Fes

This past weekend I ventured out of the European Contienent and spent a weekend in Africa, to be more specific Fes in Morocco. I had been in contact with our hotel who had offered a taxi bus to take us from the airport to the hotel, but they had failed to return my email confirming it. I was somewhat concerned.

Upon my arrival in Fes I was shocked to see how green the landscape was. To be honest I hadn't done much research and assumed we were going to be in the desert. The airport was very new and I was impressed, though it seemed that just Ryanair flew into it anyway.

After a long wait in the passport check, I was the first to enter the terminal. I quickly saw a Moroccan man with my name on a sheet of lament paper and I felt like someone important. Upon confirming my presence he gestured over a woman who I asked if she spoke english. She mumbled something and I assumed this meant no. She then proceeded to answer a group of Spaniards questions in Spanish and I realized that I did have a means of communicating with her. Her Spanish was much better than mine but we had very few problems, especially because she did end up speaking some english, as did the taxi driver.

Soon the 8 of us in our group packed into the van and we were on our way. The woman soon began pitching various daytrips to us, as to be expected, but we didn't have time for most of them. Though we did to decide to take the tour of the Medina with her. The Medina is the old part of the city dating back to the 9th century that is car free, partially walled in and literally a labyrinth.

Our hotel ended up being pretty nice with a large open courtyard in the center of it. Though the only thing I cared about was that it was 2 minute walk to the main gate of the Medina. That night we had dinner for close to nothing. I had a kebab and large portions of other peoples dishes. It was so nice to finally have some food with some spice, and by some, I mean a lot. Most of these dishes were cooked in a special pot, called a tagine. It consists of a two parts both made of clay, the bottom is just a plate while the top is a cone shape with a whole in the top. Everything was delicious.

After dinner we walked around the Medina, which made me a bit anxious. There weren't that many people out and the people that were out were mostly male teenagers. With a group of 8 Americans, five of them girls with one of them blond, we definitely received a lot of unwanted attention. And by we, I mean the girls. Plus there were many offers to buy hash. A lot of them had pretty creative lines, such as "Want to get high before you die?".

The next morning we meet the tour guide in the lobby and we ended up having a group of Spanish women join us. Also the tour guide informed that the tour will mostly be in Spanish and that I should translate for everybody.

The first spot we visited was the blue gate. It is one of the main entrance to the Medina, it has one side in blue, the color of Fes and the other side in green, the color of Islam. One of the first things that struck me was the donkeys carrying various goods throughout the Medina; gas tanks, boxes, and other loads. I had forgotten that it was car free and that was probably the best way to get goods around.

Also there was a multitude of fruit carts. Often times you would have to press your back to a stall or wall to allow a donkey to pass in the crowded, narrow streets. At one point we were in alley so narrow we had to wait for a line of three donkeys to pass. After they passed, I heard a commotion behind me and saw a boy who didn't want to wait for them to pass walking/jumping on their backs from donkey to donkey to get to the other side of them.

As we treaded farther into the Medina, it felt as if we were going back in time. The market stalls were filled of freshly butchered meat, live chickens, eggs, fruit, stacks of dried dates pilled high & other commodities. It was also interested to see various parts of animals that are usually not for sale in your local supermarket; pigs feet, brains, livers, hearts & other parts. To be honest it all made me a little queasy.

After taking a few more turns and losing my sense of direction completely, we arrived at site where metal working was on display. An old man was making intricate designs with just as small hammer and even smaller chisel in a bronze plate while another informed us of his work in English and Spanish. Then he proceeded to show us how to detect "false & deceiving" plates that were not made of bronze. The demonstration ended with him informing us that everything in the store was "30% off, for today only".

It had been awhile since I had been to a country were bartering was the norm and I was excited to be back in such a place. Ofcourse I knew I would never get them down to a price with which I wasn't getting ripped off, and by ripped off I mean a couple of euros, but I was greatly amused by the process. Not to mention their enthusiasm of announcing special offers for "their friends".

Another thing I loved was how if you show any remote interest in an object they will ask you how much you want to pay for it and how many you want. As we were leaving the salesmen quickly announced an additional 10% off.

The tour made its next stop at an old mosque that was also a dorm for the best students in Fes. I managed to take some good shots and we got a group picture with the Spaniards.

Afterwards we arrived in a old courtyard full of looms and scarfs pilled high. Again there was a somewhat interesting demonstration of what materials are used, how they are spun into thread and then loomed into scarfs, blankets and sheets. Prices were advertised and a special deal was announced at the end. Though there was a very fun fashion show were the salespeople wrapped head scarfs on us in the various styles of the people of Morocco. A few of us looked like we should be in National Geographic, while us guys looked like, well...

