Ed Space: Fes

Frantic Fes.

We arrived at night and stayed at a hotel that Myrian had helped organise. The concierge, Nabil, was a sleazy guy in a cheap suit who spent the majority of his time flirting with the girls. At least we received a discounted rate on the rooms.
For dinner, Myriam suggested a restaurant that her parents had recommended and Nabil organised for one of the men at the restaurant to come and chaperone us there. I had the Fes specialty: the pigeon pastilla - a saccharine pigeon tart covered in crushed nuts, cinnamon and powdered sugar. It reminded me vaguely of the chicken pies from Yum Cha.

The next morning we ventured into the Medina and explored the souks. There was an amazing array of different things - an abundance of food and fresh produce including vegetables, fruit, meat and freshly slaughtered chicken. There were mules carrying large containers of oil, a man pushing a cart of live snails, another with a cart of fresh oranges. People sold tea, spices, clothes, scarves, slippers, soaps, bronze works, ceramics, leather goods and a myriad of other wonders.
We had a picnic lunch in the square. We snacked on a selection of marinated olives, kafta, grilled chicken and fresh bread. Whilst we ate, we met a young, taciturn boy who watched us with interest. We offered him some food but he declined. Another boy came along a short while after and we let them play with our cameras.

After lunch, we had a coffee at one of the cafes in the souks and reluctantly farewelled Myriam. The next few hours were filled with stress and running about. I had been unable to withdraw money from three ATMs in the Medina that morning, and was advised to contact my bank by one of the Moroccan tellers. Having obtained the UK bank's customer service phone number by using the internet at a nearby cybercafe, I then proceeded to call them using the local public phone - but that proved to be a task in itself. However, around 200 dirrham later I managed to contact them and sort everything out (Note: let your bank know if you go abroad. Duh). I was incredibly thankful that the old lady working at the telephone cabines was very understanding and had a surplus of one dirrham coins at my disposal.

After everything was sorted, the girls and I explored the souks a bit more and were guided by a pair of teenage boys to the pungent tanneries, forbidden mosques, architecturally stunning Merdesa and old Jewish Quarter. We were then politely coerced into buying carpets and leather goods. I guess that was their commission.

By now evening had fallen, and we took a petit taxi into the Ville Nouvelle for a Mc Donald's dinner - they had a Mc Arabia burger! I had a "badinjane" flavoured "burger" with pepper and aubergine sauce. It was basically a meat pattie wrapped in flat bread.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. The girls needed to change their bus tickets for the next day, so Nabil and his two cronies drove us to the CTM station back in the Ville Nouvelle. After fixing up the tickets, we went to a cafe-restaurant so Nabil and his friends could get a bite to eat.

Afterwards, as we were driving back, we passed a house that was hosting a Moroccan wedding - so we gatecrashed it! It was really lovely - people were dressed up nicely and dancing, and the band wore fezzes. The most impressive sight for me though was the wedding cake - a beautiful corkscrew-tiered tower of cakes! But we were quickly thrown out when we took photos.

And so our evening in Fes came to an end. We drove back to the hotel, marvelling at the lights of the Ville Nouvelle and the grand Palais Royal on the way, and reminiscing about our lovely day in Fes.

Some photos. Enjoy!

Pigeon Pastilla