Day 6: Fes

Pron: Fesss not Fezz!

Hello my literary friends!

This morning we had a sleep in and breakfast at 8am. Today we had a local guide who took us around Fes. We drove up Jewish quarter (melah) to the Royal Palace door and the wedding planner street with beautiful gold belts. Apparently the story behind the belts is that they are a gift from the groom to the bride.

Then we caught the bus up to the viewing point on the hill of the Medina for a few quick photos. We drove to a pottery store with beautiful tagine dishes but expensive $1500 AUD to ship the smallest to Australia. I’m not going to lie, the mosaics were beautiful.

Then we drove into the Medina for a day of walking from 9-5pm. We walked into a school, past a mosque and through a mosoleum, visited a weaver and thread dye in the streets, spice market with no spices, the copper makers on the street. It became apparent to many people at this point that the ‘shopping in Fes’ that had been promised really only included visiting the pre-arranged locations, as (as I mentioned previously) allowing 30 people to wander the medina unchecked would cause chaos. A few people were extremely unhappy about this. I’ll admit, I was a little surprised given our beautiful guide had told us to save our shopping plans for Fes, but I had no intention of buying anything so other than being confused by the instruction, it didn’t affect my plans too much.

By mid afternoon we made it to the pre-arranged restaurant. The second I saw the menu (pre-set 150MAD pp not including drinks) I knew I wasn’t prepared to stay. I asked our guide if a small group of us could go and come back to meet before the group departed the restaurant. He agreed and gave us an hour to go and eat and come back. We found a family owned restaurant nearby that we defected to, the Berrada family Restaurant, which was fantastic! We were welcomed into the restaurant by the owner whose mother was the cook! The second we stepped inside, he ushered us into the kitchen and handed us each a fork to try each of the tagines and decide which one we wanted to order. It was some of the best food we’d eaten so far and with an entrée of fresh bread and several different dips and drinks it cost us 65MAD each.

After re-joining the group we walked past the University which was closed for renovations.

The tannery for leather works was fascinating to view, watching the workers from the balcony, soaking hides and staining the leather. Upon arrival the owners of the tannery gave everyone a bunch of mint leaves to help with the smell. Personally, I didn’t find the scent that offensive and had no need for the mint, but some members of our group really struggled with it. The leather products didn’t compare with those we’d seen in the medina on our first day in Marrakech so very few people purchased anything with the intention of picking up better quality wares at the medina upon our return to Marrakech.

We found a shop where a few people bought copper and nickel teapots, then we walked back to the bus and stopped at a mall supermarket and bottle shop for snacks, water and drinks for our two days in the desert. 

After a quick change at 6.30pm we were off on foot to the traditional Hammam and massage at Yuba Cyn Spa (400MAD). Of the 12 of us who went, about 9 had a great experience. A couple of us had stone beds that were too hot (too hot to touch, let alone lay on) and this made laying on the stone for the hammam bath and scrub very difficult.

Essentially in this hammam, small steam rooms contain one or two large stone slabs at about waist height that were slightly more narrow and slightly shorter than a single bed. These stones, as well as the floor are heated from the inside and washed down with a hose. The entire room is essentially a giant wet room. You’re given a little foam pillow to rest your head on while laying on the hot stone where you’re hosed down and then scrubbed, front and back with an exfoliating scrub and mitt which was practically made of sandpaper. At the time, I did wonder if I would have any skin left as the experience is relatively violent compared to the usual western spas I’m used to.

Note: My roommate had a well tempered stone but sadly mine was twice the heat so I wasn’t able to stay in the hammam. Our massages were relaxing however! Be warned some of us ladies ended up with quite (very very) unexpectedly intimate massages! You can ask them not to massage areas you don’t want touched but to be honest their English was extremely limited. I told our hammam lady several times the stone was too hot and ended up standing for 20 minutes because I couldn’t sit on the stone bed. I did have another member of our group confirm they likely had the same room we did as their two stones were extremely different and one unbearably hot also.

We were surprised and a little disappointed to have one lady doing the hammam for both of us, we had expected to have someone each. In reality we paid for a 30 minute hammam and a 30 minute massage, but we got about a 15 minute hammam each and a 20 minute massage.

As I mentioned, the majority of the group who attended hammam had an enjoyable experience. Despite the experience itself leaving much to be desired, I will admit, my skin felt like a newborn baby for days afterward. I would absolutely do it again, given that even within our group my experience was an anomaly, I’m sure nine times out of ten it would be a generally enjoyable experience all round.

After hammam some of us walked to a local pizza shop (Pizza midway) and then as the weather turned and the wind blew in, we walked back to the hotel and ate our fresh pizzas by the pool. 

Tips:

Traditional hammam isn’t for everyone, especially if you are uncomfortable being naked in front of strangers (yourself, the person who scrubs you and the person you’re sharing with if you go in a pair as I did). It is not like a western spa. I would say the most accurate way to describe the experience is ‘in the neighbourhood of violent’, but the results were worth it in the end.

 If you’re looking for something to eat that isn’t Moroccan food, Pizza Midway was fantastic, made fresh to order. Be warned, it took somewhere in the realm of 30-45 minutes for our takeaway pizzas to cook, so if you are hungry, order ahead.

Accommodation: The Royal Mirage Fes Hotel