Later we visited Meknes and wandered around a charming and maze-like medina (medina: old walled town). It reminded me of Stonetown in Zanzibar. The markets were spectacular with displays of olives, preserved lemons, dried spices, and ….well we won’t talk about the dismembering of a cow’s head (I turned away and ignored THAT stall! sometimes it’s hard to be an animal lover….). Lots of mosaic tiling, men and women donning the djellaba (hooded robe), motorcycles zooming through the narrow streets, and oh I love this one, the calls to prayer on loudspeaker 5 times a day heard throughout the medina. Things to buy in the markets include pointed Moroccan slippers ( I should have bought the dalmation print ones I saw yesterday because I have not seen them again arghhgh), tajines (painted casserole dishes with cone-shaped lids), mirrors edged with Moroccan engraved silver or mosaic tile, and…Converse All-Stars, my favorite! (need to get some before I leave, they cost about $10). Okay, so the Converse aren’t exactly ‘Moroccan’, nor are the Prada handbags…but you get that. So my French is getting a bit better with practice and Sayid, our guide, is trying to teach us Arabic. It’s a tricky language. I think I will have to use my time-proven trick of writing a new word on my hand every day so I can practice it. And remember it!!
We arrived late in the day in FES. Our hotel is gorgeous, very Moroccan looking with light blue walls in the room, plenty of mosaic and tiling, a tiny bathroom with a bidet, and huge windows that open up onto the street below, right next to the medina. Mum, Catronelle (a lady on our tour) wandered around the medina and had a wonderful dinner of vegetarian cous-cous, lentils with fresh flat bread, and chicken and prune tajine under the stars on a rooftop terrace restaurant, with the craziness of the medina below. We bought some delicious sweet almond-y treats at a market stall, and I spied another one with SNAILS which I am determined to try while we are here….YUMMY! The Moroccans love their sweet treats, pastries with honey and sugar and almond and nuts, they are tiny and bite sized and beautiful.