We passed one of the main mosques in Fes but we were just allowed to peek inside through the open doors. There are seperate sections for men and women with a courtyard in the center. Much like other places of worship, the mosque was a place to gather during non-prayer times.

One of the things Fes is famous for is its leather tanning and a tannry was the next stop of our tour. As entered the store, with all of its ridicusly colored leather goods, and made our way up the stairs, a man handed us freshly cut mint. I wondered if it was a gesture of welcoming but soon realized as we reached the terrace that overlooks the outdoor tannery it was for the smell. Big suprise, leather tanning is a messy and smell business.

After our photoshot on the tereace we made our way back down thru the store. Soon I was being advised to buy various leather goods, bright yellow jackets, wallets, bags, all of which I turned down.


After a long stop for lunch we found ourselves in a very large rug store. On the top floor in a somewhat dimmly light corner, three women were handweaving a giant rug. It was amazing to watch how quickly their fingers could work. The owner told us they worked 8 hours a day doing this and that today all workers must be above 18. I found his claims dubious at best. It was pretty depressed the more you thought about them, their labors and their wages. More so when we found out the prices. The cheapest one was 200 euros with some going up to 2,000.

With a glass of delcious mint tea in hand we watched their elborate display of salesmanship. It was very amusing listening them pitch us these carpets when we were all just students and lived in rentals. "Which one do you like?" they would ask. I couldn't help but think of all the beer we have spilled on our carpets back at school and then having 500 euro rug. Not to mention that I doubted any of these rugs could even fit in my apartment. Of course stating the fact we were all students and were broke didn't stop them from unrolling about 20 carpets on top of each other.

Soon they began to shift their sales tactics and asked one of us "You want to make some money? This is how!" telling us that we could make a fortune reselling these rugs in the US. I informed one of them that none of these rugs could fit on a plane and he responded with the fact that they ship with DHL. As we left they all informed us to tell our parents about the place for when they visit Morocco to buy rugs, claiming that many people make the trip just for that.

It ended up raining at the end of the tour while we were on the other side of the Medina and we ended up taking 'taxis' back. And by taxis, I mean a guy with a very large van and another guy with a pickup truck. The van was fulled to brim with all the Spanish and American girls, while the guys rode in style in the truck listening to Moroccan/French Rap.

The next day the girls went to the spa while the guys hit the Medina to do some bartering. We got ourselves lost and stumbled onto an antique store. Originally one of us was going to buy just a small silver pendient for a necklace and the next thing we know we are buy two of them and three reproductions of Astrolabes, used to find north and the stars. We ended up being a little short and tryed to bargain some more. We told him we needed the extra money to eat, which was true since we hadn't had lunch yet, and he responded with you can eat lunch with me. At first we thought he was joking but instead he told us to come back at two to eat with him.

During that two hours we wandered some more and ended up in a small courtyard full of stalls. One of the venders struck up a conversation with my friend and soon enough he invited us to the top of a building that was adjacent to the courtyard.

It ended up having a great view and he told us all about the various sights. Soon the topic changed to the prices locals pay for goods compared to tourist. An example of this was the hash he pulled out of his pocket. He proceeded to tell us how much he paid for it and how much cheaper it was for the locals. They he said if we were interested in buying any, to which we politely responded with the fact we had flight to catch that afternoon, even though we weren't even remotely interested. He then said we could smoke and have tea with him, which we also turned down. On our way out one of the other vendors gave us as a gift some pumice stone and saided that he hoped we had enjoyed Morocco. Friendly people.


Returning to the antique store, the owner was nowhere in sight and though his assistent informed us that he would be back soon, we thought that he was really just pulling our leg. Sure enough five minutes later he appeared and asked if we were ready for lunch. We ended up having more mint tea and pita bread filled with grilled and seasoned beef, while he informed us of the history of Morocco. It was amazing. Afterwards we said our farewells and he said he hoped to see us again. Somehow we made our way through the labyrinth that is the Medina and caught the cab to the airport to head home.

It was a place that commercial tourism had yet to touch and a little shady; which are exactly the things I loved about Fes.

Amsterdam

We arrived in one of the many Amsterdam bus stations cold, hungry and tired at 6am. Due to a miscommunication with one of the students we were supposed to met there we had to want and thus we were forced to battle for one of the few seats in the station. We had no way of contacting him and we had his hotel name on my friend's facebook, but we had no internet access.

Just when I though times were at their darkness and I was at my angriest, I thought I heard someone call my name. I had taken out my contacts that night before and could only identify the person could be calling my name as a woman. Then, I proceeded to convince myself that nobody in Amsterdam at 6am in a bus station knows me, though I sincerely doubted there were any other Brankos hanging out in the bus station.

