Fes, Morocco

This is how coke deliveries occur in the Medina! How awesome is that?!?
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Fes is quite an interesting place.  I stayed in old Fes, in a Riad in the heart of the Medina.  A Medina is sort of like an old medieval city.  In this one, the roads are windy and cars cannot fit on the streets.  You either walk around or take donkeys if you have stuff to carry. In fact, they do all their deliveries on donkey, even for coca-cola!  Its quite an overwhelming place and one can easily get lost even with the best sense of direction.

Now Fes is VERY cheap.  I bought fresh bread to snack on for 1 DN (about $.12).  I had to buy this because there is nothing to eat in Fes.  Nothing.  I ate Vegetarian Tangine (which is veggies with Moroccan spices).  And that is all they have unless you eat meat.  Which, even if you do - you may choose not to in Fes.  The meat is hanging from stalls and every part of it is still there.  The head, cut off at the neck with flies all around, the hooves just laying there, etc.  It would make even Eric think twice about eating meat!  I don't have a pic of the meat... but trust me, you wouldn't want to see it.  They also sell chickens, alive.  You pick one and then they twist its neck and chop off the head for you.  No thanks... just Vegetarian Tangine for me!

The 4am prayer call is obviously the worst. There is no sleeping through it.

Richard and Rosie (my Riad mates from the UK).
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Now, the Medina (and all of Morocco) is very poor.  As such you are hassled at every turn.  People want money to walk with you, talk with you, show you around the Medina.  Want you to buy this or that, do this or that, whatever.  I'm surprised they haven't asked for money for breathing their air!  I hate that I feel this way - I understand how poor they are, but you cannot understand how draining it is to be pushed, pulled, prodded at every turn, every minute of every day.  There is no respite from this.  Unless you go back to your Riad.  Now the Riads are very nice, but because you are in a room in a home (sort of) you cant really relax here.  Its quiet and you want to keep it this way.  I found a place to play guitar on the roof, but it gets quite hot outside mid-day.  So you cant stay up there for long.  The second Riad I stayed at was much larger than the first.  The Riad owner Louie was a DJ and he was very cool. He spun for me for a while and because his roof was super large I could find a spot to chill out and play guitar w/o disturbing everyone.  We even went out to dinner one night. He took me to New Fes where we found a pizza place.  It was really good!  Of course after eating Tangine Vegetables for dinner every night, anything would have been good!

One of four remaining working fountains in the Medina
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Another thing about Morocco, and Fes in particular are the prayer calls.  You are surrounded by Mosques with loudspeakers on top of them.  And at 4am, Noon, 6pm, etc. prayer calls blast out telling everyone its time to pray.  The 4am prayer call is obviously the worst.  There is no sleeping through it.  And it goes on for what feels like an eternity (although I timed it and it lasts anywhere from 10-15 minutes).  The call is sort of musical, but after a few days I found it more comical than anything else.  It seems like its always time to pray!

The tannery
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In my Riad I had a home cooked Moroccan meal with my Riad-mates, Richard and Rosie from the UK.  They were a very nice couple and it was fun to chat with them.  Richard was a psychologist and we got along well.  He enjoyed my sarcasm and laughed lots.  The home cooked meal was very good.  We ate on the roof under the stars.  It was a special night.  I also enjoyed the tannery.  It was cool to see how they still make the dyes old school style.  Of course I had to pay some kid 5 DN let me take a pic of the tannery, but it was worth it.

The chill out roof of my first Riad
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I'm glad I got to see Fes, but 1 overnight is plenty.  I stayed 4.  Waaaayyyyy too long here.