Fes, Morocco (Day 3)

On my third day in Morocco, we started off the day with wonderful, freshly made orange juice and one of my favorite things from my study abroad in Paris.. pain au chocolat!  Then we grabbed our bags and got in the car for Mohammed to drive us to Fes, a four-hour route that went through the capital of Morocco, Rabat.

I was amazed to see the different terrain and all the agriculture we passed on that drive.  The most fascinating thing to me was that there were nomads and shepherds with their livestock just.. roaming free!  NOT something you ever see at home.  Anywhere you saw livestock, you'd see someone accompanying the herd.  We also passed many olive trees, people selling olive oil along the road, and trees that were missing their bark around the trunk, harvested for making cork!

Following Hajar and the man with our luggage

Yet even if it felt as though we were in the middle of nowhere, we would see satellite dishes on the buildings.  Even the buildings that looked like shacks.. satellite dishes!  There were also lots of mosques, which I found fascinating.. I love that you can find them so easily thanks to the minarets (tower) that stick out from skylines.  Really cool.

When we arrived in Fes, we pulled into a dark, VERY cramped garage to park.  A man came and took our suitcases, and we followed him into the heart of Fes, where the alleys are too narrow for vehicles, so travel is done by foot, moped, bike or the back of a donkey.  They put non-metal shoes on either both front, or all feet of the donkeys to help them as they walk along the stone paths.  There were both standard and miniatures being ridden!

The face of transportation in Fes

Man on donkey

After following the man as he pulled our bags through what felt like a maze, we arrived at our beautiful home for that night, Riad Dar Bensouda Fes.  Hajar explained to me that a riad (Arabic: رياض‎) is a home or palace that has a courtyard or interior garden. In true Moroccan fashion, we were greeted with Moroccan mint tea and pastries that we sat and enjoyed by a small pool in one of the hotel's courtyards.

Moroccan mint tea by the pool

Another courtyard of Riad Dar Bensouda Fes

We took our bags to our space for the evening and found we had a beautiful space with a living room, bedroom, and of course bathroom, all for 525 dirham (dh).. about $65!  Unbelievable.

A little later, our suit-wearing tour guide for the night, Mohammed arrived to take us through the Medina (market) of Fes.  We had thought he was going to speak English, but it was a little something more like Franglish, so Hajar had to do some translating.  When we started off, we saw a man with a mechanical loom putting together some sort of blanket or something, strung kind of across the pathway.  The streets were confusing and packed with goods of every color you can imagine.

I found and bought a small bullet key chain for a friend at one of the booths we found early on.  A little later, Hajar and I both bought head scarves for our upcoming trip to the Sahara; very long pieces of material that could be wrapped into turbans to protect from the sand and elements.  She bought one that was bright blue, mine, hot pink.  We did a little more shopping as we explored with our Franglish speaking guide, looking at beautiful lamps, and buying dresses.  The dress buying was pretty entertaining.. Hajar haggled quite a bit for us and we each purchased a Moroccan dress (110 and 100 dh), and I bought one for my niece.  A little later, I purchased the city's namesake hat to take home for my nephew.  When in Fes...

Update: the kids wearing their gifts from Morocco 12/25/14

We got to see the inside of Medersa Attarine, a home for students of the nearby university.  It was incredible how much detail there was in the courtyard.  Stunning.

Medersa Attarine, notice the Arabic on the wall

The amazing detail of Medersa Attarine

We continued on with our tour and ventured into the leather souk, what's said to be the oldest leather tannery in the world, dating back at least nine centuries.  Whew!  There was a distinctive smell to the place.  By the balcony where you could watch the dying, there were baskets of mint leaves you could hold close to your nose to help mask the odor.  It was so fascinating.  The hides are soaked in diluted acid and then transferred to other vats with dyes made from henna, saffron, mint and other substances.  Once the dying process is done, the hides are dried on the rooftops around the area.  There were maybe 100 vats of liquid filling the space.

