First we went down, then up, by another street, and then down again, to the bottom, and then, too tired to go up again, we took a petit taxi to go up… And like this for 3 days. And we didn’t get tired of it… I would go up and down in Fès for ever!
Even on a busy Sunday evening, pushed by everybody, shove by (stinky) donkeys and (rude) porters.
Because in Fès they push! All the time! And after 2 days you stop too to say “pardon” (French pronunciation, remember!)!

That’s strange, because in Paris and Milan they push you all the time, but I don’t stop to say “Scusa” or “Pardon” and I get always pissed by rude people all the time. Especially in Paris, in the underground: gosh, they are SO rude…
But in Fès no, they are not rude (except porters), they simply do not have the same concept of physical space we have: they are not afraid to touch a stranger in the street, they are not afraid of physical contact, they are not afraid of people. They smile, they chat, they walk around, for leisure or going to work or school, always smiling.

And if you had the enormous fortune to live in Fès, well, you would smile too!
We left our hearts in Fès! It is the most beautiful city we have been in Morocco, where we had our first understanding of Moroccan life, our first real touch of what life is there.
It’s very difficult to describe it, but it’s the most fascinating city I ever been too. You cannot see it or understanding in 1 or 2 days. Even 3 are not enough. It’s tiny, but mesmerizing.

And our personal advice is to save money, eating in the street, to be able to go and eat to Le Palais de Fès, on their terraces! The food is amazing, but the view is what is important… That view… It will never leave my mind… Ever… Le Palais de Fès does not have sign outside his door. Once you arrive down down and you arrive at R’Cif, and it looks like you are going out of the Medina but you are not, you arrive on a main street (don’t bother to look for singpost: there aren’t), follow it, and soon you’ll find on your right a cinema. There is a little square before the cinema. From the center of the square, cinema on your right, main street behind you, you’ll see a door, surrounded by green ceramics. That’s the entrance to the restaurant. Then you go up and up and up…

And be brave and go down until you find a part of the city tourist less, le quartier Andalous, on the eastern border of the Medina, and you can see real Morocco… And you eat a lot of nice, simple and tasty stuff, for nothing, as usual!!!
So tasty I couldn’t wait to take a bite of the potato puff before to take the picture!!!

P.S. There is a way to enjoy Fès without the pushing: take a walk around 8am! Unforgettable!!!

For the whole set of pictures, here!

We took the bus at 6.45 am and leave Marrakech on a cold but sunny morning.
We have in front of us 8 hours of bus ride, in the mountains. Fun!
As soon as we leave Marrakech and we begin to go up, the weather changes and it becomes grey, rainy and cold!

We freeze in the bus, we freeze during the 3 stops we are allowed to go out of the bus to eat!

First stop in the middle of the mountains, for breakfast: mint tea and some kind of patisserie. And, on the contrary of what you can think about looking at those pictures, the best thing was not the pastry in the back of the tea, but the rounded mega biscuit, that we called polentone: made mainly of butter and semolina, it’s delicious!

Back in to the bus, next stop in Kenifra for lunch (no picture, too cold!).
You have to know that on our first draft of our tour we wanted to make a night in Kenifra, just to cut in two the long journey to Fès. When we went to consult the lady of the Moroccan tourist office in Milan, she asked us why on earth we would like to stop there, as it was a city (more village) with nothing to see. My answer was (with a dreaming tone!): Because we want to watch real moroccan life goes by… She gave me one of the strangest look I’ve ever seen!
On second thought we decided we couldn’t waste 1 entire day there, so we ended up doing the whole trip at once.
And, honestly, I do not know if it was the rain or the mud caused by the rain, but thank god we decided not to stop!!! Let’s say we didn’t have the best impression of the city and the tourist office lady was absolutely right!
Then the road again, the rain again and at last, Fès!
I do not want to spoil you all the wonderful thing we saw and we did in Fès. Allow just to say that if one day we really decide to go to live in Morocco, Fès will be our first choice, above ALL.
I give just a bite for now! Mind: it was sunset!

And then we ate our first Moroccan sandwich, made of marinated meat (with onion, garlic, coriander and other spices difficult to sort out), grilled in front of you, and actually in front of the butcher too, and filling the wonderful Moroccan bread (you can see it in the back) all together with a spicy sauce! Delicious!!! Shall i tell you how much was it? I dunno, because maybe you won’t believe me… We ate in the street, walking, and we bought from a stall where there was all moroccan people… And I think we pay it anyway more then Moroccan do, but it was 2 euros for 2 big sandwiches… Nothing!

For the whole set of pictures, here!

