Fez Medina

We’ve finally arrived in Fez! The bus ride from Azrou took almost two hours and cost 20 dirhams per person, while the grand taxi was supposed to take just one hour. Fez is primarily known for its medina, which is the largest car-free zone in the world. One of the biggest highlights is getting lost in the medina, filled with narrow, winding streets. It’s nearly impossible to keep track of where you’re going! You can buy just about anything here. There’s a good mix of tourist shops and local stores. To grab attention, the sellers are always coming up with new tricks. Now, in addition to the usual yellow chickens, you can also find pink, light blue, and light green ones. They’ve dipped the little creatures in dye! In front of the butcher shops, you’ll see plenty of cats hoping something will fall their way. You can buy sheep heads and legs, all neatly displayed. Overall, there’s a great mix of food, tailors, souvenir shops, and restaurants, but – almost – nowhere to buy alcohol. A few pricey restaurants and hotels offer wine and beer at steep prices. If you want more options, you need to head to the "new" district, Ville Nouvelle. We enjoyed a small bottle of wine for 80 dirhams at Hotel Batha. Copy belts are super cheap. We managed to get one D&G and one Levi’s belt for just 70 dirhams total – of course, we had to haggle hard for that price. Morocco is great for craftsmanship, from ceramics to leather. There are many beautiful slippers in rainbow colors. I bought two pairs for 90 dirhams, with one pair being a bit pricier due to the embellishments. Cafe Clock is foreign-owned and has a more diverse menu than many other restaurants. It’s a much-needed break from the medina. The menu includes camel burgers for 90 dirhams, which Jan tried. The meat is redder than beef but doesn’t taste “woolly” like goat or lamb. There’s free Wi-Fi on the premises. The medina also has its own little “street” with restaurants, where the tables are nicely set with tablecloths. Almost every restaurant in Morocco happily serves olives and bread to nibble on before the meal arrives. Most offer a three-course menu for 70 dirhams. The menu is pretty much the same everywhere: soup or salad for starters, tajine, couscous, or brochettes for the main course, and local pastries or fruit for dessert. All washed down with mint tea or coffee, of course. We still run into surprising moments. An older man agreed to have his picture taken for 5 dirhams. Suddenly, another man came over to intervene. He scolded the older man and us – we were NOT allowed to take any pictures, even though we had permission. You have to wonder why he felt the need to interfere... Everything in this country revolves around money. We asked the receptionist at our hotel for a restaurant in the medina where we could enjoy some wine with our meal. He wouldn’t give us an answer. He kept insisting he would get us a bottle of wine and some food so we could eat at our hotel. He saw an opportunity to make some extra cash off us, even though we were asking for something completely different. At our hotel or on the street, we’ve learned so many times that even if we say “no” ten times, it’s not a “no” they understand. If they want to sell us a tour or get us to stay at their hotel, they’ll follow us and ask the same question ten times, even after we’ve said no. They’re incredibly persistent. If you choose to ignore them, they get upset, and unfortunately, there’s a good chance they’ll call us racists and shout for us to go home. It’s tough to win with them.