Finally we had made our way through the hall and could get our luggage. There also was a money exchange office, so we took the opportunity and changed some money. Next to the exchange office, there was a phone. It was phone where you had to insert a card. Naturally I thought: "Awesome, a phone where I can just insert my debit card and call!" I tried that, but to no avail, the phone didn't accept the card. Then I tried the credit card .. didn't work either. I thought: "Hmm maybe that's the bug which forced banks to reissue a lot of cards in Germany." Meaning I couldn't call that guy. Thus we decided to just go to Fes and try our luck and left the building to look for the bus to Fes.
The first encounter with the Morocco of tourists awaited us just beyond the door. A bunch of taxi drivers was offering to take us to Fes. I don't remember the first price they asked for I think it was something like 100 MAD per person. That's about 10 €uro. Now before I came here I read the maximum you should pay was 20 MAD per person for a grand taxi. We wanted to wait for the bus, but they(the taxi drivers) told us, the last bus was already gone.
We weren't the only ones waiting, there was a group of girls from Spain and we, or rather Michael(he speaks Spanish), got into a discussion with them. (Actually only one of them was from Spain as it turned out later) Then one of the girls( Anna or Ana ) also spoke English and she translated a bit for us. In the end we took two taxis to the Medina of Fes. (We payed 25 MAD per person, the Spanish girls got a better price ifirc) Friends of the Spanish girls had booked a hotel online and we first tried there, but at first they said they were booked out or something. Then we tried the next closest hotel and upon entering a boy asked me: "Quanto Sombrero ?" which is broken Spanish for: "How much for the hat ?" I was confused and didn't understand the :"Quanto" at first so wondered what he wanted and went on. The hotel offered little more than small dirty rooms with beds and also asked too much for them. ( I think they asked something like 75MAD per night per person. )
Then suddenly that other hotel wasn't booked out anymore, but was pretty much the same as the other one. So on we went and tried a far better looking one - they even had a reception. After some bargaining (when we were about to leave) we got an offer of 120 MAD for a double room, so 60 MAD per person. The "Spanish" girls didn't want to take the offer at first but we where tired of searching and so in the end all of us stayed in the hotel. I shared a room with Michael, the Polish girls shared a room and the Spanish girls shared another (bigger) room. We even had a TV in the room and the others apparently had hot water. Unfortunately Internet wasn't working for the time being, they told us.
We went all went to eat something and later walked a bit through the streets but not for to long, being tired from the day. So we returned to our rooms and just for fun I turned my Laptop on - suprise the Internet was working fine. Being tired I didn't really do anything and just went to sleep. The night was a bit cold, (but still ok) since the windows were really thin (as everywhere in Morocco) and there was no isolation to speak of. The next morning I tried the Internet again - didn't work.
To be continued.
Wednesday 24 February 2010
Saturday 13 February 2010
Long time no post.
Yes I am still alive and sort of well ( I have caught a cold).
A lot has happened since I arrived in Fes, Morocco. The most obvious thing is that I failed to post my plans before executing them. This was in a large part due to the fact, that I didn't plan anything, but also due to other circumstances. Well, I'll just start at the beginning I suppose. I just can't spice up things with fotos this time, because I haven't made any since arriving in Fes since there were so many with good Cameras around and I still have to ask for permission on whether I can post them.
So I took that flight on the 1st as mentioned in the last article and arrived on schedule in Madrid. Walking through endless corridors in the Madrid airport, denying offers for taxi transportation and waiting for the check-in for my next flight I arrived in the waiting hall for my flight to Fes. Unusually for Ryan Air the boarding started late. What's more, this time they actually carefully checked luggage to fit size requirements etc.. I think the flight was almost booked out. This all took quite some time and so we started late. I heard one of the guys responsible for the checking etc.. saying that this was the second longest boarding he had ever experienced. Lucky I wasn't around for the other one.. ;)
It was impossible to catch this up and so we arrived late. I don't remember, maybe it really was an hour too late ? On the flight I noticed a blonde girl with a green backpack and I wondered whether she was another couchsurfer, she definitely looked like a traveling student. But more on that in a few sentences.
Leaving the plane I felt a bit lost. Having booked no hotel or prepared anything I was wondering were I would end up. Well I had a contact from couchsurfing who would show me around in the city. So the first thing to do after getting my luggage would have been to call him. He also knew a few hotels he could show me.
Then there was an endless line in the reception hall of the airport and everyone had to fill out a form with information on job, place of departure and destination. The only problem was I had no pen and I wasn't the only person with that problem. The blonde girl and her friend (girl) also were looking for a pen. They asked a blonde guy who was filling out his form and I noticed on his form, that he came from Germany. I then asked him for a pen too, and learned that his name was Michael. We talked a bit and the girls(Hanusia and Paulina) joined in. It turned out nobody had booked a hotel yet, so we decided to look for one together and I told them I had a guy from Couchsurfing to call. As it turned out Hanusia and Paulina are both on Couchsurfing too and I thought: "Wow this seems far more common than I ever imagined!"
To be continued ... I am going to eat something now !
A lot has happened since I arrived in Fes, Morocco. The most obvious thing is that I failed to post my plans before executing them. This was in a large part due to the fact, that I didn't plan anything, but also due to other circumstances. Well, I'll just start at the beginning I suppose. I just can't spice up things with fotos this time, because I haven't made any since arriving in Fes since there were so many with good Cameras around and I still have to ask for permission on whether I can post them.
So I took that flight on the 1st as mentioned in the last article and arrived on schedule in Madrid. Walking through endless corridors in the Madrid airport, denying offers for taxi transportation and waiting for the check-in for my next flight I arrived in the waiting hall for my flight to Fes. Unusually for Ryan Air the boarding started late. What's more, this time they actually carefully checked luggage to fit size requirements etc.. I think the flight was almost booked out. This all took quite some time and so we started late. I heard one of the guys responsible for the checking etc.. saying that this was the second longest boarding he had ever experienced. Lucky I wasn't around for the other one.. ;)
It was impossible to catch this up and so we arrived late. I don't remember, maybe it really was an hour too late ? On the flight I noticed a blonde girl with a green backpack and I wondered whether she was another couchsurfer, she definitely looked like a traveling student. But more on that in a few sentences.
Leaving the plane I felt a bit lost. Having booked no hotel or prepared anything I was wondering were I would end up. Well I had a contact from couchsurfing who would show me around in the city. So the first thing to do after getting my luggage would have been to call him. He also knew a few hotels he could show me.
Then there was an endless line in the reception hall of the airport and everyone had to fill out a form with information on job, place of departure and destination. The only problem was I had no pen and I wasn't the only person with that problem. The blonde girl and her friend (girl) also were looking for a pen. They asked a blonde guy who was filling out his form and I noticed on his form, that he came from Germany. I then asked him for a pen too, and learned that his name was Michael. We talked a bit and the girls(Hanusia and Paulina) joined in. It turned out nobody had booked a hotel yet, so we decided to look for one together and I told them I had a guy from Couchsurfing to call. As it turned out Hanusia and Paulina are both on Couchsurfing too and I thought: "Wow this seems far more common than I ever imagined!"
To be continued ... I am going to eat something now !
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