Even though today is July 4th, we spent a large part of today saying we were from Canada when we were asked in the leather shops...
Fez is all sorts of crazy with its ginormous medina comprised of 9500 alleys. It is actually the world's largest living Islamic medieval city as well as the biggest car-free urban area in the world (but not donkey free!). Ergo, we spent the majority of the day getting lost, getting un-lost, and donkey-dodging.
The main attraction in the Fez medina is the tanneries where you can watch workers dipping hides in the giant vats of dye. It is a very smelly process in which the main ingredients are pigeon poo and cow urine. It's definitely organic--another check for Fez in the "green" city column. They give you a sprig of mint to smell while watching the workers, but I just chose to close my nose while taking pictures. They, of course, expect you to buy something in their shops for looking or you can just tip them some money for the privilege of taking pictures.
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Landscape views--vats to the left are for preparing the hides,
vats to the right are dyes |
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| Dye close-up |
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| Men at work |
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| Out to dry |
Because we are staying near the main gate to the medina (Bab Bou Jeloud), the tanneries were a bit of a hike across the medina. We stuck to one of the main streets and ended up in the right area, but could not find the correct side streets. So, when in doubt, follow a tour guide with Westerners. Sure enough, it lead us to the tanneries. As per our goal, though, we did not need to employ any "faux guides" to get us un-lost. We might have circled the main mosque, the Kairaouine Mosque, a few times, but we soon enough found our way! We also found the attention to be greatly reduced today since we did not have our packs (and were not fresh meat). A few "no thank yous" in whatever language sufficed if we did not want to go into any shops (and the medina is packed full of them--we are kind of convinced that all people do here is shop). Here are my favorite snaps from wandering around today:
We are off to the city of Meknes tomorrow which we will use as a jumping off point to attempt to get to Volubilis (most famous Roman ruins in Morocco). After that, it's a train to Marrakesh on Monday morning!
3 comments:
Hi Linds! Happy Fourth to you! Looks like you're seeing some cool stuff. Your Mom wanted me to send you a picture to prove she can still have fun without you two (check your email). Have fun and say hi to Courtney!
AHH I WANT TO GO TO THERE. Linds, I am just drooling. Happy Fourth of July! Miss you!
I love the colorful everything... and the donkeys! Have 4th!!! Miss you Courtney... I saw your look alike today as I was walking to class from the parking lot and for a moment I thought it might be you and then I remembered you were on the other side of the world having sooo much fun! :o)
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