First Morning In Fez

We woke up ready to see Fez. I was pretty tired, but we had a breakfast (included with the room) of orange juice, coffee, bread, and yogurt. Then we were on our way. Our plan was to find the Pension Dalila mentioned in the ROutard guide. They said it is near a mosque and not so touristic which appealed to Elena until I reminded her of the implication of sleeping near a mosque--the muezzin calling you to prayer at odd hours with the amp on the loudspeaker set to the Spinal Tap 11.

So we headed out and found the tourist information center. It was closed. So we headed up Hassan II to the Royal Palace. We snapped a few pictures. Fez is certainlu much prettier than Tangier.

We went around the right of the palace and down a few meters passing by bulk food stores including even things ike macaroni and popcorn in the same big bags as cous-cous and lentils. Before long, we found a gate with a road leading north. We went through and found ourselves surrounded by little cothing booths. All sorts of pretty dresses and even a ew booths for men's robes. We continued through the covered (whew!) market and exited the other side where we found signs in English pointing to the old medina. We followed it and had a few more photo opportunities.

Here I am with "the two babs" (an Arabic pun with Office Space reference).

If the medina is a clock, we were at about 9 o'clock (Bab Mahrouk) and we wanted to get to about 1 o'clock. So we went along seeing the walls of the Kasbah, taking a short-cut through the tombs of the Merinides where some kids tried to throw at us. The cemetary had a well and people were coming to draw water. Seems odd to drink water from a well of a cemetary. The graves are interesting. Whitewashed and sort of above ground. The graves in New Orleans are above ground because the coffins woud otherwise float up when it floods, but I can't imagine that is a problem in Fez. We passed the Bab Guissa and took another shortcut to the section of the medina without Babs--just roads. It was certainly less touristic. Lots of donkeys and locals doing local stuff. We found the Pension Dalila easy enough, but Elena didn't like the area, so we decided not to stay there. Elena and I have an agreement. I'll pay the first 150 dh of any hotel, and she's responsible for the rest. That way if she has an incentive to keep her standards as low as possible. They are certainly higher than mine, though.

It was getting pretty hot. The shade was actually quite comfortable, but it's hot in the sun. And the sun was approaching it's highest point which meant the shaded area along the walls was shrinking to nothing. So we got a red Petit Taxi. We asked the driver about how much to the Place Mohammed V. He said aboout 15 dh. So we went with him. Great driver. He cut off anybody and everybody to get us there fast. In the end it was 13.80 dh, but I gave him 16 dh for his daring aggressiveness behind the wheel. Only a little over US$2. While in the cab, we realized how much we had walked. We got a cold water and came back to our room.

It's a little better with with the touts here. People come up to us occasionally to help us, but not as often as in Tangier and they are not persistent. The only persistent guy was a guy who gave us some advice and then tried to sell us leather bags which were indeed quite pretty and nice. He showed us the array of color and told us which colors come from which dyes. His first price was 200 dh (US$30), but when we weren't interested we dropped to 150 dh (US$22), when we still weren't interested we dropped to 100 dh (US$15). He told us it was the low season (it is) and that he's trying to scrape by on razor thin margins, but we just have no way to fit them into our luggage. I have no plans to buy anything unless I throw away something of equivalent volume. I could definitely see paying 100 dh for one, though as they are quite nice. Maybe once in the medina, near the tanneries well see similar products for the same or less.