Fes Festivities

Every town we went to had a market, usually supplying spices, vegetables, random decorative items, etc. However, I have never experienced anything like the markets in Fes.
We arrived to the city around sunset and somehow managed to dodge the kamikaze boys on scooters flying at us and trying to convince us to stay/eat/drink/shop at their father’s/cousin’s/uncle’s/neighbor’s hotel/restaurant/tea café/material store. We stopped at the top of a hill overlooking the city and I was shocked at how enormous it is! When we finally braved the insane traffic (mostly due to the aforementioned kamikaze solicitors) it took us forever to find the hotel and check in, so that it was fairly late by the time we decided to head into the medina- the old part of town- for some exploration. It was almost eerie- full of dark, quiet and abandoned streets with tiny little alleyways we weren’t sure we would even fit through if we tried.

At the top of the hill a few restaurants and snack stands were still open so Angel bought me some tasty little almond pastries that I love and then we sat down to eat a private, delicious tagine dinner. We had the traditional sweet mint tea, tabouli and lamb. By the time we headed back to the hotel there was hardly anyone at all left on the streets.
The next morning we started off with what may be my favorite part of traveling- a huge hotel breakfast buffet. The thing about traditional Moroccan breakfasts is that they are 90% delicious pastries. I ate heartily.

After breakfast we headed back to the Medina, which was unrecognizably different in the daylight. The streets were packed with people, not very many tourists but quite a few with donkeys.

In every possible space there are stands and stores selling everything including shoes, textiles, vegetables, meat, live baby chickens, live adult chickens, severed goat heads,

pharmaceuticals, musical instruments, religious items, carved wooden animals and other art, underwear, spices, etc.
Absolutely Incredible.

We passed one particularly beautiful building which turned out to be the Medersa Bouinania- built in 1350 as a mosque and residential theological college. This was a building full of colorful tile patterns and alabaster carvings, the same traditional Arabic style as the Alhambra.
We wandered around for a while and eventually asked several shop owners where we could find the areas used for dying cloth and leather. A man (who we think was named Rashid) appeared out of nowhere and offered to show us the dye areas and around his neighborhood in general.

We walked past the bread bakery where we saw a man pulling the typical pita-like dry bread out of an enormous oven.

Then we visited the textile house and met the man who weaves the blankets and tapestries out of silk, cotton or wool. (We bought beautifully bright silk ones- a red and a green.)

Next was the dye pools. We entered and were immediately greeted by a very strong stench. The ground floor was full of sectioned rock pools, mostly full of white lye but also a few shaded pools colored by spices such as paprika and cumin. There was also a water wheel where a man in very tall boots was stomping and churning the bleached hides.

Up some very narrow and rickety steps was the top floor, full of small shaded rooms used for stretching, texturing and detailing the hides. The roof was crammed with dyed hides drying in the sun.

From there we walked via other roofs to the top of a hill where ‘bric-a-brac’ and antiques were sold, as well as workshops for carpentry and musical instruments.

We spoke to several men who were making guitars and drums. Continuing up the hill we climbed past a cave that has been used as a stable for centuries up to the top for a stunning view of the city.

When we wandered back down, Rashid took us to his neighborhood spice guy, who let us smell the contents of every beautiful glass jar and explained some of his favorite combinations. He seemed particularly excited as he was not used to tourists coming into his shop so far away from the main market.

We ended up buying a few spices and a block of musk but politely declined several offers of henna paintings.

 The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering through the streets and back to the market. Truly a completely new and exciting experience for me!

To Chefchaouen: Vibrant Colors

I was shocked at how green the hills around the north coast were- I had imagined the country to be entirely desert. I was equally as surprised by the mountains…that still had some snow on them!!! 

We drove the borrowed pick up to the top just so we could say that we’d touched snow in Africa. (Also, it was on the way to where we were heading anyway). We had a lovely little snow ball fight.


The people also wore very brightly colored clothing- ranging from modern tee shirts to women in bright scarves and wide straw hats with colorful yarn decorations. These were worn mostly by the people working in the countryside- we passed hundreds along the highway.

