Hi ,
I'm on Spanish ( Catalan, ehem..) soil again, back in Barcelona. First of all, I'd like to warn everybody of ever consider travelling from the North of Spain to Morocco by bus. It's a really, really tedious ride which takes more than 30 hours. Best part was when the bus driver, shortly after arriving in Ceuta, told me that they were not going to Fes but instead to Rabat and Casablanca. In Rabat I got off at the CTM station and the bus driver handed me 60 Dirham in order to pay my ticket to Fes. Considerate, right? I was outraged, I can tell ya'll....
On my way back at least I was recompensed by some entertaining and agreeable company, which made the journey pass faster.
Fes itself of course was all marvellous, just as I had expected. Youssef and I spend hours in the medina, sipping mint tea and listening to Oum Kalthoum. Time in these places doesn't seem of any importance, which is something I enjoyed very much after leaving frantic and bustling Barcelona behind. You should just watch my
photos because they express my admiration more than words. Some funny episode happened when I arrived in Rabat, the bus driver talked to a guy that might have been my age. After getting off the bus, the guy took my suitcase without saying a word and I ( being the distrustful European I am ) started to panic...which was clearly related to the fact that my digital SLR camera was IN that suitcase....he started walking towards the opposite direction--which made me panic even more!!! After some minutes we arrived at another bus station which was not CTM and he explained in rudimentary French to me that only this company had buses going to Fes that night. In the end I felt ashamed for my suspiciousness, especially when another heplful guy let me the missing 15 dirham to pay the ticket and luggage fee as I couldn't change my money anywhere. Talk about travelling teaches you lessons :-)
Cheers.
