We stayed two days in Marrakech and then on Saturday morning we intended to get up at 7.00 / 7.15 am so we could pack up, wolf down a bit of brekky in the hotel and rush off to get the 9.00 train to Fes. We wanted to be on that train because it takes some 8 hours or so to get there, and the next one was at 11.00, which would put us in far too late - and there's no overnight train so we have to travel in the day (who really wants to spend all day on a Morroccan train, anyway?). However, two things happened. First, the Mosque went off again like a frog in a sock at 4am (obviously an everyday occurrence), thus waking me from a deep and restful slumber, and rendering me incapable of returning to said peaceful state until (as Murphy's law would have it) just before the alarm was due to go off. So that was a bit of a problem. Second, we've been using my mobile phone's alarm to wake us up - which has been working fine as long as I don't switch the phone off during the night. Now that really shouldn't have been a problem - except that it didn't go off. It couldn't. I hadn't set it right - being on holiday you forget what day of the week it is, and my alarm is dependent upon you setting the day - so I hadn't set it to wake me on a Saturday (who does?) - so it didn't go off...
Anyway, I open my eyes blurrily at - 8.00am! Aaaaagghhhh! And we've got to shower, pack, have brekky, check out, get to the station, get a ticket, get food / drink for the journey and get the train... all in an hour...
Cue the Yakety Sax music. You've never seen anyone go as fast as we did that morning. Whooshka, quick shower, shove clothes in bag, drink in a croissant in literally one gulp, get the next bus, get off, and... queue for a ticket...time ticking away...
Fortunately we made it, although we didn't really get the chance to get any supplies for the journey. On this train ride we didn't have set seating, so we had to find whatever seats we could in whatever carriage we could. This meant ultimately that we were at some point crammed in with the locals, which was quite interesting, particularly when a mother and her young children (well young toddler, the other girl would've been 10 or 11 I guess) joined us, another woman, and the Mark Phillippoussis look-alike in our carriage. The little girl took a real fascination to Jessie's bracelet...
The funny thing about Moroccans on trains is that they share. We were quite happily sitting there, minding our business, watching Star Wars on the Zen, when this woman gets out half a salad roll and then proceeds to offer it around to everyone else in the carriage. Hm? Strange. Then she offers a sip of her coke around, including to the toddler, who happily had some (with the mother watching!). Then someone else offers around something, and (up until now no-one had accepted any of it) then the Poo accepted some of it. Crikey, I was thinking, and all we've got to offer is two, very badly squished patty cakes from Spain... and I really want it for myself as we're only 5 hours into the journey with 3 still to go, and I'm hungry... Next thing, out comes the squished cakes, and in true Moroccan style we offered our measly morsel - which was fortunately rejected...
Eventually we arrived in Fes and managed to negotiate a fair deal in a Petit Taxi (blue and yellow in Marrakesh, red in Fes) of I think 20 dirhams to get to the old town. We were so exhausted once we arrived that we pulled up to the nearest cafe, ordered 2 lattes and then just sat, like zombies, wondering if we still had the will to live... and pondering our next move (which was to find a hotel) when up comes a young girl, Suecaina her name was, who bizarrely asked us if, as native English speakers, we could explain to her the difference between "can" and "could"! Blimey, I might be a teacher, but hey - (1) I don't teach English and (2) I'M ON HOLIDAYS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! But we gave it our best shot, and to be fair, she was very sweet and actually quite nice. Fortunately she didn't have a cousin or a brother who owned a nice hotel...
After we said goodbye to Suecaina we headed off into Bab Jaloud, the old gateway to the Medina, and basically pulled into the first hotel we saw, checked in, and crashed....
No comments:
Post a Comment