So many vats of dye for the leather

A worker dipping leather in the dye

Goods in the shop that overlooked the tannery

Rug store, complete with magic carpets

From the tannery we continued on, into a rug store.  Our guide introduced us to a man in the store who thankfully spoke perfect English, so Hajar had a break from translating.  We quickly discovered that he was related to her father, who was born in Fes!  He had a great sense of humor.  While showing us a rug, he told us, "we sell magic carpets, but they only fly one way: down, when we drop them from up there," as he pointed up to the balcony of the riad-turned-store's courtyard.  He took us upstairs to see several looms, and showed us one of the rugs, saying that by walking on both sides of the rug, the knots become more tucked into the design and over time it looks better.  He also said that by flipping the rug over and walking on it, it knocks out dirt, "do when you have guests and they can clean for you!"

After our tour of the rug store, we saw people working many other trades: women doing embroidery, men working copper into kitchen goods and decorations for the home at Place Seffarine, and booths with the most stunning fabrics I'd ever seen.

Sheep skins, really smelled terrible

A loom

Beautiful dresses

Closeup of the detail on one of the dresses

Alley in the Medina

Metalwork Place Seffarine

Water clock, Dar al-Magana

Our guide took us to the world's oldest university, University of al-Qarawiyyin, but we weren't able to go inside.

University of al-Qarawiyyin

During our 4-5 hour tour, we tried several different foods.  I had what Hajar called a Moroccan pancake (a red..tomato.. onion thing that was absolutely delicious), a Moroccan donut, jerky (khlii) rose-flavored nougat... and finished the day off with my least favorite food, probably of the whole trip.  Snails and their stew (7.5 dh if you're interested).

Moroccan savory pancake

Moroccan donut

Snails and their snaily broth

Using a toothpick to extract the snails from their shells to be eaten

Towards the end of our tour on the way back to our riad, we came upon the same man from the beginning of our tour who had been working a mechanical loom, strung kind of across the path, still working diligently.  Before we could stop him, a young man came running down the alley and ran through the loom's threads and went several feet before he slowed to a stop.  The man's work from the entire day was very damaged, if not ruined.. and it broke our hearts.  The young man apologized, then left.

After four or five hours of touring the city with our guide, we arrived back at our riad, and each paid 20 dh for our private tour.  I wanted to take some pictures, so we went up to the roof of our riad for a little bit, then it was off to bed.

Fes by night

Minaret seen from the roof of our riad

At some point while we were in our room, we could hear calls to prayer coming from all the different mosques.  You can hear the sound below.. again, so so cool.

Casablanca, Morocco (Days 1 & 2)

Whew!  After 22 hours of flying and layovers going from Austin, Texas to Atlanta, Georgia to Paris, France, I made it to my destination in Casablanca, Morocco to visit my grad school roommate, Hajar!  Yahoo!  It was so nice to have her there at the airport to greet me... especially since I don't speak any French (in spite of my study abroad) or Arabic!  It took about 40 minutes to get to her parents' home from the airport.. there was lots of traffic since I arrived at the end of the day.  I was surprised to see lots of animals pulling carts on the road; that was new to me.  Also there seemed to be people out in any fields we passed that had livestock.

We got to her house and had a WONDERFUL dinner that her mom prepared (I said she needs to have a restaurant!).  We had a beautifully arranged tagine with prunes, almonds and sesame seeds, taktouka (tomato and paprika salad), zaalouk (eggplant), khobz (Moroccan bread), and olives.  Oh.  My.  Gracious.  I was so full, and then for dessert we had our pick from a platter of fresh fruit, including AMAZING oranges from Hajar's parents' garden!  It was QUITE the welcome dinner (and makes me want to eat it all over again just writing this)!!

