In Fez there was so much vibrant color and interesting sights around every corner. But it was a joy to experience in every way: the sounds, the smells, and some great food.
And until you have touched leather goods made from the belly of a camel, you have no idea how soft leather can be. I only wish I lived somewhere that I could get use from a leather jacket. Or actually, I’m glad I don’t, because it would have set me back a pretty dirham.
Anyway, here are just a few of the many things I’ve enjoyed about Fez.
As always, you can skip the reading and just look at the pretty pictures.
Ceramics
I love ceramics, so our visit to Art d’Argile was a bit hit with me. They do traditional pottery, but they also do something called zellige, which is the type of mosaic I’ve seen so much of in Moroccan architecture. It’s different from typical mosaic with thick grout. They back-cut the tiles so that they join together with an almost invisible seam. From a distance, it looks like a solid surface. And it is also strictly geometric in design, as Muslims do not believe in creating images of living beings.
By the way, don’t ask me if I spent any money at Art d’Argile…
The Medina of Fez
I can’t even begin to describe all the experiences of walking through the medina. I will say it comes closer to my expectations of Morocco than did Chefchaouen or Tangier. It’s definitely grittier. Here were the children selling tschotchkes (though I don’t think that’s what they call them). Here were the beggars with hands outstretched and the aggressive street peddlers.
The streets were narrow and noisy, and you had to navigate carefully through throngs, not just of tourists, but of the many people working there, delivering goods in heavy carts, shouting “look out, look out.” (They seem to know that we tourists will respond better to “look out” than to “aintabih,” the phrase Abdellah warned us to listen for.)
We passed by so many interesting shops, many with people working on crafts with copper and brass or fabric or leather or jewelry. We smelled all kinds of foods, savory and sweet, and watched them being prepared. The doors and arches were decorated with stunning zellige and carved plaster, and we would perform all sorts of acrobatics to get the best photos.
And then we would duck into a funduq (a caravanserai) or a madrasah and suddenly the world turned peaceful.
Here’s a sampling of photos, but you should really visit my album to see them all.
Home-hosted dinner
One of the regular features of OAT tours is the home-hosted dinner. We spend the evening with a local family, have dinner with them (and sometimes help them cook), and learn about their life as well as giving them the opportunity to learn about ours.
I was with a group of six who visited Omar and his wife (who none of us can remember her name) and their 16-year-old son, Mohammed.
We ate with spoons and forks. Our hosts ate with their fingers, using bread to pick up their food. It was all delicious!
On the way back to our riad, Omar said that he loves Americans and loves having us for dinner. (They do this every few months, and have been over the last four years.) He said he won’t host Europeans, though he didn’t explain why. But it made me wonder if we Americans (at least the ones who travel to Morocco) are as loud and boorish and as we imagine ourselves (or other Americans) to be.
Today we visited Volubilis and Meknes. I’ll write about that in a separate post.
Tomorrow we leave Fez and head south to the Sahara desert. I’ll try to catch up, but it’s likely there’ll be a few days when I won’t have internet.
I hope you are enjoying my photos and stories from this wonderful country.
Leave a Reply