Farewell Fes!

It is with much sadness that I am writing this blog – what will possibly be my last entry ever, or at least for a long time. On Sunday morning I will be saying goodbye to Morocco and going home. I can’t believe how fast these 6 months have gone, but looking back so much has happened, so I thought I would take a bit of time to reflect on my time here...

For those who don’t know, I was meant to be going to Uni this year to do my Dip Ed. For almost a week I struggled with the decision I had to make – go to Uni or go to Morocco. I can now unequivocally say I made the right choice! My life has completely changed in these last 6 months, it’s strange to think where I would be if I had taken the other path. 

For one, I wouldn’t have a husband! We started these 6 months as boyfriend and girlfriend, but with a relationship founded mostly on Skype. We had never even spent a month together at one time! So to have these 6 months together has been incredible. I didn’t exactly expect to return home a married woman, but even at the start it was clear we had something special and I couldn’t be happier that things have turned out the way they have. I’ve also had lots of time to get to know Karim’s family, and Karim was able to meet most of my family when they visited earlier in the year. So I guess getting married was definitely the highlight of the trip! Now we just have to wait a few more months and insh’allah we will be able to enjoy married life together in Australia! 

Aside from Karim, there have been a lot of other great things about spending this time in Morocco. I understand a lot more about the country, about the culture, about Islam. I’ve participated in Ramadan and have celebrated both Eids with Karim and his family. I’ve met a lot of lovely people; the generosity and hospitality of Moroccans is second to none. I went to a music festival, a cherry festival, and have been to birthday parties, a circumcision party and a wedding. I can find my way (to some extent) around Fes, although most of the medina remains a mystery! I have also travelled to parts of Morocco I have never been before. And even though I didn’t learn as much Arabic as I expected, compared to when I first came it has improved 10 fold! 

In short, I have fallen in love with this country, and Fes especially. So I have compiled a list of things I’m going to miss.

-          The colours, sounds, and spices

-          The perfect summer weather

-          The beautiful buildings, fountains, and handicrafts

-          Mint tea and pumpkin seeds

-          The cheap, fresh, abundant fruit. Especially pomegranates!

-          Kittens!

-          The cafe culture and relaxed way of life

-          Fresh orange juice and honey pancakes

-          The prices – most things are so cheap!

-          The Moroccan food – I’m still not sick of it despite what I originally thought!

-          People watching

-          Roof terraces

-          Hypermarches

-          Watching my football team Barcelona on TV every time they play

-          Eating with my hands and not having to worry about table manners

-          But mostly the people. Not only Karim and his family, but all the lovely people I have met along the way. 

Of course, things haven’t always been pomegranates and kittens! There were times when I hated everything to do with this country (mostly to do with all the paperwork), and more than once I have been reduced to tears in anger and frustration. There were times at the start when I was quite homesick; I especially missed my friends back at home. Not knowing the language it was hard to make friends here, and often Karim would be the only person I would speak to all day. I also had to give up a lot of my independence. So there are definitely things I am looking forward to;

-          My soft bed, with soft pillows and soft couches

-          Perfectly flushing toilets with abundant toilet paper

-          Reliable hot water throughout the house

-          Having a washing machine, oven, microwave

-          My dog and dogs in general!

-          Not getting harassed walking down the street

-          Vegemite toast and bacon and ham and all things pig!

-          The variety of food – Vietnamese, Indian, anything that isn’t Moroccan every day

-          Cider

-          Not getting ripped off

-          Not having to pay bribes to get things done

-          Recycling and public bins

-          Driving my car

-          Being able to understand what people say

-          Privacy

-          Not having to wear conservative clothes all the time

-          And of course seeing all my lovely friends and family again!

So there you have it. 6 months of life in Morocco. I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye, and its especially hard seeing as I probably won’t be back until mid next year. But I am returning home with a lot of wonderful memories and a task accomplished; I came here looking for love and pomegranates and found both in abundance! 

A view over the Fes medina

Dusk in Fes

Beautiful details

Tiles

Even the doors are pretty!

Pomegranates - my number 2 love

Karim - my number 1 love!

Eid Mubarak!

Happy Eid everyone! Just a quick blog to tell you all about yesterday. We went to Karim’s house early in the morning, but not too early; thankfully the sheep had already been dealt with before we got there! Technically you should wait until the King kills his sheep, but it looked like most families had a head start. Walking through his neighbourhood, there were a lot of carcasses hanging in doorways, sheep heads cooking on fires in the street, sheepskins piling high and little streams of blood as the scenes of the slaughtering were washed clean. 

While I wasn’t there to see our sheep killed, I did make the mistake of watching the TV when the King killed his 2 sheep – one for his family and one for the country. I definitely was not expecting such close-up footage! I think I will change the channel next time! 

We spent most of the day at his family’s house with assorted friends and family members popping in throughout the day to wish everyone a happy eid. Lunch was of course the newly slaughtered sheep. Its liver to be exact, cooked on skewers over hot coals. There is a precise order of what parts you should eat when, so every family in Morocco would be eating exactly the same thing at the same time! After lunch it was nap time (similar I guess to the post Christmas lunch nap), and then more tea and patisseries and then home time! Before I left, I had a quick look in the fridge and freezer. Lets just say they won’t need to visit a butcher anytime soon!

