Morocco: Day 2 - Volubilis and Fes

Dreary-eyed and skeptical, I got my passport and walked onto the bus to Fes at 7:30 in the morning. I was tired of Morocco already and would really rather have just stayed in bed. Nonetheless, I had put down a lot of cash for this SAS-sponsored excursion to Volubilis and Fes, and I wasn’t going down without a fight.

As you can imagine, I hadn’t slept much the night before. So, for most of the first leg of the trip, I was passed out on the bus. It really was a shame, because there was an awesome guide who basically gave us the full history of every single thing we passed, including personal anecdotes that gave real insight into Moroccan culture. He was clearly upset about new women’s rights in Morocco, not because he was inherently a bad man, but because of their affects on Moroccan men. Apparently, now a woman can divorce her husband, but is automatically entitled to keep not only the children, but the house. It was startling to watch a Moroccan man complain “it’s not fair” regarding his status compared to a woman’s. Definitely not what you’d expect in a predominantly Muslim country. Here’s a particularly good example of his one of his views on gender: “Women now can abuse men by three ways: marriage, children, and black magic”. He was a treat. I wanted to take him home with me.
About halfway to Fes, we stopped in the city of Meknes. I think at one point in its existence it was either a fortress, the capital of Morocco, or maybe both. I really don’t remember, because I was still half-conscious. The pictures you’ll eventually see will tell the story better than I can. We stopped by the ruins of an ancient grainery (where I saw cats) and drove through what at one point was a huge irrigation system, but was now a tunnel for cars. Pretty sweet.

Speaking of cats, I forgot to mention: Morocco has SO MANY CATS. I don’t think most of them have owners. They never look like they’re starving or anything, so I don’t cry. It’s just crazy to see so many cats wandering the streets. And good God, a bunch of them are kittens! Who just leaves a cute kitten down on the street? But the Moroccans just walk right on like Americans do when they see a squirrel. It’s just commonplace. As for me, I was ready to adopt about 350 cats today.  Instead I just filled up my camera’s memory card with pictures of all of them. There was actually a teeny tiny super itty bitty baby kitten I saw today who was being washed by a younger Moroccan man. Apparently the mother cat had just died and he was now caring for the infant kitties. This guy was not a rich man. I’d say he was actually quite a poor man. I think I’ll marry that man some day.

We eventually got to stop at a nice place and get lunch. Oh, did I say lunch? I meant a 5 course meal complete with Moroccan bread, bastilla, tagine, mint tea, fruit, a bunch of mysterious zucchini/eggplant-y vegetables I’d never seen before, and the expensive wine I managed to get for free off of a lifelong learner (the old people on the boat) because I’m a moocher like that. Also, I was most certainly NOT a vegetarian that day. There just wasn’t a choice about it. Half the stuff had meat in it, and the only choice was to either eat around it and get the meat juice anyway, or just suck it up and enjoy the carcass. I was so ungodly full.

Naturally, the logical choice after eating so much food was to go walk around ancient Roman ruins for two hours. We did this, and my stomach was not happy about it. They were your typical Roman ruins, complete with stone penises and decorative swastikas. Oh, did I mentions? Apparently the Romans totally had those. I took a picture of a vomitorium for my dad. It was a bad picture, but it had to be done. Again, this is something that’s better described by pictures than in words, so I’ll wait on explaining Volubilis.

After the ruins, all 30 of us got back in the bus and donated the box lunches from the ship (which we definitely did NOT eat after that huge lunch) to some poor Moroccans. I hear that there were tears of joy and hugs…but I was sleeping in the bus again, so I didn’t see it. I really need to stop doing that.

Eventually we finally got to Fes and got to see our hotel. I was not expecting much, considering the price of the trip was under $300…but holy crap, was this place nice. It looked like a freaking palace on the inside, complete with mosaic, bronze, and everything. I shared a ridiculously big double with a girl, and we had a plasma screen, fluffy sheets, artwork, and a humongous soaking tub. Outside our room there was also a spa (temptation), computers (more temptation), a bar, and a restaurant. The lobby even had free wi-fi for my iPhone!

Then it was dinner time. Somehow, someway, I was hungry again after that monstrous lunch. Well it turns out that was a good thing, because the hotel people decided to serve us ANOTHER five course meal. This time we got bread, soup, more wine, more meat tagine, and more other stuff that I don’t remember because at some point I entered a food coma and blacked out.

I’ve got to say, even though I noticed a real “fakeness” about this version of Morocco, it was nice to follow such an awful day in Marrakesh with such a chill day in Fes, Volubilis, and Meknes. Being pampered is certainly better than constantly fearing for your life and wallet. I don’t care how much crap I get for saying it: the SAS trip won my heart on day 2. Luckily, it was a two-day trip. Stay tuned to find out what happened next!