As the woman approach I proceeded to recognize her as one of the other students in the program. Two other students and her had just arrived from Prague, and through the grace of god one of them had their Blackberry with internet on it. We quickly accessed Facebook and figured out the name of the hotel. I then doled out bear hugs to the girls. Soon we were on our way in a cab to hotel, where we had the front desk call and wake up our friend. A rough start for the Amsterdam portion of our trip.
Luckily this small hiccup was the only problem we had in Amsterdam, except for the weather. The last day we were there we took the New Europe free tours, which was amazing, the weather not so much. In one afternoon we had cloud cover, rain, sun, hail, sun and more rain with various times of extreme winds, all of these conditions in that order. The tour was definitely worth the terrible weather and almost everything I learned about the city was from the tour.

Our first day was mainly spent wandering the streets and trying to get acquainted with the city. One of the first things I noticed about Amsterdam was all of the bikes. They were everywhere and it took some getting used to. The first day I got bumped walking more then once and the whole time I was there I felt like I was always in the way. Another thing that is prevalent throughout Amsterdam was canals, apparently it has more canals then Venice.

The tour guide also informed us that they are filled with bikes. A popular pastime amongst the drunken youth, and I am sure immature tourists as well, is to throw bikes into the canal to see who can make the biggest splash. He also told us that every so often the city fishes them out, repairs them and sells them again. Bike theft is also rampant. I guess that is why used bikes are so popular and all the bikes look ancient.

Our first night curiosity got the better of the 3 guys in the group and we proceeded to drag the girl in the group with us to the Red Light District. She went in we open mind and treated it as an experience, I was impressed with her attitude. It proceeded to be more uncomfortable, at least for me, than I could have imaged. I felt like I was thirteen again and stumbled across a Playboy that also was able to make noises by knocking on windows and shaking shutters to attract my attention.

Overall I think most of the people walking in the Red Light District are mostly tourists, gawking, but it didn't keep me from feeling unclean afterwards. The fact that my female friend brought up my mother a few times while we were there didn't help.

One humorous incident happened as we entered the district, I saw a girl dressed in her lingerie in her window cleaning it. She was not cleaning it in a seductive way to attract customers, more of a "this window has finger prints on it and its bothering me" kind of way.

The majority of the second was spent at the Van Gogh Museum, which I absolutely loved. My only gripe about it and the rest of the museums was the cost of entrance, 13 euros, and there were no student discounts. But it was definitely worth it. I went with two of the three students I was with and I definitely wore their patience a bit thin there. When I go to a museum I feel like I need to read every placard for every exhibit and it takes me a lot longer than most people to go through exhibits. This was amplified by my desire to view paintings at various angles and close up to see the artist techniques. I know very little about painting but for some reason I am really into seeing the techniques they use.

It was great to see in person all the works I had been exposed to through books and in school. Though a few of his more famous works were being restored and I had to settle for a sign announcing this with tiny prints of the paintings.

Also in Amsterdam was the Anne Frank House. To be honest I had forgotten it was in Amsterdam and after learning it was I had to go see it. The house itself is stripped of all the furniture. After she was discovered the Nazis took everything out and when Otto Frank, her father, was consulted about it being turned into a museum he requested that the furniture not be placed back in the rooms. Much like the Holocaust Museum in Berlin, it was a difficult place to visit.

Our third and final day was mostly occupied by the free tour. The Spanish tour met right by the English one and I briefly toyed with idea of taking it to practice my Spanish. I eventually decided that I should take the English one and actually learn about the city.

I had made a remark to my female friend, asking if she was glad she didn't have to go through the Red Light District again. She responded that she was. The tour proceeded to start by going to the district, and let me tell you, during the day it is much worse. The girls are clearly illuminated and the ones working during the day are definitely not easy on the eyes. Also the guide proceeded to explain the business model of the girls. In addition to this he explained the way the business is 'run', pricing, protocol etc. I will refrain from elaborating.

Also he said that you shouldn't try to take pictures. According him if they catch, best case scenario: they break your camera or throw it in the canal, worst case: they throw a glass of urine they have handy for these cases and slap you.

The tour guide also proceed to explain squatting in Amsterdam. Apparently if you find an building that has been empty for 12 months with an open door, you can register it with the police as your residence. The only requirements are that you have lock on the door, a table, bed and chair. To be honest I still do understand it.

The last night I finally made my way to a coffee shop. To be honest it wasn't anything special to see, maybe its just because I am not that into that type of thing. It just felt like a really relaxed bar with a lot of smoke, though a different type, even compared to Spanish standards.

