Day Five - Fez Furthered

We woke up at 10, but I still felt quite exhausted. We went out for a chicken panini breakfast (without cheese) and haphazardly settled our debts to each other whilst paying for the bill. The ice cream across the square was nice, with an array of flavours to choose from; everyone went for the cheaper 10 dirham two scoops whilst I had to go for the three: equivalent to £1.50! (Vanilla with nuts, cappuccino and pistachio for future reference).

We then decided to walk the long straight road (instead of taking a taxi) down to some building which might've been a synagogue, and relaxed underneath some palm trees and next to an empty swimming pool outside. Quiet, shaded and isolated, we spent some of the most enjoyable moments ever there. We made up rhymes about our holiday so far, and decideded on trying to incorporate 'muchas maracas' (our phrase of the holiday- from a Lynx advert) wherever possible when talking to the locals. And then we made up a game; whenever someone said "yes" or "yeah", they have to do 5 pressups from where they were standing. We thought it was a good idea, and even before leaving our peaceful oasis, we'd done loads of pressups already, which was hilarious! We tried to catch each other out but I failed miserably; "Is your camera working yeah? ... Damn!"


We managed to get only 200 metres, to the massive golden gates of this tourist attraction, when we unanimously decided we should stop; doing pressups int eh 45-degree heat under the sun, whilst tourists tried to take pictures not including rolling-on-floor-laughing youths wasn't right. We were mental that day, and sweaty. We began to head to the old city again, but to the market part this time. It's split into several main parts: shoes, henna, meat, ornaments and stuff. we just walked aorund, looking for a mosque, clutching our things tightly, being bombarded with "Come in - cheap!", "Where you from?", and a few "Pakistan!". Alhamdulillah we managed to get through unscathed, but we stumbled upon a Muslim-only 'mosque' we went pas the day before. Some 'saint' was buried there, and once inside, we saw people with candles and sitting around doing nothing apart from congregate around this little fountain, and listen to a guy singing a weird song. Allow!

And that was a glimpse of pre-market market bartering for a jalabiya.


We went back towards home, through the narrow winding market-filled streets, past the place where the wood man made his wood (quite a cool guy who looked like he had Parkinson's but at the same time hand-make some awesome wooden objects. I bought a snake in a box and a spinning top he made on the spot... using his feet!) Back all the way to the synagogue place, past the royal palace, praying maghrib and isha along the way at a mosque, and to the main-looking district where there were colourful light-changing fountains all along the road and a massive one in the roundabout. We stopped off at a Moroccan (obviously) restaurant, which sold couscous and tagines and stuff. The prices were quite high, and we agreed to eat there once they knocked off the 10% service charge (we are students after all- an excuse that works with even the most persistent of beggars and 'tour guides'). The couscous was nice, but way too much to eat; a massive bowl of sauce and and mountain of couscous between two. We tried our best, which left us not in the mood for ice cream afterwards. We returned to the hotel, picked up the luggage we left, and walked for about 20 minutes to the train station.

The train to Marrakesh left at 2:30, with the time being 12:30, we sat in the overcrowded cafe, football showing on the TV; and even that didn't stop me from eventually falling asleep. When I awoke, I found a cigarette stub and sugar sachet between my fingers, a bottle lid on my shoulder, and my travel-mates all looking at me laughing, with one holding a lighter...


The lights weren't working on our part of the carriage, which was just as well because I planned on catching up on some serious sleep. I didn't. Instead, the 8 hour journey through the night turned out to be one of the worst parts of the holiday for me, with pitch blackness outside, and an annoyingly long beeping alarm going off throughout the train at each stop to wake people up; our stop being the last. And once I thought I'd settled myself across the uncomfortable leather seats, the alarm would go off again or someone would push past my outsticking leg. Not very enjoyable at all! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep Beep Beep Beeeeeep BEEEeeep