Train day!
Today was a less eventful day but it was still full of fun. Breakfast remained delicious as always, with us happily starting the day with mmsabah and pain au chocolat. We then packed up our things, checking and double-checking to make sure we had everything before leaving the riad. We shared a heartfelt goodbye with Abdou, thanking him for all of his help during this leg of our journey. Then we went to the beautifully designed train station and started our six-and-a-half hour trip to Fez.
While that may seem like a dauntingly long train ride, apparently time does fly by when you’re having fun. We were separated into three different compartments (Harry Potter style), with each one having its own designated use. One somehow became the napping compartment, one the quiet compartment, and one the rowdy game compartment. We accomplished quite a lot during this train ride, with Jacque and Yishu starting off by using their repairing skills to fix the broken window in the game compartment using bandages.
About an hour into the ride we somehow squeezed ten people into the six-person game compartment and here the fun began. We played intense games of mafia, which tested the loyalties and friendships we had worked so hard to build over the course of the past week. We also brought our decks of cards, played word games, and sometimes found ourselves getting carried away with our volume levels (we sincerely apologize to the other passengers on the train). All the while, we feasted on snacka-doodle-doos (it gets wackier every day) that we bought during yesterday’s grocery run, acclimating ourselves to Moroccan treats.
Though we spent quite some time having fun, we didn’t miss the breathtaking Moroccan scenery that the train passed by. The red cliffs outside Marrakech, the rolling fields dotted with sheep herds, and the endless vibrant green orchards all blew us away with their beauty.
When we arrived in Fez, we cleaned up our compartments and made our way into the bustling city. The first thing we noticed was the difference in color scheme between Fez and Marrakech, with the former painted in coral red and the latter sporting a more sunshine yellow hue. We saw this difference as we traveled to our Riad, and were blown away by its architecture upon our arrival. We spent the better part of our resting period exploring the rooms and admiring the view of the sprawling city from the rooftop.
We actually got to explore a part of this medina during the evening. However we saw only a fraction of the ten thousand alleys tucked into the labyrinth of Fez. We’ll hopefully get to explore some more tomorrow.
After this brief exploration, we made our way back to the Riad and dined on a wonderful dinner prepared by the staff, which included harirah and chicken tajine.
Though this wasn’t the most eventful day, we still saw some cats! Thus, here is Le Chat du Jour:
—Your lovely bloggers, Jacque and Moumina.