Adventure time! Lla MJ and Si Abdellatif planned a day trip for us to see all the big sites around Fes. We left at 9 in the morning (it was supposed to be 8:30 but none of the guys' alarms went off so we left late) in a tour bus just big enough for all of us. We drove out of Fes through some gorgeous countryside. Check out the pictures I put up; it was so green! There were huge rolling hills and endless fields. We stopped near a picturesque reservoir to take pictures (redundant, I know). There was a stand there where the man let us try some almonds, figs, and olives. I went to pee on a wall before we left, but as I was about to start the bus lurched forward. Happy April Fool's day from the rest of my group haha. We continued to wind our way up the mountains to see the Roman ruins of Volubilis.
Volubilis was a roman outpost situated 170 km inland. The ruins are very well preserved but much of it is still covered by the earth. Our guide took us around for an hour or two and we got a lot of great photos. It was more fun than visiting ruins in Italy because you could climb on anything, touch anything, walk anywhere; there were no restrictions. We saw the remnants of homes, which even had intact tile mosaics on the floors, parts of the aqueduct, huge arches, a brothel, a temple, and a church. The ruins were built before Christ was born and stood pretty well up until the Lisbon earthquake in the 1700's. Since then, scientists have been trying to rebuild and restore them as much as possible.
After Volubilis, we rode the short distance to Moulay Idriss. It is one of the most sacred sites for Moroccan muslims because it contains a tomb of Moulay Idriss. He was the man who brought Islam to Morocco in the 8th century and established a dynasty there. He also was the one who began the construction of Fes. Six trips to the shrine at Moulay Idriss are equivalent to one Hajj, or a pilgrimage to Mecca. As non-Muslims, we were not allowed to enter the shrine but Tash went in because she is a Muslim. Instead, we went to an overlook where you could see the whole backside of the city and sort of look into the shrine. The city is nestled up in the crook of some mountains and situated on top of a hill.
After that, we drove to Meknes, a bustling metropolitan area, for lunch. We ate at a restaurant that overlooked the biggest plaza in Meknes, the Plaza El-Hamid. There were street performers like dancers, multiple snake charmers, and general show men who tried their hardest to make people laugh. Because it was during the 3 hour lunch hour, there was a lot of activity in the square. We had an hour and a half after lunch to walk around the plaza and the adjoining medina. The Meknes medina was much wider and had more open than the Fez medina, but equally as overwhelming. We could really tell how much more comfortable we had become over the past week as we walked through the Medina. That's not to say we walked around with money in our teeth, but it was much easier to relax and take in the sights rather than being preoccupied about being mugged or pick-pocketed. We spent the last half hour of our break in the plaza watching the street performers. There was one man who had a monkey that pulled Alice into the middle of his circle and turned her into a comedy show. None of us had any idea what was going on, but all of the Moroccans were laughing pretty frequently so it must have been a good show.
Afterwards, we visited an old granary of the king of Meknes, back from when Morocco was not united and each city was a city-state. It was huge. We then drove to see a mausoleum in the city and saw the royal palace where the King of Morocco stays when he visits Meknes. Each Moroccan city has a palace like that for the King to stay whenever he wants. Though we could only see the outer walls of the palace, we were allowed to enter the mausoleum. None of us had any idea what we were looking at or who was enshrined in the tomb, but a Google search should reveal all of the answers. After the mausoleum, we went to an old jail. We had fun hiding behind columns in the massive dark caverns and scaring each other, but it was funny to think that they could have fit thousands of prisoners in there without any individual cells. Petty thieves and murderers were all lumped together in the caverns, so it must have been more chaotic and violent than today's prisons.
We drove back to Fes, getting home at 5:30 and in the mood for dinner. We trekked back to Casa Nostra for some more delicious pasta and Italian food, and had a good time eating together. During dinner, it started pouring relentlessly, so we had a long walk back to the hotel in the rain. I spent some time on the computer, uploading pictures and skyping home. We tried to watch the Hunger Games again, but couldn't get it to work. One day, we'll finally get to see Katniss triumph over the other Tributes in the Arena. Went to bed at like 1 after spending two hours planning crazy adventures for the next couple of weekends.
Next post will include a calendar of my planned adventures.
Over a hundred new pictures are up too.
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