Morocco Part 1
““We are mosaics. Pieces of light, love and history. Glued together with magic and music and words.””
Salam from Fes! (Or Fez -American spelling of the town).
In May 2017, one of my best friends, Liz, and I traveled to Morocco. It should be noted that 8 days is not nearly enough time to fully explore all the beautiful wonders of Morocco, but we made the most of our time and traveled from one side of the country to the other.
We started our trip in Fes, Morocco which is located in the more northern region of the country. Fes is a beautiful city and slightly lesser known in the US than Marrakesh but worth putting it into your Morocco itinerary for the following reasons…
1.The airport is really cool.
We arrived in Fes at 1:00am but stood in awe of what has to be one of the coolest airports in the world. The Fes airport looked like the Jasmine’s palace from Aladdin except with neon lights.
2. Instead of staying in a hotel – opt to stay in a Riad.
The term ‘riad’ technically means garden, but it actually refers to a specific type of housing set-up for which Morocco is known. Riad has come to mean “a house built around a central courtyard” (which normally has a garden). The riads in Morocco are plentiful and cheaper than hotels, but are similar to hotels in that they have front desk check-ins, room service etc. Our particular riad, the Salam Fes, is one of the loveliest places I’ve ever stayed in. It smells of eucalyptus, has fountains everywhere and has lyre music wafting in through some unseen wireless surround sound. Best of all it’s only around $100 per night! We paid an extra $35 to get picked up from the airport by our hotel – which is an absolute must if you are flying in late – there is no way you or your cab can find your way around the streets of Fes if you opt to stay in the Medina like we did.
Our Room. A little bit older décor but clean and comfortable.
Freshly squeezed orange juice, hot coffee, an assortment of toast, jams, honey. As well as dates and olives.
We were NOT disappointed the following morning with our beautiful breakfast spread.
View of Fes from the riad rooftop
Lounging over breakfast, which was served by the pool, is luxurious. As we ate in the world’s most beautiful courtyard we gazed around at the mosaic tiles and orange trees. It should also be noted that traditional Moroccan breaks serves not one but four kinds of bread. My kind of place!
The room we stayed in is on the top floor and opens up to a rooftop patio which has an Agrabah-like 360 degree views of Fez
(Heads up: there are going to be a lot of Aladdin references on this trip).
Just exploring our riad alone was a treat. It was honestly so beautiful – from the intricately carved wooden doors with brass filigreed keyholes, to the colored tiles lining the walls and floors. It was like stepping into a geometric dream.
Riad Salam Fes
3. Explore the Medina
The “Medina” which translates in Arabic to “city” refers to the historic section of town. The medina in Fez is a UNESCO Heritage site and is separated from the rest of the city by a large wall. It was founded in the 9th Century and is home to the oldest university in the world.
The entrance to the Medina via the Bab Bou Jeloud
(otherwise known as the Blue Gate).
We ended up hiring a guide through our riad to show us around Fez’s world famous Medina and boy were we glad. The Medina is just like the Bazaar in Aladdin where you can buy everything from camel meat to beautiful Moroccan rugs. But it is also a maze of seemingly endless corridors with twists and turns. Even Google Maps can’t quite figure out, so for our first day in Fez, we hired a guide, Hameed, there to help us navigate. After having a guide for a day, we then felt comfortable enough the next day to wander around on our own.
Wandering around the medina in Fes
Coconut strips are delicious!
We bought some coconut strips to munch on while we weaved in and around donkeys, men pushing carts and women with children.
Some fun facts: Our guide Hameed told us that those who live in the Medina try to have as many children as possible because, for them, their livelihood depends on making their handicrafts, and they need many hands in order to make them. He also told us that most people in the Medina do not use banks because it is considered “bad luck” to earn interest (aka getting money for doing nothing), so they invest it back in handicrafts to use to sell, should they ever have the need.
Walking outside the medina gates
We took a tour of the oldest university in the world: Al-Karaouine. This is home to numerous precious manuscripts including early copies of the Quo-ran. Students must be male and Muslim to attend. The intricacy of the mosaics and carvings throughout are incredible!
The oldest university in the world: Al-Karaouine
The Tannery
(aka a Leather Factory)
This place smells like animal carcasses (yuck!) but it’s really cool to see how the merchants dye and tan leather.
Mosaics Factory to see how mosaic tiles are made.
4. Buyer beware in the Medina!
So many colorful rugs!
