We spent the week before last, our spring break from our program, on a week-long trip to Morocco. Short summary: it was wonderful--relaxing, great weather, easy logistics, lots of good food, and lots of walking around interesting cities. Slightly longer summary: the following.
We flew from Cairo to Casablanca on Thursday night, getting in close to midnight local time. After waiting a ridiculously long time for our bags and in line at customs, we finally got a cab to our hotel in downtown Casablanca, only to discover that they had not honored our reservation and had no rooms available. Fortunately, a nice (but, not so fortunately, somewhat more expensive) hotel down the street had a comfortable room. This scenario of not having our advance hotel reservations kept but then quickly finding an acceptable room elsewhere was actually repeated in each city we visited in Morocco. Whatever, it all worked out. In any event, there really isn't much to see in Casablanca, and when we got up on Friday morning, it was raining, so we just went straight from the hotel to the train station to get to Marrakesh, where we arrived just before noon.
The city of Marrakesh, like Fes, is sharply divided in two parts. The "Old City" was first built sometime in the Middle Ages, and consists of a beehive of small streets and alleyways (narrow enough that cars are not allowed) full of small shops for both tourists and locals, all surrounded by a defensive wall. The "New City" is what the French built in the mid-twentieth century in order to rule Morocco as the colonial power in the country, and it looks like what you would expect--like Europe (wide avenues, fancy hotels, office buildings, cafes, etc...). The great thing about this split is that it kept the old city from being destroyed or badly damaged. As you can imagine, we spent most of our time in the old city, although we did spend some time walking in the new city (it's Morocco too, even if it doesn't look "exotic" or anything.")
Things we saw included: the Koutubbia Mosque, whose stocky tower of a minaret (height to weight ratio of 5:1) is now typical of Moroccan architecture, the well-kept public gardens around that mosque, a mostly ruined royal palace, a beautifully decorated ministerial villa, and some smaller very chic gardens now owned by Yves St. Laurent (a well-known French fashion designer). Mostly, however, we wondered through the alleys of the old city, and hung out in a huge open square (Gamaa el Fna, or Assembly of the Dead), which by day is full of acrobats, snake-charmers, and Berber musicians performing for the benefit of tourists, but by night is full of similar performers, as well as dozens of food carts, catering mainly to local Marrakeshis.
Overall, Marrakesh was quite nice, but lots of the old city feels like the Khan al-Khalili bazaar in Cairo--fun and exciting, but clearly the way it is because it is geared towards tourists. Fes, where we were from midday Monday until Friday morning, felt less touristy and more like a real lived-in city. There are fewer tourist tchochky shops and more Moroccans walking around. We also like that there were more beautifully tiled and carved mosques, madrassas, and gates to see. Also, unlike Marrakesh, Fes is built in a valley, which means it has some hills around it that we climbed and were able to get a great view of the whole old city. As in Marrakesh, we spent most of our time just wondering around the labyrinth of alleyways (getting lost several times), just exploring. The other interesting thing we saw in Fes were the tanneries, a city-block-sized set of huge cauldrons used to treat leather. It's quite a sight (and a smell), and apparently it has been operating in largely the same manner since the 1400s.
The last thing we saw in Morocco before we left on Friday was the enormous Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca. Finished only about 15 years ago, the mosque is absolutely massive and quite beautiful. Fun factoids: it's 200m tall minaret has a laser on the top which points towards Mecca, and the floor of the mosque is glass, allowing worshipers to see the Atlantic Ocean underneath them.
All in all, it was a great trip. Also, if you ever have a chance, eat some Moroccan food. Tagine (a kind of meat or vegetable stew cooked in a clay pot), great couscous, excellent bread, and the ubiquitous mint tea were some of the highlights.
Well, we are off to Siwa Oasis this weekend for our last sight-seeing trip in Egypt. Claire promises to post some pictures from Morocco when we get back.
Inside the best preserved Madrasa (in Moroccan Arabic, apparently, "medersa") in Fez.
A street in Fez El-Jadide ("New Fez") the second medieval quarter in Fez.
The view from our hotel room in Fez, at about two in the morning when I as being kept awake by the boisterous food seller right below our window.
Tea and teapot...we drank a lot of tea.
