Visiting Fez

Every time I woke up in a new city I feel eager to go out and explore. First I went to have coffee and breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. I was sitting there having coffee and reading about Fez with the cool, soft breeze coming for the open windows, mmmm, morning feels so good.

Mark showed up, chatted and eat breakfast, we were ready to explore Fez. We walked on boulevard Hassan II, it is nice, wide, clean, lots of trees and flowers.

There is a huge park on one side, if wasn’t that hot I would have like to go to the park. The park seemed deserted, it is Sunday morning and hot, but I guess that the park would be full in the evening. I am impressed, after Tangier I imagined Fez differently. We stopped at take pictures at the Royal Palace.

By the palace there is one gate to the medina; it is quite early in the morning, shops were just opening up, not too many people yet, great time to visit.

There are 14 gates to the medina, apparently median is huge and it is very easy to get lost. Mark is very good with maps, but even he has a hard time to follow the map. Our goal today is to visit the city and browse around, we will visit medina tomorrow, and we are considering hiring a guide.

We wandered in the hot city, most of times on paved streets, a few times taking short cuts on a dusty paths. One paths went through a cemetery, I don’t like cemetery, I am a bit frisked out, I am just looking in front of me.
We went up on this hill, the view of the city is impressing.

We took a few pictures and this man is approaching us. He seems pleasant, speaks English really well, and no doubt Arabic and French. He tells us a bit about the city and after he tells us that his family barley makes a living selling leather bags. He has a big bag and starts to pull out some leather bags that he has for sell. They are beautiful, I had to be really strong not to buy one; also I felt really sorry for this man, I was looking at him and wonder how can a man so articulate that speaks 3 languages is just making ends meet by selling leather goods? life is harsh to some people, again in a split if the second I am so grateful for my life; I am grateful to Mark to encourage me to come on this trip where we got to learn and experience so much!

Fez is busy city, there are many people around, modern and old cars, motorcycle, motor bikes, traffic is chaotic, pedestrian are crossing everywhere they feel like it; there are men on donkeys and horses.

We walked for hours it is almost noon now, we could not figure out a better, shorter way to get back home, we took a taxi, nice!