Day 72 - 1/10/11 - Saturday - Fes

I'd like to enthral you with adventurous tales of new activities, however the truth is that we have just spent another day chilling out in a funky, cool, medina. Fes, Marrakesh, Rabat and Meknes are the 4 biggest older cities in Morocco with medinas, and we deliberately chose Fes as the one to spend most time in. Marrakesh was very dusty and hot, and it feels like you are walking around with a sign that says "I'm a tourist, hassle me". It gets old, quickly...such that Cinthia and I would reply in Portuguese, confounding those who knew English, French and Spanish speechless. Meknes we will visit tomorrow, and Rabat, well, there is always a next time.

I awoke during the night, to rush to my phone only to realise that it was 1.30am, and the grand final had not started. When I awoke around 6.30am I checked the score and saw that the Cats had it in the bag, and hence Collingwood had lost another Grand Final. This was a good start to the day, especially since Collingwood had just managed to sneak past the Hawks last week.

Tajines, cous cous, mint tea and corn bread- Moroccan food is good however there is only so much you can eat. After a week in Morocco we needed a change. Inside the Medina there is no Italian restaurant, no Chinese takeaway, and definitely no Mexican cantenas. Our respite was in a Westernised tourist trap called "Clocks"- its reference to an ancient wooden clock contraption outside.

"Clocks" has film nights, calligraphy classes and language lessons, so views itself as a full service Food plus establishment for tourists. Scanning the menu to see Milkshakes, Cheesecake, Burgers and the like, we were curious enough to order the camel burger. Just as I was about to start my tasty camel burger Cinthia begins reading Trip Advisor's reference to 'Clocks' food, and particularly the Camel burger. "Lots of people seem to get sick from it, Craig". "Thanks Cin", I replied, preferring to be blissfully ignorant than concerned about the hygiene of camel meat. Anyway, it tasted pretty good.

Shopping was again the major activity of the day, as we would endeavour to grab the remaining bargains that would fit in our suitcase. After all, the Moroccan products are 1/10 the price of buying them back in Melbourne at somewhere like Casbah.

One disappointing aspect of Fes is that it does not seem to have a decent Museum. The one we visited took 20 minutes, had a few artefacts in Arabic/ French, and did not endeavour to explain the history of this fascinating town. Oh well, I guess I'll have to resort to Mr. Wikipedia.