Riding the Rails...

We took the train from Marrakech to Fes. It was a fantastic way to see the countryside. It's amazing to me how different peoples' lives are in the city from those in the country. Outside of Marrakech, people had wells and sheep and cooked over fires. The countryside is beautiful, and full of farms and orange groves. The trip was not without it's moments of excitement. At one point, the window outside of our compartment shattered....we're pretty sure it was a rock, not a bullet. But I guess you never know. I did think about the film Babel for a moment....The train ride was a little over 7 hours as we went northwest through Casablanca before turning east towards Fes. Once we arrived, we went straight to the International Youth Hostel, which had super cheap rooms surrounding a beautiful courtyard garden. They only had a vacancy for one night, but the school referred us to the Hotel Olympic, which had fairly cheap double rooms with private bathrooms, and.....TV! With ONE station in ENGLISH! It was, however, the international version of CNN, which pretty much repeats the same story every 3o minutes or so. But hey, news is news. And I miss it. So, we settled into the Hotel Olympic for the weekend, since the school was closed and couldn't arrange for more permanent lodgings until Monday. We spent some time exploring Fes, when it wasn't pouring rain. Which wasn't very often. I think Fes may in fact be the Seattle of Morocco. And when it rains, it pours. We're surrounded by mountains, so it's beautiful when you can see them. Fes is divided into three sections; the Medina (the old town), the middle town, and the Ville Nouvelle (new town). The school is in the Ville Nouvelle. The Medina in Fes is a World Historic Site recognized by UNESCO as the largest pedestrian-only urban center in the world. Also, the oldest Medina in the world. It is massive. It was founded in the 9th century, and is home to the oldest university in the world. 200,000 people live within the walls of the Medina. And there are no cars. Although, plenty of donkeys. We hired a tour guide, Najib, who showed us some of the sites. There are 2,000 mosques within the walls of the Medina, and the oldest universities in the world, called "medersas" are connected to them. While non-Muslims aren't allowed to enter the mosques, we could see the medersas, which are in the process of being restored by UNESCO. We also saw a few of the many gates, or Babs, that allow you into the wall of the city. Fes is the handicraft and artisan capital of Morocco, and we saw artisans working in bronze, leather, weaving, embroidery, etc. And of course, they all tried to sell us things. Prices aren't set in Morocco, and you're expected to bargain. Which can take a very long time. Also, as a side note, Najib was asked how many camels my father wanted for me...a couple of times. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure they were joking. Fes is known for it's leather - camel, cow, goat, etc. We got to see the huge open-air tanneries where the hide is scraped, treated and colored in large pits. We were given some mint to help with the smell, which was perhaps the foulest smell to ever assault my nose. Dad wanted a leather bag, and ended up bargaining with the shop owner in German, since it was a language they both knew. We ate lunch on the terrace of a restaurant by one of the main gates. We didn't make it to the Jewish section, but I will probably head that way soon. Dad caught a train to Casablanca early in the morning on Thursday so he could catch his flight back to Madrid, then home. He was able to have lunch with my homestay family before he left, which is good. By the way, thanks for the trip Dad! I'm sorry I was sick the whole time. But I enjoyed it. And the antibiotics I finally procured from a pharmacy were miraculous.