An exception to the bright clothing was the dark, pointy-hooded Obi Wan Kenobi cloaks worn by the majority of the older men that we saw.

To be fair, each of the towns that we visited had a very colorful market, but the entire town of Chefchaouen was a beautiful beautiful bright blue! The old town climbs up along the side of the mountain with small, winding paths, and stone homes and shops built into the rock.

Most of the doors are tiny- I felt like I had swallowed the ‘eat me’ cake from Alice in Wonderland. We climbed all the way up to where the city ends and nature trails begin. At the top along the river there is a place where the women bring their washing and a tiny market selling candy, fresh orange juice, etc. We started talking to an older man sitting in the square and he told us about how Chefchaouen got its name- it means 'to see the horns' (on the mountain).

The horns of Chefchaouen

We also found out that the reason the town seemed vaguely familiar to us was because Granada’s Albaicín was designed in imitation (however it is white as opposed to blue).

When we went back down into the blue labyrinth we found a cozy little place called Restaurant Granada for lunch. It is owned by a little old man who has cooked there every day for the past 6 decades, during which I imagine the establishment has changed very little.

 We had a delicious lunch: tagines of chicken and vegetables with couscous. A little old man in one of the aforementioned cloaks joined our table (one of two) and ate with his hands, no napkin, and drank something muddy looking out of a clay mug.

After lunch we walked around the town some more, looking into the shops and exploring more of the tiny streets. Some of the things that I found really interesting were the baskets of colored powders used as paint or dye. (More bright colors!)
When we finally found our way back down to the new part of town we discovered a giant truck full of armed military men- preparing for a protest that was apparently going to happen that evening. We paid the guy who insisted that he had been guarding our car and headed south.

(Immediately upon entering Morocco you are bombarded by people asking for tips for everything. "Give me those border control forms... I filled them out for you... tip?"; "I watched your car drive safely over that speed bump... tip?"; "Here's some tea for the drive... tip?". One of the most common of these occurrences is tipping car-watchers. It is practically impossible to park without someone letting you know that they will be guarding your vehicle until you return, whether you want them to or not.)

Fun Fact: Ketchup is a very popular flavor in Morocco!! Throughout our time there we saw quite a few different ketchup-flavored packaged food items.

Morocco!

Dutch Cheese Tour Part Two

Leiden, Gouda, Delft, Rotterdam

I spent most of the double-decker train ride to Leiden staring out the window. The land is flat, like parts of Texas, but there are definitely some distinct differences. Even in winter the grass is very green and all of the fields are littered with canals and marshes. You see wild, giant swans and storks wading through the grass, occasionally stopping to pick something up of the ground or out of the water. Every once in a while we would pass a cute little village in the distance. At one point we passed a small lane that honestly had a line of chickens crossing it at the same moment we drove by (I was tickled by this).

Leiden from the Brucht

I arrived in Leiden much sooner than I had expected- all of the cities look further apart on the map than they are in reality. I met up with my friend Josta, who I stayed with and we had a tea. She had some work to do that afternoon so I entertained myself by walking around the town. Leiden is not very big, known mostly for its university. Like all Dutch towns, it is riddled with canals and surrounded on all sides by rivers. As it was Sunday, not much was open, but I walked through the old city center and up to the Brucht- a citadel/fortress erected in the year 1150. I believe it is the highest point in Leiden and provides nice views in every direction.
I also walked through one of the city’s only remaining windmills, which showed what the living areas would have looked like and explained in detail the mechanisms and uses of the windmill. (Fun fact- the first known windmills were built in the Middle East around the year 700 AD. The crusaders brought the idea back with them, making various changes throughout the years).
I also walked through some of the neighborhoods (again looking in windows from time to time, I promise with non-creepy but strictly academic curiosity) and then down to the University. Since it was a pretty chilly day, I hid out in the University library long enough to let my fingers thaw out.
When I met back up with Josta she informed me that we had both been invited to a dinner party in Rotterdam. I bought a bottle of Spanish wine and we hopped in the car for a (surprisingly short once again) drive. When we arrived we discovered her friend Vera’s boyfriend (who is Indian) had invited several guys that were visiting from India that he had met that day, as well as a guy from Germany/New England (Maine and Pennsylvania I think) and another Dutch couple. All in all, we ended up being a very lively bunch!