The next morning I got to sleep in for a little bit thankfully.  When I started getting ready for the day, I almost put my deodorant on my toothbrush, and then followed that with trying to put a shoe on the wrong foot.. guess I was slightly jet lagged!  Oh well.  We had pain au chocolat (my favorite) and fresh orange juice for breakfast, and headed out with Hajar's mom to try to see some of Casablanca.

We got into some interesting traffic on our way to our destination!  I think we made a wrong turn and ended up in a street PACKED with merchants and shoppers!  A guy ended up yelling at people to move out of our way and had to escort our vehicle by foot all the way out of the area!

Outside of the palace in Casablanca

We tried to see the court in the city but there was an event going on there so we weren't allowed in.  Then we tried to see the outside of the king's palace in Casablanca, but there were guards who wouldn't let us by their post since we weren't with a group.  While we waited for a group that we could enter with, we went to a bookstore across the street and I bought a Cinderella book in Arabic as a gift, and Hajar's mom bought a Moroccan cookbook for me with all the dishes she'd prepared the night before.  A few minutes later, we caught a group and got to see the gates to the palace.

bread in the oven

From there, we walked to Patisserie Bennis Habous where I got to see Moroccan bread cooking and we bought some Moroccan cookies to have with tea.  Yum!

Moroccan tea and cookies

Something I've been surprised to learn so far is that tea is a big part of the culture here.  It's usually a green tea with mint, poured from a small teapot like in the picture here, into a small glass.  Its poured from a distance to produce foam.

Once we were done with tea, Hajar and I were dropped off at the Hassan II Mosque.  In between prayer times, they allow visitors to buy tickets to tour the mosque.  Wow.  What a beautiful building!  The construction of the building started in 1987 and lasted for six years, involving around 10,000 craftsmen and 2,500 workers.  It's the second largest mosque in the world, and I can't believe that construction was completed in such a short time.

Hassan II Mosque, over the ocean

Hassan II Mosque

A neat thing I learned about mosques is that they all have a minaret (tower that allows for the call to prayer), which makes it easy to spot them all over the city.  The minaret of this mosque stands 689 feet tall, and is considered to be the tallest in the world.  It has lasers that point towards Mecca at night.

Prayer hall of the Hassan II Mosque

We bought our tickets downstairs and then moved upstairs to the mosque's massive prayer hall.  After removing our shoes, we were allowed to enter.  The hall can hold 25,000 worshipers with 5,000 women in the balcony area and 20,000 men on the floor.  The plaza outside can accommodate an additional 80,000.  The mosque was built over the water because of a verse in the Koran that says that's where God's throne was built.

Prayer hall of the Hassan II Mosque 

The prayer hall has an incredible roof that can open in three minutes, allowing more air to enter the hall.  Through the middle of the hall, there is a stream of running water, and in the center of the room, there are windows where you can see down into Ablution Hall on the ground of the building, viewing earth.  With these three aspects of the building, one can experience the three elements of earth, air and water.

Retractable ceiling of the Hassan II Mosque

From there, we went downstairs and saw Ablution Hall and its 41 fountains, where people go to wash before prayer.  We also got to see a hamam (bath) in the building that hasn't yet been used.

Fountains in Ablution Hall

me and Hajar outside of Hassan II Mosque

From there, we grabbed some lunch and got to see Hajar's sister-in-law for a few minutes before heading back to H's home to get ready to go to a hamam, or public bath!  Woah.  Sooo I'd been a little nervous about the whole public bath thing.. but we'll skip those details (for a funny briefing of what it's like, visit this article).  We started off with a sit in the sauna, then applied a black soap to open up pores.  From there we had a fantastic mini exfoliating massage, at which point I told Hajar I was moving to Morocco.  She quickly translated my words to the ladies working there, and all the sudden they all broke into what sounded like a song (she says it was a chant)!  A little later we spread a mixture of henna and other plants on our skin, and then had mini massages where rhassoul (clay) was applied to our skin to make it soft.  At the end, we used rose water and eucalyptus essence to cool down.  Whew!  They need hamams in the states!

