CHEF TO FES; 22 March-
After breakfast took a stroll through some streets before most things were open. It was nice and peaceful, just some locals going about their business, kids with backpacks and such. Now it's raining again, so I'm relaxing a bit at the hotel before heading out to the bus station.
Most sandwich shops don't really have napkins, they just give you an extra piece of the coarse paper used to wrap the sandwiches or french fries. So I carry a handkerchief since Tangier. I also carry a little TP since most public bathrooms do not have any, not that I would want to need it anyway considering some of the conditions. I will admit so far it has been better than I assumed it would be though. My next few stops until Marrakesh may prove otherwise.
Hairy cab ride to the bus. The driver had a broken hand, driving manual, and on his mobil phone most of the ride yelling, while it was raining, tailgating and driving on the wrong side of the road to get around slower drivers. That kind of hairy.
In the bus now (you can get on the bus, I'm getting in it- adapted from George Carlin RIP). Riding up and through the Rif mountains. Beautiful green rolling hills, valleys, trees, wildflowers, rivers. Sheep and goats and cows and a few donkeys here or there. Old houses, some painted shades of blue. There are many houses and buildings being constructed. They build with red brick, then plaster over it, then eventually paint it from the stages I can see.
The sky is pretty big here, and it's currently bright and clear, but at times it looks like where heading towards Mordor, or whatever it's called- dark ominous gloomy clouds obscuring the peeks of the mountain tops and all.
Now we're down closer to the ground passing small and medium size towns. The smaller towns are very primitive. Huts or tents, lots of roofless domiciles, and tarp-ed abodes. More make shift homes than buildings as in Tangier or Chefchaouen.
We stopped at a road side restaurant. They had whole goats, skinned and ready for prep hanging outside of the counter. You give them 20 dirham and they give you some raw ground meat or ribs. You bring that to the barbecue stand and get it cooked and served with a bun. I actually skipped it, more cause I was really not hungry after stuffing my face before and during the bus ride. I didn't think there would be a full food stop along the way.
There are lots of cops and military type guys in the cities and in the roads. There are random checkpoints on the road. They take security seriously here. Also I learned that when your passport is stamped you get a unique number. This number follows you through the country, and when you give your passport info to the hostel or hotel they report that to the government. If your number is not documented somewhere after 3 days at any point after entering Morocco they assume you are either up to no good or in trouble. If I were to stay with a friend or want to go camping, I or my host family would need to register with the police or whoever. I feel as safe here as I would anywhere.
Saw a pretty ill rainbow, in fact a double rainbow appeared. The colors on the main rainbow where so vibrant. And the full thing really stood out. Pretty rad.
Some master clusterfucks on the way into Fes from the bus station. Traffic circle with cars going every way and construction at the same time. The ride was not visually exciting and my walk to the hostel was uneventful. Thanks to some great directions it was easy.
The hostal, Riad Sara is beautiful. It is a Riad (hence the name) which is like a palace on the inside. They have a few hostel rooms besides I think some "regular rooms" which is awesome. I got here late enough that I decided to just chill here, have some dinner, and unwind.
They cook dinner here with local ingredients, etc so I ordered the chicken pastilla, which is like a phyllo dough wrapped chicken pie with sweet spices. It's a Moroccan dish I didn't think I would like, but I did. Since it's already dark and still raining I'm gonna stay in and recharge for tomorrow adventure in the Fes medina.
There's a lot of Germans here. In the hostel and in Morocco in general. They are nice and all. There's also a kid from Chico but studying in Germany. Kinda annoying.
And after all of this planning I may have made a mistake about transport for my next few moves. Quickly re-evaluating the cave stop.
Ciao