After a delicious dinner, someone noticed one of the tapestries hanging on the living room wall depicted a traditional form of Indian stick dancing. This led to a massive group lesson in the dance, followed by the viewing of several bollywood dances on youtube with everyone doing their best to imitate them. After these we all demanded to be taught a traditional Dutch dance so a song featuring an accordion was played while we all jumped and stomped around. Texas was up next and I decided on a fairly easy line dance, although I did explain that the Two Step was the REAL Texas dance. The weird German/American guy then played some crazy German techno and we all awkwardly watched him rave for a few minutes. Then Josta saved the day by showing us a very hearty dance she had learned in South Africa. By this point we were all laughing so hard at each other that everything we did became progressively more and more ridiculous. This may have been my favorite night spent in The Netherlands.

I found this picture on a
Dutch Cheese website

Kaaswinkeltje

The next day I continued my Cheese Tour, catching an early train to Gouda. (Fun fact: The Dutch pronunciation of this town is “HOW-dah”, with a guttural H. I said it with the correct local pronunciation as often as possible but no one seemed impressed all day.)

Kaaswaag
Cheese Weigh House

Gouda is very similar to Edam (although not as precious- nowhere is!) and equally known for its cheese market. The markt centers around the town hall and cheese weigh-house (Kaaswaag), not to be misidentified because of the large relief on the front of the building. As I strolled through the streets and around the canals I passed several cheese markets and stores, but the BIG ONE was called Kaaswinkeltje. This store, I am sure, has a second location in Heaven.

There were literally mountains of cheese piled up, each kind with a little dish of sample cubes. All of the walls were also lined with giant rounds and there was a large (for lack of other words) trough of some of the fancier and international cheeses. Besides those, all of them were locally grown in South Holland, mostly on small farms. Some particularly interesting ones were the Old Gouda, the Gouda with walnuts and a bright green Pesto Gouda. I probably had 15 different ones in my hands at one point but finally had to narrow my selection down to three: a middle-aged Gouda, an old Texel, and another one that was just a young, local one. I also bought a small wedge of Manchego for Josta.

Even though I was far from starving after all that cheese-sampling, I hadn’t eaten a decent breakfast so I decided to stop for lunch. I picked a small place right off the markt and ordered a very typical ‘pannenkoeken of appel’. It was a giant pancake, with apples cooked into it pepperoni-pizza style. It was served with a kind of syrup and powdered sugar. Verdict: very tasty, but not overly flavorful.

Markt, Gouda

After lunch there was more walking around. I noticed that the canals here seemed to be deeper than in some of the other cities, with larger boats in them. After covering most of the town and quite a few shops I decided it was early enough to hit another town before returning to Leiden.

Blue Ceramics in Delft

I hopped on a train to Delft, a small touristy town on in the southwest of the country known for its white and blue ceramic pieces. I walked immediately to the markt, one of the largest I had seen, and then into a few of the ceramic shops. I then found a little old man that was selling antique ice skates and we chatted for a good long while. I took the long way back through town to the train station and then headed back to Leiden.
Josta and I had previously discussed making a traditional Dutch/Texan dinner that night so I stopped of at the grocery store to pick up some ingredients. I have been buying quite a few of my meals at grocery stores, but whereas before I was just looking for something that looked tasty and inexpensive- it turns out shopping for specific things can be very difficult in a foreign language. I did the best I could, but was not overly optimistic about a Texan dish with no jalapeños, cilantro and some sort of unidentified meat. Back at her place we started cooking, her methodically chopping potatoes and I improvisingly throwing things into a pot. We decided to call the meat I bought ‘chicken’, and (like always) I started with a base of beer. Luckily enough, she had a very nice selection of spices so I was able to get a good flavor going.
We ended up with Stamppot met Endives- a kind of mashed potato dish mixed with endives and a gravy and ‘drunk Texas Cheesy Chicken’, named such due to the noticeable flavor of beer. We were both pleased with both dishes and celebrated our success with some natural apple juice (unfiltered, as good, if not better, than the apple juice I was obsessed with in Austria) and strawberry custard.

