We wander the streets of Fez's old medina

This morning, several small groups of us got up early to go to Fez. I don't think I've slept past 8am since I got here. Me and four other students took a grand taxi from Ifrane to Fez, about an hour's drive. A note about taxis: petit taxis will shuttle you around town and hold four people plus the driver. Each town has a specific color for its petit taxis: in Ifrane they are green, in Fez they are red. Grand taxis will shuttle you between towns, and are supposed to take six people, plus the driver. You have to pay for all six seats, regardless of how many are actually occupied. I can't imagine having any more than five passengers, though, because we were quite cramped and uncomfortable as it was. They are just these old Mercedes(es?) that in the states would hold five people, including the driver. Here, however, you are supposed to squeeze seven people into them.

Anyway, it was about 25 DH (less than $4) apiece, including the price for the extra seat. There was only one handle to roll the windows up and down, so we passed it around to get some fresh air. On the way we passed a lot of fields that were dotted with what I think are red poppies, but am not sure about. It looked just like that scene from the Wizard of Oz, though. There were a lot of people sitting at crossroads trying to catch rides, and a lot of rocks and cacti the further along we got. Driving was a little scary, kind of like in China, where there aren't really any set rules of the road. We made it alive, though, and the taxi driver dropped us off at the grand taxi station in Fez. We kind of headed off in one direction until we found a bus stop, and inquired of this nice British/Moroccan family which bus we needed to take to get to the "ancien medina." Bus number 29. So, we took bus number 29 and got off at the end and made our way through these big arched doorways that led into this dark and labrynthine maze of a souk. We just started wandering around, looking for the old medina. I think we entered the "new" medina, which was still really old, but I'm not entirely sure. I've decided that when tour books make maps of that part of Fez, they just make it up, because making a map of it would be impossible. We eventually found our way to where we wanted to go, though.

I don't even know how to begin describing that experience! It was a little overwhelming, and I think Fez is definitely a place that needs to be visited at least twice. Volubilis and Meknes we could have easily figured out on our own; it would have been nice to have a little guidance in Fez. We pretty much walked around the entire souk just taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. There were sections just of produce, and meat markets (the souk is a bombardment of bizarre and sometimes gross foreign smells, but the worst was passing by all the fish that were laying out in the sun and covered with flies). There were sections of metal workers who make those awesome lamps that I decided I can't leave without, sections of shoemakers, clothes shops, bootleg DVDs, jewelery, everything you can imagine and more. You could actually see the people sewing together a pair of leather shoes or a dress shirt. Each shop was just this room that was maybe 10 feet deep and 5 feet wide, with wooden doors that opened onto the street. The street itself was maybe five or six feet wide- just wide enough that if you backed up against the wall, you wouldn't get run over by the men leading laden donkeys through the maze. I think you could live there for years and still get lost. We spent four hours just wandering around and never saw the same street twice. Most of the old medina is covered, so it is dark and semi-cool (compared to the blazing heat of the concrete jungle outside), but it makes it more difficult to know where you are because you can't look up for any landmarks such as minarets. It was an entirely different world in there.

Three of us bought these neat little teapots to serve the famous mint tea in, and one girl bought two pairs of shoes. They are the cutest red leather shoes I've ever seen, and they were only $10, so I've decided I have to go back and get some. The teapots were kind of expensive, and my roommate told me we got ripped off, but considering I only paid half of what he wanted (I'm starting to develop some haggling skills now), and that my blond hair and lack of Arabic prevents me from ever getting the Moroccan price, I'm okay with that. I have an awesome Moroccan teapot now.

In the end, we ended up having to pay some little kid 5 DH to show us the way out, because we had somehow wandered out of the tourist area, where we would ocassionally pass small groups of Europeans, into the sketchier local part where a lot of the houses must have been (most of which can't have been much bigger than the shops). We were utterly exhausted and immediately took a grand taxi back to Ifrane (in this one, the windows didn't go down at all, but we mostly [tried] to sleep), where we all got giant bottles of cold water and took a shower.

And that was my day in Fez. I definitely want to go back. My roommate said she loves going to the old medina in Fez, and could get me the Moroccan prices if she went with me (it's hard to haggle for something when you have absolutely no concept of its worth). So, maybe on one of our other free weekends, she will take me to Fez.

Next weekend, though, it's off to the desert.