Rick's Cafe: goat cheese salad with figs

After that, we went to Rick's Cafe for dinner.  "The one from the movie, Casablanca?!"  Yes and no.  The one in the movie was fictional, but this one was built in 2004 to recreate the experience.  And yes, to my excitement, they have a pianist who plays "As Time Goes By" several times a night!  I had a DELICIOUS goat cheese salad with figs and the grilled swordfish with eggplant compote and pesto.  Yum!!

After dinner we headed home to pack for our upcoming adventure across the country.

Rick's Cafe

Rick's Cafe menu for 8/1/2014

Road Trip to Florida

Mardi Gras Costume for NASA

In February, my dad and I drove to Orlando, Florida to drop off two mares to be bred and to attend the AMHA Annual Meeting.  I had intended on doing a blog when I got home, but ended up spending all of my time catching up on school.  A few minutes ago, I came across the pictures I took on the trip and was reminded that it really was a trip worthy of posting, so here we go!

We made the trip during Mardi Gras, so when we took a break at a rest stop in Mississippi, we got to see some AMAZING Mardi Gras costumes that were on display.  There was even one that was dedicated to NASA!

My dad and me

After two days of driving, we dropped off the mares and arrived in Orlando for the meeting.  Fast forward, the last day of the meeting, we walked from the hotel to Downtown Disney, wanting to see a little bit of Orlando before leaving.  Woah!  Talk about themed to the hilt!!

Legos: Sleeping Beauty

Legos: Toy Story

Lego sculpture

We finished off our walk with dinner at a themed out restaurant called T-Rex, it's really similar to Rainforest Cafe.

T-Rex restaurant

On the drive home, we stopped by The Original Oyster House in Mobile, Alabama and had their Man vs. Food platter.  Whew!  It had bourbon-glazed ahi tuna, fried oysters, two stuffed crabs, shrimp scampi, and fried crawfish tails.  Yum!

Atchafalaya display

We also stopped by a rest stop that had a museum about the Atchafalaya swamp, North America's largest river swamp.  It originally covered over two million acres, but today covers about one million.  I had no idea that rest stops could be so interesting, and am grateful that my dad knew the good ones to go to!

From there, we continued our drive through Louisiana and its huge swampland! 

Louisiana swampland

When we got back into Texas, I learned that we have this kind of land as well!  We stopped at a rest stop that backed up to the Blue Elbow Swamp in Orange, Texas.

Rest stop in Orange, Texas

Blue Elbow Swamp

Blue Elbow Swamp

New Orleans, Louisiana (AMS)

Mardi Gras World

Last week (July 23-27) I flew to New Orleans, Louisiana for my third Ag Media Summit.  For the welcome dinner, we went to Mardi Gras World.  It was incredible!!

Mardi Gras World

We first walked into this huge warehouse that was full of Mardi Gras floats.  I was so sad that I didn't bring my good camera; I only had my point-and-shoot, but at least I had something!  There was a Trojan horse, a peacock, jesters, the characters of the Wizard of Oz and hundreds of other things.  It just went on and on!  Very neat place.

Mardi Gras World

Mardi Gras World

Mardi Gras World: warehouse

We were supposed to walk through the warehouse then into another building for our dinner.  I was taking my time walking through with some friends and by the time we got close to the end, some people came back into the warehouse and told us, "you've gotta see where we're having dinner!"

Mardi Gras World: Grand Oaks Mansion (inside a building)

I'll admit now, I was 100% not believing that anything could be more fun to see than the warehouse.  Boy was I WRONG!  We walked into the building where we were having our dinner, and after a minute, found ourselves on walking out onto the front porch of a plantation house... but we were still inside!  It was fantastic.  It reminded me of what I call the happiest restaurant ever, Casa Bonita.  I LOVED it.  It was the Grand Oaks Mansion of Mardi Gras World, and there are better pictures of it on the website.  Boy do I wish it were in Texas!  Awesome.