That night her Welsh roommate Rhys invited us to a jazz bar (it was ‘improvisational jam night’) where we met up with a group of his Greek friends. I ended up getting into a very interesting political debate with a guy named Leonidus, who had some very strong opinions on the use of violence to send a message (he was pro, I was anti, claiming that at that point it’s more than just a message) and then the age of societies in relation to each other and a whole lot of other things. When the three of us got back to the house we turned on the television and I was introduced to Orangetv- a network that continuously plays really low-budget, overly cheesy Dutch music videos. (Imagine a very ugly older man playing an accordion in an old-fashioned dentist chair). I was an immediate fan.

Rotterdam Marina

The next (even colder than the previous) morning I said goodbye and hopped on a train towards Rotterdam. Rotterdam isn’t (in my opinion) a particularly interesting or pretty city, but known as The Netherlands’ ‘second city’, having been entirely rebuilt after being bombed completely in the Second World War. It is also known for its untraditional modern architecture and wild nightlife. It does however still sit on many canals.
My interest in Rotterdam was actually a small town to the south called Kinderdijk, known for the 19 windmills throughout its fields. (Built around 1740).

Waterbus to Kinderdijk

After checking into a small hotel I walked down to the harbor and caught a series of waterbuses to Kinderdijk, where I planned to rent a bicycle and explore the windmills. I stopped on the way to buy picnic supplies. Unfortunately, the entire town seemed to be closed and there was nowhere to rent a bicycle.

It was also so cold and windy that I barely saw another human being as I was walking down the paths in the windmill fields. If you don’t believe me, I can prove that it was so cold that all of the canals were FROZEN over. I passed on the picnic because I was sure that if I stopped I would also freeze into the wilderness and become part of the scenery.

Eventually I turned around and caught the first bus I could find back to Rotterdam. I ended up taking a very hot shower to thaw out and having my picnic in my hotel room. (It was a pasta salad with carrot balls- that’s right, they don’t have carrot sticks, they have carrot balls- and some large almond cookies that are very typical of that part of the country). I have to admit that I wasn’t brave enough to face the cold again that night and spent the rest of the evening watching Dutch television and snacking on cheese.


Random Netherlands Observations

• The stereotype of the Dutch is that they are very blunt, which I was able to notice firsthand on more than one occasion. I've also noticed that a lot of decorating tastes lean towards stating the obvious.
•Nobody wears sunglasses. I didn’t see a single pair during my entire trip- maybe it’s a seasonal fashion here?
• The Dutch toilets have a little ‘reflection ledge’ inside the bowl so you may ‘ponder what comes out as carefully as what goes in’.

"Should we walk to church today or ride the bikes?"
-"Nah, let's just take the yacht" 

Dutch Cheese Tour Part One

Edam and Volendam

The Dutch eat a lot of cheese. They are also, on average, the tallest nationality in the world (men averaging 5’11 and women 5’6. Their doorways are now legally required to be at least 7’6, all of this according to my Lonely Planet guidebook). Therefore I have come to the conclusion that to look tall and slender like the Dutch, I must consume more cheese.
I kicked off my self-invented cheese tour in Edam- a darling little town about a 40-minute bus ride northeast of Amsterdam. In addition to producing a fairly well-known cheese, Edam is also known for its giant cheese market, held Wednesdays in July in August.

Edam Cheese Market

Here’s a little tidbit from wikipedia: “The cheese market was the primarily boost of the economy of Edam in the 16th century. On the 16th of April in 1526 Emperor Charles V gave Edam the right to have a market every week. In 1594 this right was given for eternity by Prince Willem I as a sign of appreciation for the good collaboration during the siege of Alkmaar.”

Edam is less touristy than it’s neighbor town, Volendam, but oh-so-much cuter. It’s very quiet, with canals along all of the cobblestone streets and hand-operated drawbridges to let the boats pass. The people are indeed very tall. While walking around in search for a hotel, I decided I needed a break from the heavy backpack and popped into a tucked-away little bar/café near the center. It was full of broad-shouldered, gossipy workers on their lunch breaks, and they all greeted me as I walked in. There were about 10 of them aged 20s to 70s, all with at least 3 empty coffee cups in front of each of them. (The Dutch are the world leaders in coffee intake; drinking on average almost 150 liters coffee per year or about three cups per day. The United States is second, but lies well behind with 15 percent.) I sat at the bar and as I had a coffee, the woman who owned the place came and talked to me. She was also very nice and had a few interesting suggestions for how to spend my day.