One of the people I was with bought me a beer. It ended up having a very unusual and somewhat bad taste. After about 15 minutes of trying to figure out was without another customer informed me that it was non-alcohol beer.

They next morning we took a train to Brussels.

Berlin

My semana santa (Spring break) ended up being a well planned tour of Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels. There was also a weekend at the beach in Alicante, Spain thrown in for the fun in the sun element.

For Berlin it was just me and another student in the program traveling together. We arrived late thursday night at the airport and some how managed to figure out the passanger train system to reach our hostel on the east side of Berlin.

We ended up just using the subway the whole time we were there. Oddly they use the honor system were people buy tickets at machines and just punch card them on the platform before you get on. The first day we were feeling brave and not validating our tickets so that we could use them over again. On the second morning a feeling of guilt came over me so I decided to finally validate my ticket. Then at the next stop on the subway a man in street clothes came into our car and started yelling instructions in German. People began pulling out their wallets to show their passenger cards and tickets as he flashed his id badge. It felt like the secret police had decided to make its presence known. We later found out the fine for not validating tickets is 40 euros. Thank god for my guilt.

The front desk ended up being closed but luckily there was an Italian girl smoking right outside that directed it us to the bar on the corner. After knocking on the window of the closed bar, a long haired, bearded, denim-clad man informed us that he can check us in. He quickly introduced himself as "The Wolf" and showed us to our room. Then proceeded to instruct us to tell everyone how cool "The Wolf" was, though he did give us towels for free.

We had dorm room with 3 other beds in it and only one was occupied. This was my first time staying in a dorm room style hostel and I didn't know what to expect. I was pleasently suprised to find out how clean it was along with the communal bathroom. Unfortunately that night we discovered our roommate snored like I have never experienced before. It was so loud that I slept only a few hours and the rest of the night was agonizing. At one point I thought it was a radiator getting ready to explode and kill us all.

The next day we set out early to see the sights. It ended up being an absolutely gorgeous day, sunny and warm. It was great for the activities we had planned, which was just seeing as much of the city and its monuments as possible I was happy to see the lack of touristy things at the Brandenburg gate and the Riechstag. Plus compared to Madrid, the food was very cheap.

In front of the Reichstag

From the Brandenburg gate we proceeded down one of the main streets of Berlin, Unter Den Linden. Along this street were various sites, including Humboldt University where Einstein, Planck and other intellectual greats studied & worked.

The square across the street from the University is called Bebelplatz and it is unfortunately famous for the Nazi book burning in 1933 during which over 20,000 books were destroyed. There is a small window in the stones of the center of the square that looks down to a small library full of empty bookshelves. There is a line from a poem of Heinrich Heine, a famous 19th century German poet, "Where they burn books, they ultimately burn people"

Bebelplatz with St. Hedwig's Cathedral

There was also the Neue Wache, a memorial to all victims of war & tyranny. Inside is a statue of a woman holding her dieing son, with a opening in the roof that exposes the statue to the elements.

Neue Wache

When then proceeded to Museum Island which includes the Berlin Cathedral. One very depressing thing to read in the guide book was every time they mention a historical structure they mention that it had been badly damaged during the war or destroyed and then rebuilt.

Berlin Cathedral

Another interesting thing about Berlin is there are some places where they have intentionally left ruins standing from the war.

One example of this is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church. They left the ruins of the spire standing and built a new church right next to it. The ground floor of the old church now housing a exhibit documenting the church's history, where there is a cross made from the two nails that fell from the roof during the bombing. There is also a Russian Orthodox Cross given to the church as a symbol of forgiveness between the two churches.

There is also various statues and mosaics that survived the bombing raid. There is also a scale model of what the church and the surrounding streets looked like when it was completed.

Near the Branden Gate is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It consists of an entire city block with 2,711 concrete blocks of various heights. Underneath it is a museum focusing on the stories of various people and their families who perished during the Holocaust. There is also a list of all the known Jewish victims of the Holocaust. It was a difficult place to visit.

The last day of our Berlin portion of Semana Santa was mostly spent at the German Museum of Technology. It was excellently put together but unfortunately almost all the information was presented in German. Though I was delighted to discover there was an exhibit dedicated to a pioneer in computing, Konrad Zuse. On display was the first programmable computer, though it was mechanical. It was fun to see all the modern components of a computer in a machine conceived more than 70 years ago. I was nerding out pretty bad.

In front of the first computer, it was entirely mechanical.

That night we took a bus to Amsterdam. We left a 7:30 pm and would arrive in Amsterdam at 6 in the morning. It was much worse than I thought it would be...

In front of the Brandenburg Gate with my guidebook