Fes

Fes is an interesting city. It’s the first one where someone told me “fuck you”. It’s also the first one where someone asked if I wanted weed.

For the most part I thought it was an uneventful place to visit. UNESCO world heritage, oldest city in the country but it doesn’t have much going on for it. I visited many places in Fes, but the only place that had enough to offer me as a tourist was the tannery. It stunk, as you’d expect from a tannery, but I was offered mint leaves for my nose. From the shedding of hair to how they used traditional spices to color the leather, the process for their original leather production was truly fascinating

When it came to food, it didn’t have a different character from the other cities. No ‘Fes’ thing to offer. It’s also non-black, and given the fact that Morrocans generally stare a lot, it might be uncomfortable for a solo black traveler that gets scared. To top it off, it was also the city where my Airbnb host was a scammer and I ended up having to book a hotel stay, which I absolutely came to love.

Walking the city of Fes is nothing like walking Marrakech or Rabat. Because there were significantly fewer black people, the black nod I gave to the black people I encountered was more profound and pronounced. In one case, it went beyond a nod and we actually stopped to exchange pleasantries. He was a Rwandan, who lived in France and was also visiting Morocco. We spoke about our experiences in Morocco and agreed to meet again if I ever came to France.

The Fes medina is different. Nothing like Marrakech’s or even Casablanca’s. In Fes, everyone is trying aggressively to sell you something. One interesting thing I noticed was that while the Medina had as much cats as the Rabat medina, the cats here were noticeably calmer than the ones in Rabat. My (probably wrong) theory is that they were constantly overfed, and thus spent most of their time digesting the food and resting.

Although I may not have liked Fes as much as I’d hoped, I used it as a resting phase before moving to Tangier. More importantly, I received one of the happiest news of my year while in the city, so the city is likely to forever hold a place in my heart.