Last Friday afternoon I found myself crammed up against the train window. All the Harry Potter like compartments were already full. It was a good chance to see the beautiful green scenery zooming by outside. We passed expansive valleys, farms, and small villages.
We arrived in Meknes just after sunset and found a grand taxi to take us the last 30 minutes of the journey to Moulay Idriss. The drive through the valley was pitch black except for the small splattering of lights in the villages, but it just so happened to be a full moon and the largest full moon I think I've ever seen. A friend of ours, Feysal, picked us up and led us to his guest house we would be staying in for the weekend. The guest house that is the equivalent of a bed and breakfast was set deep in the winding alleys of the medina. It was three stories of 450 year old beauty. It was impeccably decorated, a lounge room on each floor, hot water bottles on each bed, a kitchen and dining room for cooking, and a roof terrace.We dragged ourselves away from the beautiful home and headed to the main road for dinner. At 9:30 at night there were still crowds of people milling around and eating and having tea at all the "barbeque" stands. We sat down at one and ordered which mean me telling him that I didn't want meat which he amazingly understood and even identified as vegetarian and the others saying meat was fine. We had no idea what to expect out of the meal. The meal turned out to be the tastiest mixture of spices and veggies ever, and I heard from the other that the Kefta was to die for. We returned to the guest house and sat on the rooftop admiring starry sky before all falling asleep to a movie.
Saturday we woke up to homemade breakfast of a smorgasbord of all the best Moroccan breads with bowls of cheese, butter, honey, and oil for dipping. We all enjoyed steaming cups of real, strong coffee.
We headed out to wander around the saint village. The town was alive with people and we decided the best way to describe it was a buzzing town. We walked through many windy alleys and eventually found two young boys who lead us around showing us some of the great view points of the city and the beautiful mosque of Moulay Idriss. I found myself feeling more comfortable than I have felt anywhere so far. The boys who showed us around didn't ask for money and virtually no one harassed us. The day was also beautiful and we enjoyed breathtaking views. For lunch we went to the marketplace and where we gathered fresh vegetables, oranges, olives, dates, bread, cheese, herbs, and even some cactus fruit. We went back to the guest house cooked up some veggies and herbs and made sandwiches then packed it all up and headed for hike to Volubilis. Once we had climbed a steep incline and made it out of town everything was quite and peaceful around us. We passed high cliffs with caves, shepherds herding their sheep, and olive groves. It felt very surreal. At Volubilis, the roman ruins I have already visited we found ourselves a spot overlooking the green valley in front of us and ate our picnic lunch. After a few hours and the desecration of the mosaic below us by the olive that fell, we moved to a new spot to watch the sun set. And set it did, I found myself taking a picture every few seconds of the beautiful sky setting on the roman ruins.
A friend drove over to pick us up at take us back to Moulay Idriss.
Once we were back it was straight to the kitchen again and started sautéing, cutting, peeling, cooking all to the tune of the Beetles which we all sang along to at full volume. In the end we had produced homemade marinara sauce and some pasta.
The result was pure bliss. The rest of the evening was spend on the roof talking for hours and looking at the stars, watching American History X for the first time (SO good!), more time on the roof re-briefing after a hard-hitting movie, and cuddling in bed while Hila made us take personality tests. It was a night well spent with friends until the wee hours of the morning.
We woke early-ish the next morning to another wonderful breakfast on a rainy day. February 20, was to be the big day of protests in Morocco and with everything in North America that has bee going on, no one knew what to expect.
We didn't even know how to feel about the days upcoming events getting so many mixed messages. Our program had advised us to be back in Rabat by Saturday night in case travel was made difficult by protests, but did we listen? no. As we headed into the stormy day in Moulay Idriss nothing seemed different. We stuffed into a grand taxi with a total of 7 people and zoomed crazily to Meknes. Our taxi driver was definitely making some risky moves in and out of cars, passing on blind turns all in the rain. It's Africa! Needless to say we arrived in Meknes quite happy to make it out of the taxi and just a little car sick. We spent about an hour wandering looking for the train station and in the meantime passed two small protests didn't look like much. We almost immediately got on a train to Rabat and settled into an apartment with a small Moroccan family. We even talked to them a little about the protests, they thought that they were crazy and chose not to take any part in them. This time we actually got our own Harry Potter style compartment.
We had heard that the protests had moved from Bab-alhed to Parliament which happens to be right by the train station, so we braced ourselves. Outside the sun was shining and a large crowd of peaceful protesters were gathered. Some were chanting, some waving signs, others were just lounging on the grass. The little police and military I saw around were either sleeping or talking animatedly with protestors. A larger group of men were praying and there were food venders out taking advantage of the crowds. Basically normal life was going on around it all. No one seemed angry and it was a beautiful display of people exercising their rights. In a few other cities thing there was minor violence but often it involved looting and destruction of property that was not connected to the protests. I headed home feeling excited feeling that Morocco is such a unique place and that at least for now, isha'allah, the revolution in much of the arab world would stay clear of Morocco.
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