Morocco

Beholden to the carriers and routes available through our Star Alliance Round The World ticket, we were forced into a convoluted journey from Dar Es Salaam to Casablanca, Morocco. We flew from Dar to Zurich via Nairobi, then from Zurich to Frankfurt, where we had a 12-hour layover involving several coffees and a bratwurst/maultaschen soup lunch, and then finally touched down in Casablanca at 2am after 36 hours of traveling.

Fortunately, we found Morocco far more safe and much less frustrating than East Africa. For the sake of brevity and in order not to bore our readers, we have elected not to give you the full blow-by-blow of our time in Morocco. Instead, we present you with pictorial highlights of our time in Casablanca and Fes, the two cities that we enjoyed the most. We also spent a brief time in Rabat in a fruitless attempt to get our Indian visas sorted out. Unfortunately, our travel time in Morocco was somewhat limited as Lauren had contracted the E. Coli virus, likely due to our inadvertent ingestion of rat in Tanzania, which we were told repeatedly was beef (bastards!). A quick trip to the hospital, aided by my long-lost knowledge of French, got her the antibiotics she needed, but she was still feeling pretty rough for about 5-6 days. Poor girl!

In the end, we decided to keep Marrakesh for another time and stay in Fes for 6 nights, which turned out to be the right decision. We found a cool little pension in which to stay and loved wandering through the labyrinthine alleyways of the old medina, spending time watching the passerby at the numerous cafes and restaurants near the Bab Bouljoud (Blue Gate), and hanging out with our new local friends.

Now, the pictures:

It being the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, we were not allowed into the stunning Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, but the intricate designs on the exterior were more than enough to impress us.

The Hassan II Mosque is massive. To give you an idea of the scale, this is not even the biggest door to the mosque and it completely dwarfs Lauren.
Lauren dancing as we await the departure of our train to Fes.

We were really drawn to the beautifully crafted mosaics, which could be found throughout the medina in Fes, the largest in the world.
Fes was a cool mix of the modern and the ancient, both in architecture and transportation. Fes was celebrating the 1200th anniversary of its founding during our time there.
The painstaking detail with which everything was constructed, especially the gates, evokes Morocco's rich and accomplished culture.
Lauren was so excited to discover that cats were everywhere in Fes' medina. Here, three cats eagerly await scraps from one of the medina's many butchers. On several nights, Lauren would collect her leftover food in a napkin and stroll through the streets feeding the cats. Though slightly disturbing, I supported her like a good husband. We all have our peccadilloes, right?
On our way to dinner one night, my beautiful wife spied this tiny kitten playing around with its siblings in the medina. Although I used to despise cats, I have come full circle and contemplated taking this kitten along in my pack.
The traffic in the tight streets of the medina can get pretty clogged at times, especially when the donkeys pass through on their way to deliver goods to the merchants.
The entrance to Dar Bouanania, our pension in Fes. It was located off some random alley in the medina and we had to pay a local boy a few dirhams to help us find it. As it happened, this alleyway was also the site of weekly knife fights, where disgruntled people from all over Fes came to settle their grievances via blade battle. We were alerted to this fact by the bloodcurdling screams coming from the alley one night. We did not venture out into the alley at this point, as even the local residents were hiding in their houses.
I took this picture of Lauren from the other side of the open courtyard over which our room looked at Dar Bouanania. It had once been a house but was converted into lodging, while still retaining the traditional Moroccan decor.

Just another day of exploring the many intracies of the medina.

T.J. and Yassin, our local friend. Yassin was a fount of knowledge about the medina and a super cool guy to boot.
Lauren peeking down the stairs at one of the many restaurants at which we dined. Moroccan food is so tasty and we chowed on various tagines, couscous, and keftas throughout our stay.
You can find just about everything in the medina. Can you tell what delicacy this butcher has for sale on the right?
How about now?
We took a day trip from Fes to the ancient Roman city of Volubilis in order to gear up for our impending trip to Greece. Here I am posing among one of the many sets of 2500 year old columns.
Together enjoying a beautiful day in front of the ruins of the Volubilis forum.
Here we are underneath the triumphal arch built to memorialize Volubilis' inclusion into the Roman Empire.As we were walking through the ruins of Volubilis, I noticed an oddly shaped object on a pedestal in one of the houses. Upon further inspection, we found a 2500 year old phallus that was for some reason located in the front entranceway of this particular house. We leave it to your imagination to unravel the mystery of its purpose.