Meandering the Moroccan Medinas

Having made it to Morocco we explored Rabat and Fes. We started the day by getting the ferry (a little fishing boat) across the river which cost around 20p each. As we had discovered the previous day the water is not especially clean which was especially evident when we saw a man pulling hundreds of plastic bottles out of the riverbank mud. This made me realise the extent of the problems of plastic in the world.

We wandered up to the Kasbah, which is the area where mainly Muslims and Jews live. We soon had a man approaching us and insisting we needed a guide. Without knowing a price or what it involved we embarked on this tour- not what I was used to! He was actually very interesting and showed us around the colourful blue and white streets, which are painted in these colours as blue keeps the flies away and white symbolises peace. It was a fascinating visit as we learned more about their culture and religion especially as the rich and poor lived directly next door to each other. I got the impression that it is a very mixed society, far more so than ours. At the end of our tour we went to a café for traditionally Moroccan mint tea and pastries, which were extremely sweet to prepare us for looking around the medina.

No amount of pastries could have prepared us for what the medina had in store for us. These little market stalls were absolutely packed but to my surprise there were hardly any tourists and the locals were not aggressive in selling things to us. Although it may seem we had not done much we were all fairly exhausted mainly due to the heat and the bustle of the city. We returned to the boat where we heard the echoing of people being called to prayer.

The following day we took some time to explore Fes a bit. Although both my father and uncle were a bit sceptical about the quality of the train and whether their insurance would even cover them it was impressive and quite modern. We arrived at the station clearly looking a bit overwhelmed and very British so it wasn’t long before a tour guide came up and told a us a story about how he was supposed to guide some people from the American Embassy and they missed their train etc. Whilst we were not buying the story we thought we would go on his tour… after all we didn’t have a clue where to go and thank goodness we did. He took us to the entrance of the Medina, the largest walking area in the world, which was full of people, markets and donkeys bustling around. We walked through these very crammed streets, through market stalls and felt very out of place.

I was horrified to see chickens alive, tied together at the feet and all sorts of animals including turtles stuck in cages. We then moved on to the carpentry markets, which were more, my style. We were taken to various workshops including fabrics, carpets and a pharmacy where we learnt how they made their products and then had the opportunity to purchase some. A highlight in particular was the tanneries although they stank. This is where they make their leather by soaking animal skins in tubs. They do not use any chemicals but rely on pigeon poo and natural dies hence the smell! Overall it was a great end to a tiring but an interesting time in Morocco.

As we motored up the river going out to sea we could hear the sounds of people being called to prayer echoing around the city. It made me reflect on what an interesting but demanding lives these people live and how it is a million miles from out expectations of life in the UK.