The sheep looking on in trepidation

Fridge and freezer packed with meat - and they still need to fit in the sheep!

Our sheep

The sheep in our house. Revenge is sweet!

Sheep, sheep, cow

On Monday it is Eid El-adha, where the Muslim world will celebrate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a ram to sacrifice instead (source: Wikipedia. Where else?!) It is the biggest holiday of the year, and it will also mark the 3^rd anniversary for Karim and I in the Islamic calendar. 3 years ago, sitting in a cafe, a Moroccan hotel boy asked a lone Aussie traveller girl to spend this holiday with him and his family. So to be here 3 years later, now married, and being able to celebrate with his family again means a lot to both of us. 

Preparations for the festival are well under way. The streets are filled with stalls selling all the paraphernalia – knives, skewers, grills and charcoal. And there are sheep everywhere! Sheep being dragged through the medina, sheep on motorbikes, sheep in cars, even sheep on donkeys! And on Thursday I was able to see where all these sheep were coming from when I went with Karim, his father and sister to pick out our own sacrificial animals. Traditionally every family kills a sheep, but many families also sacrifice a cow the day before. The more meat the merrier! So we chose a sheep and cow. Though I admit I didn’t have much to do with the choosing. My idea of a nice cow had more to do with colour and pretty eyes. Plus also I knew that if I chose one of the animals then I would personally be condemning it to death! Luckily the animals that were chosen weren’t too pretty, and I have vowed not to get too close to them so that on the day I won’t be upset.

With still a few days before the big event, the cow and sheep have taken up residence in the family home. I have no idea how they got the cow especially up the stairs! They seem happy enough munching on their hay indoors, oblivious of what is to come. There is also a sheep in our apartment building, which stares at me from across the balcony and every time I come up the stairs. And it reminds us of its presence every few minutes with a distressed ‘baa’, especially in the morning when I’m trying to sleep. There will be no love lost when that sheep is sacrificed!

So with the animals purchased, and me with my new jellaba, I am looking forward to the feast on Monday! Now all we need is for it to stop raining – it’s been raining for 3 days straight! I miss the Moroccan sunshine!

Cow market

Cow market

New Sheep being shepherded in

Me holding our sacrificial cow!

Sheep market

The cow and sheep all settled into Karim's family's house

The sheep in our apartment block that never shuts up!

Honeymoon Happiness!

I have been married for nearly 2 weeks - crazy! And for most of that time, Karim and I were enjoying our long-awaited and much-needed honeymoon. Karim has basically worked every day since I arrived and with the additional stress of the last 2 months of paperwork, it was such a relief to leave everything behind and finally go on holidays!

Despite having been to Morocco 6 or so times, I hadn’t seen much of the country besides Fes and the Sahara and Karim hasn’t travelled much either. So we decided to go south to the atlantic coast, a place neither of us had been before. We started off in Marrakech, and we were meant to spend 2 nights there but after only a few hours we decided that we had had enough and we were on another bus the next morning! It was very touristy and expensive – 18dh for a teapot of tea! Ridiculous! I might be a little biased but Fes is definitely a better city!

We stayed one night in a small town called Tiznit, famous for argan oil, honey and amlou (like peanut butter), so naturally we had to take samples of all 3! Then another few hours and we were finally at the coast, in a small town called Sidi Ifni. It was very laid-back and quiet, with a long beach and wild surf. The fish market had amazing treasures such as moray eels, sea urchins and baby hammerheads; I just stuck to the fish and calamari! A plate of sardines grilled on the BBQ was less than 1 euro! We spent a lovely few relaxing days there before going 10km north to a place called Legzira which was just a collection of a few hotels and restaurants right on the beach. I could practically dive straight into the ocean from our balcony! It was definitely my favourite place of the whole trip, and being the offseason we had the place to ourselves. It was a very honeymoon-ey place; we went for long romantic walks along the beach, had candlelight dinners, watched the sunset across the water and star-gazed from our balcony. We also went for a few morning runs along the beach, had lots of swims and lots of siestas! And despite being late autumn, I still managed to get sunburnt! 

But all too soon our time was up and we had to get back to the real world. After a 4am start and 15 hours of travel we made it to Rabat where we stayed one more night before coming back to Fes. And that was that! A lovely 10 days relaxing at the beach with my new husband, I couldn’t think of a better way to start our marriage!

Now back in Fes and all of a sudden it is cold! Before we went away we were sleeping with the fan on and now we are piling on the blankets! Which I guess is my cue to move on to warmer climates. I only have 2 more weeks left here before going back to Melbourne. But I’m trying not to think about it too much so I can enjoy the rest of my time here. Coming up soon is the big Eid – the sheep sacrifice festival!

Jemaa el fna in Marrakech

Karim in Marrakech

1 euro sardines

Demolished

Sunset in sidi ifni

Breakfast on the balcony in sidi ifni

The best pomegranate of my life!

Selftimer action in sidi ifni

Legzira

Our hotel in Legzira

Our baclony overlooking the sea

Pretty picture of a cat

Freshly caught octopus salad

Legzira

Selftimer at legzira

Selftimer at legzira

Karim and a jellyfish

Selftimer sunset in legzira

Honeymoon!