We left home on a Friday night, heading to my parents home, in Varese, where we left the cat and we slept few hours before leaving for the airport (Malpensa is much nearer to my parents house then to our home in Milan) at 4.30 am on a Saturday.
3 hours flight with EasyJet from Milan to Marrakech, just the time to chat with a nice Moroccan woman living in Italy and traveling to her parent’s house in Beni-Mellal, half way between Marrakech and Fès, as we will discover the day after…
We land in Marrakech the early morning of a wonderful sunny saturday (Morocco is two hours behind Italy) and we catch the bus heading to the city.
It’s a short ride, 20 minutes at most, to arrive to the souther part of the famous Place Jemaa El Fna, which we do not explore then, but we begin to look for our riad: a little treat we indulge ourselves, as it will be the most expensive of all our trip.
The riad is on the map of the Guide Vert Michelin, but we soon discover, in the wrong location. Really in the wrong location!
But mind: we are still naive, we do not yet know how to act with “helpful” Moroccans…
And you have to know that Medinas, the Moroccan old city centers, are a labyrinth of noisy, narrow and cul-de-sac streets, with few exits and you get easily lost. And there isn’t street names… And when there are street names, they are in Arab alphabet…
We were approached in the street by an old lady (you can normally trust women in Morocco, but they rarely speak to strangers) whom speaks only arab. She’s trying to help us, we understand. So when she turn to a young guy explaining him (we suppose, as the conversation is in Arab) we are trying to find Riad An Nur, we gladly think that in the end, what all the travel guides tell you, is not really true: people in Morocco are genuine helping strangers in the street…
And of course we were WRONG. The young guy put us in the hands of another young guy who tells us to follow him. We of course follow him. But after 20 minutes going endlessly around the labyrinth, with no clear aim and we the feeling that he’s just trying to making us feel even more lost, we decide we do not need is “help” anymore and we prefer to call the riad for specific directions.
But this guy is still following us, saying he know where to bring us, he knows where the riad is, he’s helping us…
We kindly tell him, please, don’t worry, we call the riad and they’ll come to pick us up, thanks for your help… Nothing. He doesn’t go away. And I tell you that the situation is beginning not only to piss us off, but to worry us…
We call the riad and the gentleman on the phone tell us to wait for him in front of the “bureau de tabac” (tobacconist). Only we do not find a bureau the tabac, because the guy that was trying to “help” us listened to everything, he’s ahead of us and (supposedly) saying to everyone to give us wrong direction. We asked to the bureau de tabac if it was one, but they told us, no, sorry, we are not… But they were!
After looking around for 20 minutes, always followed by the guy, we finally find the riad gentlemen, Faissal whom get rid of the strange guy in a sec…
From that day we learned that never, under any circumstance, you should trust anyone who’s approaching you in the street in Morocco. They seem nice, they smile at you, but all they want from you is money for nothing. They do not care about you, they do not care you are lost. They are just after your money, as a tip or a percentage on a selling or a room, in a way or another they just want your money. Sure they are not just trying to help.
Anyway, after this weird start, we enter the riad, and WOW!

First of all, there is silence.
Then it’s fresh, calm, clean…
It’s a paradise, with a luxurious garden, wonderful suites, shadowy patios and sunny roof top…
And then,suddenly, we are affected by what we called “The Riad syndrome”: you don’t want to go out any more. You just want to stay there, lying on the bed, or on the sofa, or on the terrace, taking a refreshing shower, or a nap, or just reading… You want the riad be your home. Forever.

And so you go out of the door and boom: another world, another dimension! Noise, children loudly playing in the street, mopeds with their noisy horns, people trying to get you in their shop… But you begin to adjust and you like the outside too, because at the end you know you have a refuge…
Anyway, we forced ourself to go out because we had to eat and to buy the ticket for next day bus to Fès.
So we go to the bus station. And suddenly, again, people asking us, in any language “where do you have to go?” And I’m almost starting to answer, but then I think why someone should care? And so we decide to ignore them: we knew, from the travel guides, it was better to travel with CTM, because all the others companies have very poor services. We find the CTM ticket counter and we buy our tickets for the day after 7 am bus to Fès: 8 hours of bus riding…
Then we head to Place Jemaa El Fna to eat.
We survey some stalks (constantly harassed by everybody, trying to convince us to eat at their place) and we chose one full of Moroccan people.
We have our first tajine de poulet au citron (Chicken with confit lemon Tajine) and grilled meat, with bread.
Bread was the most amazing discover of Morocco: the best we’ve ever tried! And you know why? Simple: is cooked in a wood oven. But I have time to tell you all about it!
Finally we can head back to our paradise!
A paradise with a kitchen, where, for not too many dirham (at least not compare to Europe, but a lot compare to the Morocco), you can have your dinner, cooked expressly for you by the riad cook (whom is normally the woman housekeeping the whole facility too). Moroccan cuisine, of corse! Salads, tajine, fruit salad, mint tea.

A luxury we’ll experience again during our trip!

Next, Day 2 Rain going to Fès

P.S. Let’s say I wasn’t SO inspired when I wrote this entry! I hope to be less boring and more catchy with the following!