Greater New Orleans Bridge: outside of Mardi Gras World

The next day, the conference started so I was busy for the next several days.  On one of the evenings, I went with some friends to the Palace Cafe, next door to our hotel on Canal Street.  Fantastic food!  Another night I went with a couple of my friends from school to Harrah's Casino; my first time being in a real casino!

St. Louis Cathedral

Cafe Du Monde

On Tuesday morning, my friend Keiko and I walked a few blocks from our hotel into the French Quarter to get beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  On our way, we saw the famous St. Louis Cathedral.  So pretty!  We only had a few minutes before we had to be at the first sessions of the day for the conference, so we only had enough time to snap a picture.

Cafe Du Monde: beignets!

During lunch Tuesday, Ted Jackson was our speaker.  He is one of the photojournalists who stayed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.  He showed us his photographs of the disaster and told us his story.  When you look at the eighth picture on that link, notice where the door of the home is.  According to Jackson, the people in that picture were standing on the railing of their porch and planning to put one of the children on the log to send across the current to him (he was standing on a bridge across from them I believe).  They had the same plan for the second child with the cooler.  He left to keep them from trying it, and when he returned with emergency supplies, they were all gone, and the rescuers he saw nearby hadn't rescued them.  I wish I had a video of his speech.  I was able to find some videos of him talking about his experiences here.

building in the French Quarter

 The last night (Tuesday night) that I had in New Orleans, I took my tripod and camera to Bourbon Street to try to get some shots of the lights.  For the first few minutes I was pretty surprised that no one was bothering me.  As soon as I recognized that I was surprised, everyone started bothering me.  Go figure.  So many people came up and would ask what I was taking pictures of... was it that hard?

Bourbon Street

At one point, a lady maybe in her late 50s, seemingly missing all of her teeth and with a man, came up to me and was speaking but I couldn't understand her, so I leaned in thinking she was asking a question.  The only thing I understood her say in her rambling was, "I'll kill ya."  I leaned away and ignored her while I half-adjusted my camera, half-protected it in case she was going to do something else crazy.  Then she moved in front of my camera and exclaimed, "I'll take that camera.. thing and shove it..." you get the picture.  Woah!  Some people from AMS were standing next to me when it happened, so it didn't freak me out too bad.

Bourbon Street

Bourbon Street

It was the third incident where I heard someone go off for no reason in the time that I was there.  A man had yelled at my friend, Jessica, our first day there.  She took a picture of him not knowing he charged for it and he started yelling at her and after a few minutes of walking down behind us on Canal Street yelled, "what, were you raised by Neanderthals?!"  Then the day that my friend Keiko and I went to get beneighs, a man stepped in front of us asking for money and when we kept walking, he spun around and started screaming curse words at us (and we were in front of the church above, too).  Yikes.

beads in a tree

My last morning in New Orleans, I was still in tourist overdrive and determined to pack in some last-minute sightseeing before my airport shuttle at 10:50, so I went out and caught the trolley.  I noticed that the sky was dark when I left, and knew I didn't have an umbrella, but I went anyway.  It had rained at least once every day I had been in New Orleans, but I'd never been caught in it since I was always in the hotel for the conference.  Well about as soon as I got on the trolley, it started pouring rain!

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

After maybe 15 minutes, the rain stopped, and a couple that I recognized from AMS got off of the trolley, so I did too.  We all walked to a nearby cemetery and it started to rain again so we stood under the trees for a while (my friend Jessica's adviser let me share her umbrella to protect my purse/camera) and finally moved out of the cemetery over to a building overhang that would keep us more dry.  After a few minutes there, I decided that I needed to go back to the trolley stop and to get back to the hotel before I missed my shuttle, so I did, and while I got really wet, thankfully my camera didn't.

It sure was a fun trip.  I want to go back some day and really sight see!