Sevilla-Fes 15Nov2018
I had to spend another week in Sevilla, as my package with the spare parts still didn’t arrive. I made some Videos, went Salsa dancing, flirted with the pretty volunteer of the hostel, checked Facebook and basically just waited f to get back on the road. On Monday, I decided to check at the postal office in Sevilla about my package. Guess what. The told me it would take another 10 days until I get it. I think I do not have to describe my reaction.
So the next day, I headed off towards Tarifa, even though it was raining. But I was happy being able to cycle again.
As on the next day, the rain didn’t stop, I decided to take a decen accommodation and I found one. It was a family runned Bar, with store, Bar and restaurant, which had some spare rooms for guests. I arrived frozen and hungry, and the family didn’t just give me a meal and a big reduction on the room price, they were friendly and interested in my trip as well.
So the next day, I could start with clean clothes, another meal in my pockets and a big smile on my face.
I arrived soon in Tarifa and took the ferry to Tanger. I didn’t have any problems getting through the customs and finally, I set foot on African soil.
What a moment! It was already dark and I had no Idea where to go. My Gps didn’t work, so I was desperate to find Wifi, in order to use Google Maps, to find the way to the Hostel. Everything seemed to be strange and dangerous in this very first moments in Morocco. The scripture, the people, the shops, I really had a culture shock. But finally I made my way to the hostel and as I was eating on the roof of the hostel, with a nice view over the city, I finally calmed down and began to smile again. This was it. Africa. Finally my big dream became really alive.
The next day, I drove off, and slowly got in to the mountains and on. The Land was hilly, Animals were roaming around freely, shepherds with a few goats, a cow, people walking along the streets, waste spread everywhere.
After a few days, I finally got over my cultural shock and began to love the people and their friendliness and hospitality. I didn’t feel scared anymore, I felt welcomed and happy.
I finally arrived in Chefchouen, the blue city. It is located on the flank of a mountain and getting there was quite tough, even though it was asphalt. I pitched my tent on the campground and decided to stay two days, as my knees had started to hurt.
In the old Medina of Chefchouen, all the buildings are kept in light blue and there is a lot to discover. Small Bakeries, with almost no place for the baker to stand. The oven were heated with wood, and when the bread was done, the whole village seemed to bring their tajines to cook.
And there were markets, chicken, freshly slaughtered, fish, spices, jingeling and everything the Arabic world has to offer. I couldn’t stop looking, tasting and admiring. And every 5 Minutes, I got offered some Hashish and a visit to the plantations in the mountains. I have to add that around the mountains of Chefchouen are basically a huge area of marihuana plantations. But I don’t smoke when I drive, so I turned them down.
In the evening, I sat together with some campers and a beautiful young lady from Switzerland. Some where smoking weed, some were chatting, one girl played the guitar and we had a good time.
And then Evelyne, the swiss lady said something, that finally changed my way of thinking: This can’t get any better! This might be the moment when I finally realised that she was right. It really couldn’t get better at this very moment!
I don’t know, but something in my mind just changed at this very moment. Since then I watch every moment as the best it can get right now. And it is. Somehow, I finally found a big piece of inner peace and happiness of which I had been looking for for so long.
I’ve been keeping up this thinking and everyday since then got good. But nevertheless, my days and experiences still keep going better and especially then, when I don’t’ expect it.
On the way to Fes, I met Jeanne, a women with short hair and about 40 years old. She was travelling with a shitty Holland-bike with only one gear and she was also on her way to Fes. So we decided to travel together. While I didn’t have any problems, Jeannes bike kept prodcucing problems, and she ended up shouting of anger when we had a big uphill track. But no problem for me, I had already gone through this too and instead of telling her to calm down I told her to shout and swear as loud as she could. It helps. Really. We finished our day early and in the evening and finally all anger was gone. We kept having a good time together and finally arrived in Fes. It took a few hours to get connected to our couchsurfing hosts but finally, we arrived at Amine, the host of Jeanne. A very bighearted guy who was friendly and did everything to make sure we have everything we need. We were on a small backstreet where he and his friends had a small shop, where they prepared sandwiches and soups for the people passing by. It was basically nothing more than half of a garage and a bar to prepare and sell the food. He made some sandwiches for us and we had a good conversation about this and that.
Inside his tiny store, he kept some birds in a tiny little cage. It was a special kind of birds, they learn to sing from other birds and they sound awesome. I have often seen such little cages with these birds in Morocco and since then, I know why they keep them.
My host, Hamsa, wasn’t easy to find. But I Finally did and he lived with his family in a nice flat with lots of space for guests. He prepared dinner for us and after chatting a while with his family I finally went sleeping.
The next morning, me and Jeanne spent talking with Amine, and I learned a lot about the Islamic worldview. He even took time to fix mine and Jeannes bike. The main problem of Jeanne were the tires, but we were not able to find any, so we were happy that he managed to find some and change them.
At lunchtime, we went over to Hamsas house, where we were invited for dinner and together with his family, we ate a big bowl of couscous with, chicken, pumpkin, potatos and so on. Hamsas uncle tought us a lot about eating rules and Arabic habits, and we finally ended up talking about the music of the 80s.
It was a great afternoon and after the farewell, we went to the medina to our hostel. It was quite tricky to find and my bike with its heavy load almost didn’t fit into the tight streets.
But we finally found it and it was beautiful and calm and after the check in and a shower, we went to the burj Nord, where we could see all over the city and Hamsa even joined us to show me how to take the best pictures from this spot.
The next day we spent in the medina. We soon figured out that electronic maps were quite useless in this labyrinth of markets and small streets, with walls so high, that you had no chance to figure out where you were. But luckily, the Moroccains are good people and will always show you the right way. So we put down the phone and just went through the old medina. The markets sold anything one can imaging in an Arabic country; crafts, jewelry, spices, food, sweets, household stuff, pottery and so on and so on. It would had taken weeks to get through all this stuff.
Then we got to the tannery for which Fes is famous. We had to buy something or donate something to be allowed on the terrace, and from there we could see the people working. They gave us peppermintbranches to inhale against the smell. It wasn’t actually too bad, my socks were worse at this time. But I even saw a british guy putting them right up his nose. Funny people those Britains.
We could see the pots, were the leather was coloured, how they prepared the skin and manufactured. We were even allowed to stand on the colorizing pots.
But as the “guide” started to want more and more money, we just went off.
We kept on watching the city and went back to the hostel. I tried to update my website, while Jeanne was trying to buy a decent map in the city. The next day would separate us, as she headed for Marrakech and I for Rabat. We made a couscous for us for the night and already on dark night, we enjoyed our company and meal on the roof of the hostel.