After pouring out all the orange sand from my shoes from the Sahara tour, we headed back to Marrakesh to catch up on work and then headed to Essaouira. (This pic is from Chefchaouen, more on that later...)
Essaouira
On the road from Marrakesh to Essaouira, you can spot an odd phenomenon of seeing goats in trees! I only have this one terrible picture, we didn't get to stop to get a good shot.
Essaouira is a port city on Morocco’s Atlantic coast. Its Medina is protected by 18th-century seafront ramparts which were designed by European engineers. Old brass cannons line the walls, and there are ocean views! I'm gonna skip going into depth there because we only stayed for Shabbat. We did get to explore the Jewish Mellah, there are a lot of Magen Davids marked on buildings and doors and we also checked out a few of the shuls.
Since there is so much I want to cover on Fes, I suggest you stalk Esther Gopin's highlight to see more of the Mellah.
Moving on to Fes...
Fes
The medina in Fes has more than 9,000 streets and 40,000 dead ends, so we hired a guide to help us navigate it. I suggest you do the same.
We started off at the Kings palace, nobody lives in it, but it has golf courses, fountains and gardens. Trespassers who try to climb over the wall are never to be seen again. This picture is from the front of the palace, the tile work is magnificent!
We then continued to explore the Medina, dates in hand. (they're really good in morocco!) Our guide took us up to a panoramic view of the city and he talked a lot. I might have zoned out for a chunk of it. I also got into a small argument with him about religion and woman's rights, it got a bit awkward. One of the highlights for me was the Poterie and tile center; which is now a UNESCO heritage site. We got to watch how they made all these beauties.
While exploring the Medina we saw a beheaded camel, a tannery, bakeries, crepes kiosks in the streets, and a million other things. The tannery smells terrible, but I guess that's how you know it's real leather! They gave us mint leaves to put to our nose to cover up the stench, it didn't really work. We watched how they dyed the leather and such.
This I found interesting. Every corner of the Medina has five institutions:
A mosque
A communal bread oven
A hammam
A school
A shared fountain
We also found an old Jewish pawn shop with antiques and artifacts. If I had a spare hundred thousand dollars I would have bought so many things. Fes is also a city of crafts, you can find various goods such as leather, woodwork, embroideries, clay work and pottery, and metal workshops.
We ended up bumping into a festival that reminded me very much of Simchat Beis Hashoeva + Lag B'omer + a Siyum sefer torah but with a side of a sacrificial cow. There was also a lot of horns and tunics and pushing and an incredible energy! They make this festival to celebrate the anniversary of the city. This photo was captured a few minutes before the cow was sacrificed.
So, about the Kosher food in Fes! Boy was it hard to find.
Since it's so quiet there and they don't have a lot of visitors, you have to call in advance. Call them in the morning to let them know you will be there for dinner.
Centre Communautaire Maimounid
They don't post their address, but here is their phone number: +212 676-286099
It kind of felt like having dinner in you great grandmothers' house. We were the only customers there! They opened just for us.
They served us traditional Moroccan starters with a thicker kind of pita bread. Pastillas which was stuffed with chicken and topped with confectioner sugar. Chicken and olives were the main. It was WAY too much food for two people, and this whole meal cost about $40 pp, which is pricy for Morocco but I wasn't complaining.
The best way to find this place is by putting in _______ (I'll add this soon) on your GPS, it's nearby.
Chefchaouen
After we finished exploring Fes, we headed north to Chefhaouen. We took a shuttle to get there. Make sure to research times because it isn't so frequent. Chefchaouen is a city in the Rif Mountains of northwest Morocco. It’s known for the striking, blue painted buildings and walls.
There are several beliefs as to why the city’s walls were painted blue. They include:
~ Some people believe that early Jews in Chefchaouen introduced the practice of painting walls blue, this doesn't make much sense to be but k. The area saw a large influx of Jews fleeing from Europe and Hitler during the Second World War. Most Jews later left the area in the late 1940s and early 1950s to live in Israel.
~ Some locals say that the blue helps keep their homes cool in the warmer months.
~ Some say Chefchaouen’s walls are daubed in all shades of blue to represent the colour of the sparkling Mediterranean Sea, or the sky.
~ Some say it’s simply because blue looks attractive and has a calming effect. In Islamic culture, blue is said to be a colour of happiness and optimism.
In short, no one really knows for certain why it's blue, but it sure is cool. We spent a lot of time just roaming through the streets, taking photos and appreciating the views.
We were here for Shabbat, although there is no Kosher food. We actually bumped into an older Jewish couple from the states and sat down and had a chat with them!
It's pretty hard to find alcohol here and in Morocco in general, since the majority of the population follow Islamic practices of not consuming alcohol. We did manage to find one bar where we made friends with two locals who would only drink out of sight from their family. One of them ended up coming with us to Tangier in the taxi and his friend took us around to some sights!
Tangier
Our next destination was supposed to be Casablanca, we were heading there for Yom Kipur, but we then found out that there is a speed train from Tangier that will cut the travel time in half! So we headed to Tangier to catch the speed train and they also had Kosher food there. We were in quite a rush so they packed our food to go. Honestly I'm really thankful for them, I was super hungry for real food at that point. Most of the Kosher restaurants in Morocco are country clubs, this is a random fact but I thought it was interesting.
Another thing that is interesting to note it that it's a law to have a picture of the king up in every facility in Morocco, so you can find a frame of the king in every Kosher restaurant!
The restaurant is called Le Cercle De Tanger, I don't know if they stayed open during Covid but feel free to reach out to them. The only pictures I have of the food is from on the train.
There is a lot to do in Tangier, here are some of the stops we made:
~ Hercules Cave
~ The most northern part of Morocco. There is a spot where the Mediterranean and Atlantic ocean meet, so naturally we went there to take a photo!
~ There's more but we were literally there for a few hours so....
Next up, Casablanca!
Comments