TRAVELWITHZOE

Around half way through my one-month Morocco trip, I travelled from a Couchsurfing host family in Er-Rich to meet a Couchsurfing host in Fes/Fez (it can be spelt either way but I’m going to go with the Fes spelling for the rest of the article).

I took a local bus and it took around 6 hours. My Couchsurfing host in Fes was in a similar situation to the host I’d had in Tinghir – his family owned a riad/guesthouse, so instead of hosting me in a house, I was given a room at the guesthouse. My host picked me up at the bus station and drove me to the guesthouse which actually took a while because Fes is a big city with lots of cars, and parking around the Medina was a bit difficult too (the guesthouse was inside the Medina but you have to leave your car outside the Medina and then walk).

I was given a cute private double room with a shared bathroom, and my host had to leave after showing me to my room because he had to go home to work (he works in the guesthouse as well as running another business from home). I was pretty tired from the journey so I just walked around to get some dinner and buy some fruit to take back to the room.

I got an early night and the next day was basically the only day when I’d be able to explore Fes, as I was only staying two nights. My Couchsurfing host had said he’d be busy during the day but that we could meet up to hang out in the evening. I looked on Google Maps and decided to go on quite a long walk (like 40 minutes) to a place called the Marinid Tombs, but I stopped off to get some bissara (bean soup) for breakfast on the way.

I’d definitely recommend a visit to the Marinid Tombs. They’re free to enter and you can actually walk on the ruins as there aren’t any barriers stopping you from going anywhere. There are great views of the city up there and I ended up sitting there for quite a while just enjoying the breeze and eating the oranges I’d brought with me. It’s definitely got a few cool photo opportunities.

After the Marinid Tombs, I decided to explore the Medina, which I ended up deciding is less stressful and more interesting than the Marrakesh Medina. In the Medina I tried something called cactus fruit (aka prickly pear) for the first time in my life and ended up in a massive debate with a religious man by the cactus fruit stand. The cactus fruit was so nice, I ate about 6 (they were 2 Dirhams each), but the religious man was quite annoying!

He basically came over to the cactus fruit stand and he just said hello to me because I was there, so obviously I said hello back. He asked me if I’m Muslim (maybe it was because the cactus fruit stand was like 10 metres from a mosque, or maybe it was just random), and when I told him I’m not Muslim and generally not religious, he basically started preaching to me and I couldn’t get him to stop!

I can be quite argumentative when I’m in the mood to be, so I wasn’t going to let him tell me what to do with my life without giving him anything back. He was literally telling me that I’m going to go to hell if I don’t become a Muslim, and that I need to go to a shop and buy a Quran immediately etc. I told him I found it quite selfish for him to be so obsessed with his religion if the main purpose is just for him to go to Heaven (you know… I thought it was supposed to be about creating positive communities and helping your neighbour etc).

Anyway, after entertaining this argument for about 10 minutes with lots of people watching us as they walked past, I decided I was bored of it so I just said goodbye to him and the cactus fruit man and walked away (I didn’t honestly know where I was going but I just needed to get away from that man!)

After I left there, I managed to use Google Maps (which isn’t always the easiest in the Medina) to find my way to the metalworkers square called Place Seffarine. My Couchsurfing host had recommended it to me, and it was quite interesting.

As the name suggests, there were lots of metalworkers mostly working with copper (apparently they’re called coppersmiths) and I don’t think I’d ever seen coppersmiths working before, so it was a new experience. They were mostly making things like plates and pots and pans, and there were different types of metal sounds coming from all directions which was oddly satisfying to listen to.

After exploring the Medina a bit more, I went back to chill at the guesthouse and then met up with my Couchsurfing host just outside the Medina and he drove us to the newer part of the city to have dinner in a cafe. Usually I find that Couchsurfing hosts enjoy chatting about the differences between our two countries, and about our past Couchsurfing experiences etc., which is basically what we spoke about.

He had to go to the supermarket and it was crazy because when we parked up, I realised that this would be my first time going in a supermarket in Morocco even though I’d been in the country for a few weeks already. The prices seemed quite high compared to in the local markets, so I realised I hadn’t been missing out on much, but it was still interesting to see it (I don’t know about you guys but I love looking around a supermarket in a new country).

We also stopped off at the the Kings’ residence (apparently he has lots of residences around Morocco and he wasn’t currently in the Fes one when we looked at it).

My Couchsurfing host dropped me back by one of the Medina gates and I found my way through the winding alleyways back to the guesthouse. I left the next morning to go to Chefchaouen (to be continued in Morocco diaries part 7).