic garb. The men
were wearing long dress-like overcoats with round or pointy white
hats. The women were dressed in traditional long dresses with head
coverings. It was a stark contrast from the range of clothing seen in
Marrakech. As people poured into the square from the alleys we
noticed they most were eating sugar-covered donuts on a palm leaf
string. They looked absolutely delicious so we decided to try some for
ourselves. We followed the trail of donuts through the ally to a
vendor selling them out of his cart. For a single diram we filled our
mouths with the sweet, sugary, greasy dough that would put Crispy
Creams to shame. When it comes to food, always follow the locals. In
our experience they were always the tastiest and were extremely
accommodating to tourists.
Speaking of accommodating, the Moroccans we met were very interested in what we thought of their country and took a lot of pride in it. They were always quick to recommend an area we had never heard of (how we choose our Atlas mountains trip), or offer us a place to stay with their relatives. At one point during our stay in Fes a man stopped us in the middle of the street to ask us what we thought of Morocco. Naturally my guard was up thinking this guy wanted something from us. We told him we had come from Marrakesh and what we had seen. He had a huge smile on his face all the time we were talking. When we finished, the man just said, "welcome to Morocco!" and walked away. I was quite shocked at how friendly people were. Teresa and I decided we had reverse culture shock from interacting with cold Americans all the time.
Speaking of accommodating, the Moroccans we met were very interested in what we thought of their country and took a lot of pride in it. They were always quick to recommend an area we had never heard of (how we choose our Atlas mountains trip), or offer us a place to stay with their relatives. At one point during our stay in Fes a man stopped us in the middle of the street to ask us what we thought of Morocco. Naturally my guard was up thinking this guy wanted something from us. We told him we had come from Marrakesh and what we had seen. He had a huge smile on his face all the time we were talking. When we finished, the man just said, "welcome to Morocco!" and walked away. I was quite shocked at how friendly people were. Teresa and I decided we had reverse culture shock from interacting with cold Americans all the time.
