Fes Day 2

Saturday started better- we had booked a tour to the middle Atlas Mountains, to see some Moroccan countryside and a few other smaller towns than Fes. After an impressive hostel breakfast we headed off to the blue gate to meet our tour guide, who spoke limited English and asked us if we 'sleepy good good?' 

Though the Moroccans seem to have no road rules, and overtake/ undertake/ pay no attention to red lights or each other it was strangely relaxing to be in the car- especially after the hassle and confusion of the medina. We drove out of Fes and up into the mountains in about forty minutes, before making our first stop of the day, at a lake. Most of the stops were to take photos at beautiful spots, but it is obviously a well trodden tourist route, and at each place the Moroccans are waiting for you with their horses, hassling and hassling you to go for a ride.  In the second place, as soon as they saw the car we were immediately surrounded, the men peering through the windows and gesturing towards the horses, so close we couldn't open the car doors. The other thing we learnt was a simple 'no' doesn't suffice to be left alone, you have to be repeatedly firm and engage in no conversation or eye contact, and even then they won't leave, but hang back watching you. Any movement such as getting our cameras out, they'll call out, 'you want photo? You want photo on horse?' 

After the lake, we went to a town higher in the mountains, apparently the cleanest town in Morocco which was bizarrely like a ski resort, and despite the bright sunshine, there was still snow on the ground in places. Our tour guide explained with derision it was a place for the 'familles riches'. It was strange to see such a place in comparison to Fes, almost like being back in France. 

Then we were on to another town for lunch with a very quaint medina, where we stopped at a street side cafe for our first experience of Moroccan street food. Here we had Moroccan spiced beef and chicken with salsa and Moroccan salad which were actually really good (we were very apprehensive about trying the street food), and it was lovely to sit and relax in the hot sun- with our guide nearby so we had no hassle, and the smell of barbecuing beef in the air. It could have been May in the UK at about 16 degrees. Despite the fact we think they overcharged us about 40 dirham, it hardly mattered because the food is so cheap- 1 euro a salad, 2.50 euros for the chicken and 3 for the beef. It was something we discovered over the weekend- we were never given a bill breakdown, just an overall price and most of the time the price seemed higher than what we had worked out between us. They can spot tourists from a mile off.

In the afternoon we caved in, and went for a ride on the horses, through a forest full of monkeys. The monkeys weren't all that interesting until we saw one wee on a Moroccan woman's head. We then continued to a waterfall, which was pretty, and another good spot to take photos. 

By this time it was about half three, and we were happy to head back to Fes, both of us exhausted, when we arrived in a tiny town and appeared to be driving deeper and deeper into it through the narrow streets. Eventually the driver stopped and motioned for us to get out. After sharing a look, we did, and he led us down a narrow side street and through a door into some kind of Moroccan grotto to have some mint tea. It was all very strange- there was a young boy there and he dressed us in the traditional Moroccan cloth outfits and gave us Moroccan names and we sat and drank more mint tea with them. And then it was time to leave so cheerily we waved goodbye- grateful to be returning to a public space, and the guide hesitated. 'A tip?' Hastily we pulled out 10 dirham- to which he looked extremely disappointed and the tour guide subsidised him a note as we left. Seemed we still hadn't got the tipping quite right but we were trying to follow the advice online- and we could be sure there would be no point in asking the Morrocans their advise on tipping policy.

Apart from the fact the tour actually cost double what we'd initially thought (either a language mistake or we got ripped off again)- we really enjoyed Saturday and felt infinitely better after our dubious start to the weekend. We went out to a little restaurant, the Ruined Garden, run by an English guy who cooked up a mixture of typical Moroccan food and English, chosen because we read it had an open fire in winter. It was a lovely restaurant and the staff were very friendly. I had garlic and lemon trout with Moroccan spiced veg, and cheesecake for dessert, and Alison had a caramelized onion tart and chocolate mousse. Then home to bed.