Train rides in Morocco

Up early, we chilled on the rooftop terrace hanging with the turtles, waiting for the morning sun to creep over the buildings and warm us up. After a hearty breakfast, a good chinwag with some fellow travelers and learning the art of tea pouring from Pia we were off to the local train station. The taxi kindly dropped us off the front at a bargain price we didn't even have to barter for, woohoo!! Immediately we purchased our first class tickets... That's how we roll in Morocco, lol! And stocked up on supplies for our 7 hour long train journey. The weather was perfect, allowing us to fully enjoy the landscape that scrolled by. Surprisingly, neither of us realized how many eucalyptus trees there were in Morocco. During the majority of the trip - large patches of eucalyptus trees would appear.... I still call Australia home!

Our first train friend was an older gentlemen from Marrakech. He kindly gave us some tips on where we were heading and tut tutted us on a few places we didn't make it to in Marrakech, all in good humour. To Pia's satisfaction, he got off after a couple stops saving her having to chat for the next hour - not her favourite pastime. Pia and I continued west where we munched our way through our supplies...
In first class the bathrooms were much were fancier than further down then carriage. So as I wandered down to use the facilities and closed the door I noticed that it wasn't closing properly. Eh! So thinking not much of it I did what I went there to do and as I opened the partially closed door, it came flying off its lower hinges and wasn't in any way moving back to where it once comfortably sat. Conveniently the man who had told me off earlier for having my feet on the chair, walked pass and gave me the same eyebrows... He must of thought I was a walking disaster, as I shrugged my shoulders at him in defeat.

Once we arrived at Casblanca we met our new travel buddy for the next 3 hours, let's call him Ahmed. By this point I was feeling the urge to nap ... iPod on, eyes closed, my head began lolling back and forth... But soon enough I could hear people chatting and there was Pia chatting away to Ahmed. As I'm always up for a good gasbag... We then spent the next few hours on and off chatting to Ahmed, learning about his hometown of Fez and our other destination, Chefchouen. We even got the honour of seeing photos of his family. Soon enough the lads next to us, began joining in and before we knew it we had a nice posse of peeps. Over the next couple of hours we intermittently joined in, in various conversations which switched between, French, Arabic and English. By the end of the journey we had numerous traveling tips and a tour guide booked for Fez. As the train pulled into Fez station, we farewelled our traveling compadres for the last few hours.

When we entered the station there was a man holding a sign, as I read it I noticed it said 'Piya'. I pulled Pia to a halted and indicated to our new friend, obviously our tour guide. This is where we met Norde, the older gentlemen, Ahmed organised for us. We exchanged introductions and headed out to find a taxi, however, as they were all busy we jumped into a white, mini Suzuki car that drove us to the old part of Fez. Once there Norde took us through the windy streets of the medina. We discovered there are only...9050 streets within the medina... So I don't know why we felt compelled to get a guide ;) Norde kindly dropped us at the door of our Riad, where we arranged a rendevouz point for the following day. We farewelled our new friend and walked up to the massive wooden door... The only door we could see down the dark alley. I banged the door knocker and eerily it opened to a tall, well built, dark Moroccan decked out in his Jellaba or as I like to call the jellaba's - Star Wars outfits 'the force is strong with this one...'
We entered the inner courtyard, where we exchanged pleasantries. When Mohamed discovered we were Australian, out came his knowledge of Aussie slang. His favourite was 'Cool bananas' haha! Soon we discovered that the owner, Aziz and Mohamed were dating Aussie girls, hence why they knew so many Aussie-isms. Once we were checked in, Aziz was heading to his new Riad he had just finished building, so we followed for a quick look and also to know the location of the blue gate ( the main entrance to the medina) With our natural compasses set, we ventured off on our own to find some food... Not as if we hadn't munched enough on the train. We found the central hub of different cafes, chose one and perched ourselves down on an outside table, where we ate our way through a delicious array of traditional cuisine. Like typical girls we had to stop at the neighbouring sweet shop. Specifically we were in search of a coconut-like biscuit we tried from a street vendor in Marrrakech. Unfortunately we didn't find it, but like any person suffering from a sweet tooth, we took half a dozen of a lookalike for desert. We wandered back through one of the many main streets, watching the street stalls, shut up shop for the evening. As we hunkered in for the night, we discovered our room, backed right onto the street, so it was entertaining hearing the various noises of late night wanderers.