Café Harmonie

After my coffee break, I headed towards the tourist information center to ask about inexpensive places to stay in town. This inquiry seemed borderline overwhelming to the woman working there, and finally she came up with only one name of a hotel. She gave me some very confusing directions (especially considering the entire town could fit in any outdoor American concert venue) and after a few laps around all of the streets, I finally found it. A small place called Café Harmonie, it appeared to be a very cute little bar/coffee house. It was closed. At this point my shoulders were aching so I called the number on the door, explained that I had been told that this establishment was a hotel and asked for advice on where to stay. It turns out, the owner also rents rooms above the café, and came racing down the street on his bicycle (wearing his wooden clogs!!) to let me in. The room was very nice, although leaning on a slight diagonal angle. He handed me the keys without even asking my name or for any money and then disappeared.

Volendam Marina

I spent the rest of the afternoon walking around Edam and then on over to the neighboring town of Volendam where I explored the marina, a street market and some typical (although slightly touristy) shops. By the time I headed back to Edam (about 5 miles away) the temperature had dropped and the wind had picked up, so I was very relieved to make it back to my room. That evening I decided to treat myself to a nice-ish dinner so I cleaned myself up a little and headed back out. For a Saturday, the town seemed remarkably dead. I finally settled on a place called the Dam Restaurant, which was beautiful. Outside, chairs were covered with big, fluffy, fur throws (although no one was sitting in them) and inside was mostly dark, natural wood, large oil paintings on the walls, multiple chandeliers all around a giant fireplace. I sat under a large tree full of little lights. Each of the tables had a candle and live flower.

Farmhouse Cheeses

I started the meal with pumpkin ravioli, which was delightful, and for dessert ordered the Farmhouse Cheese spread. This consisted of 6 cheeses: 2 French and 3 Dutch, all from small, private cheese houses. I really enjoyed all of them, especially the blue, against my normal preferences. During the meal I tried a beer from a local brewery, which was very nice but very strong.
After dinner it was still early so I decided it was time to try going out in The Netherlands (I had not done so yet). I walked through the whole town and sadly, couldn’t find one bar with two people in it. I gave up and had one beer by myself in the bar beneath my room before calling it a night.

Sunday morning was also very quiet. I had a lovely breakfast of ham, cheese, fresh warm buns with an assortment of fresh fruit jams and preserves. As Edam was one of the most pleasant towns I have ever seen, I decided to give it one last stroll-through before taking off. I imagine all of the women were at home or church or somewhere, but the canals were lined with men and their fishing poles. (I didn’t see any of them catch anything). I admit I looked in all of the windows of the homes I passed, and each of them showed me a living room in front of a dining room, with a mirroring large window on the other side of the house. Almost all of these rooms were very elegantly and sparsely decorated, with a vase holding a single flower in the middle of the table. I found it a little disconcerting to not see any ‘clutter’ in any of the homes.

Easteregg Speed Bump

As I was being nosy, I found myself tripping more than my normal amount- a fact that I am blaming on the town’s easter-egg-esque speed bumps that blend in perfectly with the cobblestone streets.

More Fun Dutch Facts
(mostly from the Lonely Planet guidebook)
• Their current queen, Beatrix, is the richest woman in the world. Her son, Prince Willem-Alexander, met his Argentinean wife at a party in Spain. She won the hearts of the Dutch when she made fun of her husband on live national television.

• The nation exported more than 689 million kilos of cheese in 2008, adding up to 42 kg per inhabitant.
• In 2020, one in five people in the Netherlands will be aged over 65.
• There are 1180 windmills in the Netherlands.
• From 2005-2008, one third of the births in the country were home deliveries.
• Seven out of eight locals have internet access at home- the highest percentage in the EU.