After spending a couple of lazy days in Marrakesh after our Sahara trip I decided to finally move on to Fes with Rikard. We caught an overnight bus (9 hour trip) and loaded up on sleeping pills. Unfortunately these didn't really help and we still didn't get a whole lot of sleep, as tends to be the case on overnight bus trips.

Fes ended up being much like Marrakesh really. From the moment we were off the bus we were being harassed. We managed to get a taxi but got off on the wrong side of the old town (the medina) and had to walk right through it to get to our hostel (the Funky Fes). Of course along the way people tried to sell us stuff or get us to come stay at their hotel. When we got to the right gate we still weren't able to figure out which way to go. Eventually one guy did lead us there, but not after taking us through a bunch of winding streets to show us his shop and his brother's shop and his father's shop and his house where he invited us to come back to with him. He told us not to trust anyone in the Funky Fes and said it was really bad. Then he offered to show us around Fes for 60dh. Of course when we got inside the hostel it was fine, they even had posters warning about false guides who invite you back to their house.

At the hostel we met Gabrielle, a Kiwi girl who had been in Fes for quite a while shopping for rugs for her mum. She took us around the town and it seemed that everyone knew her. She took us up to a leather shop which had a great view over the leather tanning district. We then got some awesome chickpea soup from a street vendor. We walked around a bit and Rickard bought a fes fes. But for the most part, it was really no different than walking around Marrakesh. Except when one carpet salesmen took us to one of the sellers and we ended up sitting around with the guys there drinking mint tea and playing Rummy. Gabrielle always seemed to have this way with the locals.

The next day we had Nolan, an American, join our group. He took us to this meat shop for lunch as we got some awesome spiced chops cook over a fire right in front of us. Amazing food. After this we decided to go to the arms museum just outside of the old town. The museum itself wasn't actually all that interesting and nothing was English, but the walk there and back was. We took a bit of a scenic route up around the cemetery and then across some cliff face which gave a great view of Fes. Then we had to climb up a small bit of cliff to save walking the long way around to the museum. The museum was in an old fort and probably just about the best part of it was actually being able to go out on the roof. This was another great view of Fes.

While we were up there we saw an accident at a roundabout between a van and a taxi. It was only a small fender bender but what followed was rather intense. I guess in Morocco they don't just exchange insurance details (perhaps they don't even have insurance) so it comes straight down to determining whose fault it is and how much they will pay. Of course this apparently needs more than just the drivers of the vehicles to figure out. People came from everywhere whether they saw the incident or not. Cars stopped. Other taxis pulled over. After a while there were about 20 people arguing. Some kids were throwing things with slingshots at people and passing cars. It was chaos. After we got bored of watching that and eventually left the museum and climbed back down the cliff we walked over to the incident which was just winding up. As we were walking away we saw a guy get out of a cab with wad of cash in his hand. I guess that was the payment.

The Funky Fes was a pretty damn good hostel too. They have a cook which cooks amazing food, so each night we would all place our orders and just eat in. Morocco is not really the place for nightlife anyway. So after a few days in Fes me, Rikard and Gabrielle were off to ChefChaouen.