Freezing in Fés

Google Fés and you will see people walking along the Medina in the sun. That is the picture that was in my mind that was quickly being erased as we fell asleep Monday night to pounding rain and wind rattling the windows. It would blow over right? Yes. Yes it would. Positive thinking.

No. No it did not.

It was not even a sprinkle it was a bloody down pour. We got off the bus to see the door of the royal palace...just the door and the Jewish quarter. It was the worst 30 minutes of everyone on the tour. With cold wet feet we all got back on the bus to go to the top of a hill to view the Medina. As you can see from the video it was awful.

But we paid money for this and Wednesday we are off to a new place so we sucked it up and continued to the the Medina tour. Which was semi covered and we got to go into shops. We needed a tour guide for the Medina because it is full of windy narrow streets with no street signs. And no google map street view to help.

Stop 1 - ceramics shop - new found respect for ceramics and the hand painting the people do. Also just being able to make pottery is amazing. I wanted it all but just got a new tea cup with silver on it. Nothing fancy.

Stop 2 - Fés tannery - this place is famous (google it!) for its leather and how they colour it. Obviously I had to buy a bright pink leather purse. Which I bartered down and was happy with the price. Also I helping a man feed his family. (Shhhh don’t tell my leather guy in Bali).

Stop 3 - scarf shop - they showed us how they weave the scarves and then pushed their wares onto us. Luckily Ty and I are scarf people (sorry, Ty wears pashminas). I was able to get a suitable price for 4 of them but the man was not giving in to my low balling price for the silkworm scarf. Sadly I walked away from the camel scarf. Still have regrets. 😢

Lunch was in restaurant that had remarkable ceramic tiles, which after seeing how they were made gave all of us more appreciation for the craftsmanship. We had another 4 course feast where salad is not salad. Still loving lamb tangine and mint teas so that is good as I think there are a lot in my future.

We returned to the hotel at 3 where we at napped, read, and warmed up. Yes, it is that cold. I went to dinner in my wool aritzia blanket scarf! Like we said in London “you know it is cold when the Canadians are”. Here I was worried about having enough cool clothes to wear. Haha. Fack.

Tomorrow we have a 6:30am start so we can make it to the Sahara to ride a camel to watch a sunset. You know just a regular day. HahaRead more