A camel burger and the lesbian earthquake
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2009
1
24
41
Trip End
Mar 19, 2009
Fes,
Morocco
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
We went back after that to a tiny shop inside the markets are where we sat and ate camel burgers! At first I didn't think I could eat it (especially when some locals in the same tiny room had huge platefuls of the meat) but after a few tentative mouthfuls it actually tasted pretty good (almost like an Aussie beef burger) and if no one had told me what it was, I would have just thought it was minced beef. We bought 1 kilo of bananas and 1 kilo of strawberries on the way out for 23dhs ($4-5 AUD).
Got the bus back to our hotel, loaded the luggage in, then drove about an hour (as we were leaving Meknes, we drove through a patch of hail), to the Roman ruins at Volubilis, where we had a local guide take us for a tour for over an hour. The scenery here was just beautiful, rolling hills with green crops and greases, rich red soil, groves of olive trees and then the ruins sitting in the middle of it all. We had a hilarious moment when Mike the English guy misunderstood the guide and heard "lesbian" instead of Lisbon when he was talking about an earthquake that had happened in 17?? (This gave us the giggles for the rest of the trip - poor Mike was mortified).
The pool area at Meknes
We also got to see a block of stone with a penis on it, apparently these were place along some of the streets of the ancient city pointing out the way to the brothel. It was interesting to see the layout of some of the buildings in the city, and some of the ideas that they used still around today as well (roller doors on the shop fronts). There were also a couple of huge nests on top of a couple of columns and as we watched, the storks using the nest started to mate. Just as we were leaving, the black clouds rolled in and it started to rain. We drove about 1 ½ - 2 hours then to Fes, arriving just before 5. Checked in to our room, showered and headed out to use the Internet. We then met Abdul and the rest of the group for a meeting (re charging us for the guide for Meknes and bus for tomorrow's transport to and from the medina - not happy cause these were supposed to be included things we had already paid for). Mike ended up speaking to the operations manager who eventually agreed to refund us the cost of the guided tour which we would put towards the cost of the bus for the following day. Went to a small restaurant with Abdul and the rest of the group. Dinner wasn't really very good, but the waiter provided a bit of entertainment. Sat with the group in the hotel for mint tea again before heading up to bed.