One of the staples of traveling to Morocco is looking at Persian rugs. I fell in love with no less than 6 rugs. When it came down to it I was not in any position to spend several thousand dollars on a rug, so I will have to save my rug-buying experience for a few years down the line when I’ve paid off more of my student loans.
We (naively) thought we were just looking at rugs and having fun. Since they cost hundreds or thousands of dollars, we had no intentions of buying. We ended up having to be really firm with the sales associate who was trying to get us to buy the rug. They even came to our hotel that night still trying to sell us a rug. Very pushy, and had I known ahead of time I would not have seemed so interested in seeing so many. Rookie mistake.
What we did want to buy in Morocco was some of the famous Moroccan Aragon oil. Hameed told us that he knew a guy that had the “purest Aragon oil in all of Morocco.” That in itself should have been a red flag because anytime anyone ever says “the best in all of the ….” it’s usually not true.
But again, we were new to this country and so we bought some rose-water-infused aragon oil and went back to our riad feeling good about our purchase…
Until we found out that we paid more than 4x the amount that we could pay elsewhere!
Upon first discovering this unpleasant news, we initially decided to “chalk it up to naïveté and move on”, but as the day went on, we felt ourselves getting madder and madder. After all, our hotel hired our guide for us and we trusted him! So, armed with some good ‘ol US know-how and Liz’s experience as a first-rate negotiator, we lodged our complaint with our hotel who promised to straighten it out. They had our guide from yesterday come back and pay us back (in exchange for giving back our wildly over-priced and probably-not-100%-even-though-it-said-it-was aragon oil). In exchange, we promised not to write a bad review about him or our riad (hotel).
And this is an important tidbit that we learned. Whenever you travel abroad there are bound to be mistakes and over-payments made. This is just part of being a tourist. But, you don’t have to just lie down and take it. In the day and age of social media, we have a lot of power. If you got swindled and you feel it’s worth fighting for, then do it!
5. Get a Hammam!
Enjoying some Moroccan Mint Tea Lemonade post-hammam.
Get a traditional Moroccan Hammam. A hammam is a full-body scrub down with a black-salt exfoliation. We went to the elegant Riad Laaroussa. I had never received a hammam before, but basically you sit in a steam room until you feel like you’re going to suffocate and then two burly ladies enter and and go to town scrubbing your skin with these rough gloves. My old, gross, dead skin was flying off!
After every single inch of you is scrubbed you are pink and clean like a newborn baby. Then they place a mud mask all over your body and make you suffocate in the steam room again. This is followed by a cold shower (the best shower ever!) where you wash your hair with thick, fragrant Jasmine shampoo and finish by drinking Moroccan mint tea lemonade and nibbling on fresh dates, almonds and apricots in a gorgeous courtyard. All in all, not very relaxing but my glowing skin is saying “thank you!”
One of the nice features about our riad is that it also offered a dinner service. After a long day of walking around the Medina, it was nice to be able to eat “at home.” Just like a breakfast we ate by the pool – which might be even more magical at night. The water is lined with soft lighting through these amazingly ornate lanterns. We tried a dish called pastilla – which is basically a sweet/savory Shepard’s pie. It’s meat and veggies wrapped in filo dough and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon. Delish!
After dinner we relaxed on our rooftop patio and watched the sunset.
Dinner Views at Riad Salam Fes
Sunset rooftop views
The Food is Good – but Beware!
We ate a two notable restaurants in Fez. One day we grabbed lunch at Cafe Clock, which is a rooftop terrace cafe overlooking the Medina. We had the best falafel, hummus and tabouli of my life!
The other restaurant we tried gets an “A” for ambiance but a “D” for giving us really bad travelers diarrhea, ahem, sickness, the next day (or next couple of days in my case). This restaurant is called Cafe Fez. The food is French/Moroccan and tasted good -but clearly did not agree with our stomachs. It was such a beautiful place though. We sat in this garden lit up by Genie lamps and Christmas lights.
Now for all international travels, I see my primary care physician and get a prescription for an antibiotic as well as Ambien or some sort of sleeping aid ahead of time. Along with packing Imodium and Tums, I am now much more prepared for any kind of traveler’s sickness and for the adjusting to new time zones.
Well gang, this concludes part 1 of 3 of my Morocco trip. Tune in next week to read about our adventures in the Sahara desert! (Spoiler Alert: there are camels)