Fes, Morocco
At Christine’s recommendation, I signed up for the
Semester at Sea trip to Fes. I had heard wonderful things about the city and
figured I’d give it a shot.
Customs didn’t take nearly as long as it did last time,
so I was in a pretty pleasant mood. Unfortunately, my other travelling
companions were not. Traveling with seniors has been quite the adventure. Some
of them have been quite lovely and many of them, well, have not. Since we spent
most of the day on the bus, much of my travel notes from the day include what
people chose to complain about. And since we had so much time on the bus (about
four hours each way for a 14 hour trip), there was lots of time to complain.
(Remind me never to get old and grumpy.)
Here’s a list of things that were complained about (and
this was all within the first few hours):
1.
Immigration. “Can you believe it took so long?”
When the ship was in Casablanca two weeks ago, it took over four hours. This
time, it took about two. I count that as a win. Besides, it’s their country.
They can do whatever they want. Suck it up.
2.
Length of the bus ride. While it wasn’t fun to
sit on a bus 8 hours of a 13 hour trip, do your research. You don’t want to sit
on a bus that long, don’t sign up for the trip.
3.
Lack of toilet paper in the restroom. I’m pretty
sure they told us in the pre-port to carry your own TP. By the time the college
students arrived in Morocco, they were prepared with TP and hand sanitizer in
hand, ready to face any bathroom challenges that may arise. The old people, not
so much. (“You want me to go in a hole in the ground?!”)
4.
Tipping the restroom attendant. “There’s no
toilet paper and she expects a tip?” This lady makes as much in a week as you
make in an hour at home and that’s if she’s lucky.
5.
The convenience store not taking dollars:
Newsflash, this isn’t America and they don’t have to take dollars if they don’t
want to.
6.
The two-time divorcee you got stuck sitting next
to on the bus: I was sitting in front of this lady and her unfortunate choice
for a seat mate. Trust me, she had every right to complain. Sir if you ever
want to be on your way to marriage (and probably divorce) number three, stop
talking about how much you hate your ex-wife.
7.
Lunch time: Due to the length of the bus ride,
we didn’t get to eat lunch until around 3pm. Our lunch destination was in the
medina, so we did a bit of a tour along the way. Our tour guide was
mid-sentence, telling us some super interesting fact about the ancient city of
Fes, when one of the ladies on the trip interrupted him with a rather rude,
“When’s lunch?” He politely answered her and went back to talking when she
interrupted him again and said, “Yeah, but when’s lunch?” Geez, lady, pack a
snack next time.
On a less grumpy note…When we were walking through the
medina, one of the rather charming shopkeepers, asked me, “Are you married?”
When I said no, he said, “I would give you 20,000 camels for your hand.” I have
no idea if that’s a lot, but I’ll take what I can get.
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