Day 1: Casablanca to Fes
Side note: I hate French keyboards. It is taking me twice as long as usual and I still cant figure out how to use the apostrophe.
We arrived in Casablanca early Sunday morning, really nothing too exciting, the usual airport stuff. Waiting in line to exchange money, we met this girl Beth, who was doing the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa, when they apparently all had to evacuate. I never did figure out exactly why, there wasnt anything on the news (no surprise), but now her and a few friends were travelingup through Morocco, Spain and some other places waiting to go back.
Took the train from the airport to Casa to wait for the train to Fes. The hospitality of Arabs never ceases to amaze me. This random guy struck up a conversation with me about what we were doing in Morocco. He then sat down and wrote down five villages in the Mid Atlas that he said we had to go to, waterfalls, monkeys, and great views. He was the first to tell us not to go to Chefchaoun (sorry Burbs), but not the last. In the end we did decide to go to the Atlas instead, but that is on day three and Im getting ahead of myself.
On the train, we met another guy, Said, who was even more helpful than the last guy. He went into a lot more detail about what we should see, and told us he had a friend that was an official guide in Fes with the Ministry of Tourism. Sometimes Im wary with "friends" but the guide, Ahmed turned out to be just about the most amazing guide ever. He picked us up from the station and took us straight to our "riad" or hotel. I guess the word hotel doesn't do it justice (ha!!! apostrophe success '''''). Riads are generally old houses that have been restored, with an amazing central open courtyard. It is even more striking, because the entire Medina (old city) is the same from the outside, a dirty tan stone, with no windows or hints as to how the inside looks. Ahmed said it leads to a much more equal feel between the people of the Medina, because no one really knows what you have. So you walk through this perfectly normal wooden door, which looks like any other, and you get a big surprise on the inside.
Getting around the Medina without a guide is not an option. There are over 9600 streets and alleyways in the Medina, and everything is close together so its pretty hard to get your bearings.The first day didn't entail much, Ahmed took us around just a little bit, and we had dinner at a terrace overlooking Bab Boujloud, the main entrance to the Medina. After that we were so tired we went to bed to recouperate for the next day in the Medina.
We arrived in Casablanca early Sunday morning, really nothing too exciting, the usual airport stuff. Waiting in line to exchange money, we met this girl Beth, who was doing the Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa, when they apparently all had to evacuate. I never did figure out exactly why, there wasnt anything on the news (no surprise), but now her and a few friends were travelingup through Morocco, Spain and some other places waiting to go back.
Took the train from the airport to Casa to wait for the train to Fes. The hospitality of Arabs never ceases to amaze me. This random guy struck up a conversation with me about what we were doing in Morocco. He then sat down and wrote down five villages in the Mid Atlas that he said we had to go to, waterfalls, monkeys, and great views. He was the first to tell us not to go to Chefchaoun (sorry Burbs), but not the last. In the end we did decide to go to the Atlas instead, but that is on day three and Im getting ahead of myself.
On the train, we met another guy, Said, who was even more helpful than the last guy. He went into a lot more detail about what we should see, and told us he had a friend that was an official guide in Fes with the Ministry of Tourism. Sometimes Im wary with "friends" but the guide, Ahmed turned out to be just about the most amazing guide ever. He picked us up from the station and took us straight to our "riad" or hotel. I guess the word hotel doesn't do it justice (ha!!! apostrophe success '''''). Riads are generally old houses that have been restored, with an amazing central open courtyard. It is even more striking, because the entire Medina (old city) is the same from the outside, a dirty tan stone, with no windows or hints as to how the inside looks. Ahmed said it leads to a much more equal feel between the people of the Medina, because no one really knows what you have. So you walk through this perfectly normal wooden door, which looks like any other, and you get a big surprise on the inside.
Getting around the Medina without a guide is not an option. There are over 9600 streets and alleyways in the Medina, and everything is close together so its pretty hard to get your bearings.The first day didn't entail much, Ahmed took us around just a little bit, and we had dinner at a terrace overlooking Bab Boujloud, the main entrance to the Medina. After that we were so tired we went to bed to recouperate for the next day in the Medina.
1 Comments:
welcome to Morocco dude, if you come to Rabat,let's hanging out
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