Crown Palace Fes

... NY who's been traveling 'round the world for the past 10 months (LOL! Apparently I inspire the youngsters that even we ol' ladies can backpack 'round the globe!) ANYWAY, she apparently had a most harrowing experience in Tangier and lost about 800 Dirhams in the process (verily a 2 week budget for these young backpackers.) ANYWAY, suffice she spoke fluent French and was able to help me get the Fes bus to the old city (Medina - indeed THE oldest continuous ...

... sheep skin. Still though, absolutely breathtaking view and for under 3 quid a night it was a bit of a result.

Our host, Abdul, who had 4 or 5 kids and a wife living in the same house seemed like a pretty good guy despite the fact that he was constantly trying to sell you stuff (which turned out to be the culture of Asilah due to its population fluctuating by ten fold every year due to tourists). After we settled the bill of 9 pound for the ...

... available surface, inside and out, walking through the royal palace, and being taken on a "tour" to a "synagogue where the Jews come to pray on Sundays." Actually it was a museum that used to be a Synagogue and Jews don't pray on Sundays, but no big deal. Everyone needs to make a buck, right? So Fes was wonderful - relaxing, recharging, a nice change from the super intensity of Marrakesh. A few more days in Morocco and we'll be Europe bound...

... g*metr*ilers com otkrytki s dnem rozhdenij* prikol'nye dom 2 ...

... a plan that leveraged the fact we'd used a credit card to pay for the spices, and resolved to call Mohammed the next day to deal with the Spice Guy, and put his oath of wanting to be the best guide and provide us with the best service to the test. With a plan in place the rest of the night was much easier to handle, not that there was much left as tired as we were and with no good local bars anywhere around us.

... is veggie stew and mash tonight. After that I think we might snuggle up in the tent and finally watch an episode of Underbelly. Fingers crossed the battery holds out tonight. Oh and as for the kitten, turns out we're not god. We found it dead by the next tree up this morning. Poor thing... at least it didn't get hurled out of the tyre on a highway somewhere. Anyway I'm bloody freezing so time for me to sit by the fire and thaw out.

... gallery with rotating exhibits, and there are several artistic cooperatives where the women themselves sell their own handicrafts (instead of being exploited by middlemen who jack up the prices but don't give the artists their fair cut). Add to that that the lovely and compact medina looks out over the water, and you have a pretty good combination of positive things. While I was here in Tangier, I met up with some lovely ...

... not, I would speak in Spanish when interacting with the locals, and a few times, I was forced to resort to what little tiny bits of French (owing to a century of French occupation, it's the second official language of Morocco) that I picked up last fall. Before landing, Diana warned me that Arabic countries are quite different.  She lived in Tunisia for a summer, so whe was pretty familiar with how the aggressive-ish male culture, the dual economies, how to ...

... they make rugs and carpets. The handmade work was spactacular and there is some of it on its way home as we speak. Thge people have been super freindly so far and the mint tea has been great. We then made our way back to the bus station and for our first bus ride threough Morocco. It of course stqrted with people shouting and fighting on the bus before it left. What a crazy place. I can not wait to explore more of it as this is definitly ther craziest ...

Morocco was an incredible culture shock for me. I rode a camel and hired a guide. The market consisted of tiny streets and there was all kinds of meat and olives for sale. There were also lots of different spices and rugs and ointments. One man had a small room opening out onto the street and he was selling coal out of it. The room consisted of a small stool and an ancient scale and bags of coal. The room ...