Part 2

PART 2 (Kenitra & Asillah) Ironically our trips to both Kenitra (14-15 Feb) and Asillah (21-22 Feb) were both unplanned. When we wanted to go to Asillah we ended up going to Kenitra because of extensive flooding that had closed the northern rail network and evidently claimed the life of 24 Moroccans while leaving hundreds of others homeless. We were certain that the French-English translation was incorrect when he had heard that the trains were not running to the north due to “flooding.” Nope, the translations were correct but it left us all slightly dumbfounded. The following weekend which we went to Asillah, we had actually intended on going to the city of Chefchaouen which is in the north at thefoot of the Rif Mountains. However, we had missed the last bus and the train was once again running north to Asillah. Our trip to Kenitra was as hectic as it was unplanned, arriving in Meknes to find out that trains weren’t running threw a major wrench in our plans and so we explored every possibility for a couple of hours, to include renting a car, but after they wanted a security deposit of 20,000MAD = 2,000 USD or a blank check, the deal was off. Incidentally, the only two people in the group of 9 of us who knew how to drive a stick shift were Alicia and Grant, in whichthe rental cars were, and so we were both much relieved to not drive in Morocco! Without wheels, we consulted the Lonely Planet book and soon it was decided that we at least wanted to make our way to the coast and that by random choice we would be going to Kenitra (the closest coastal city) and that we would stay at the Plage Mehdiya, a 7km strip of beach with a small town stretched along the water but not much wider than the beach itself. However, this decision was made late on Friday so we decided to spend the night at one of the Hostels in Meknes. We didn’t do much in Meknes except witness a beautiful sunset, ate some Moroccan food at a little café, and met 4 Polish students who were staying at our same hostal. The next morning we were off by train to Kenitra, only about 1H30M away. Oddly enough the flooding that I mentioned earlier had taken place only a dozen or so miles to the north of where we were and we didn’t see any indication or trace of such an event. When we arrived in Kenitra, we made our way down the main street to the bus station to catch a ride to the beach front Plage Mehdiya. Perhaps the first excitement in Kenitra

came not in the form of the architecture, the giant storks that patrol the skies, or being able to see the Atlantic, but rather the discovery of a McDonalds which in any other situation both Alicia and I would have frowned upon, but having a brief opportunity to partake in something resembling the food back home was priceless and little did we know what kind of food was in store for us at our final destination. Thus the girls in the group went to the bathroom at Mickey D’s while the guys got food. Go figure. To get back on track, we had no problem getting a bus and in 20m we arrived in what seemed like a ghost town of a beach community. Inches of sand covered the main road, restaurants were empty, and a cow was walking herself down the middle of the main strip. Turns out that the off season really does apply here and we were the only tourists in the whole city. As a result, we were able to get hotel rooms for everybody at about $8 per person per night (!) and restaurants bustled when we walked by to try and sell us on their tastiest dish. Upon securing our hotel room everyone immediately departed for the beach, though it was short lived (about 30min) because everyone was hungry. Now for the next adventure, we ended up eating at one of the fish restaurants across from the beach, and when we ordered a plate of fish it really was a plate of fish. I do first have to express my regret for Alicia, in her struggle not only to find food but in also having to watch us eat a rather grotesque-looking meal. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten a whole fish before in my life, and thanks to a girl with us named Why, who’s a pro at eating fish, I also learned that the fish heads were edible as well. Call me sheltered, but after eating a half dozen fish heads and more whole prawns than I can count I was done with the meal, thankfully Alicia was able to get a salad that somewhat held her over. We really didn’t do much at Kenitra and poor Alicia was hungry most of the time. Happy Valentine’s Day, we might add! I

think a personal highlight of the trip was smoking sheisha/hookah on the balcony of the hotel while watching the sunset and thinking about how interesting it is that as I am watching the sunset over the Atlantic the sun is risingon the American East Coast. The hotel, though, was really cool and the staff extremely friendly. The next day Mike, Why, and I were walking around the small city and came across a Berber lady who was tending to her sheep on the edge of town, what was cool about it was that she had traditional Berber tattoos on her face, and in general was an extremely friendly lady. Later that morning Alicia and I split from the group on the way back and decided to walk back to the train station so we could check out the Kasbah that was once inhabited by Carthaginians, the French, and US Marines. We also wanted to walk back and check out some of the architecture in Kenitra which in many ways was very original when compared to what we had seen in Morocco thus far. After a few hours of walking, saving approximately 7 dirhams (just under $1USD) we might add, we reached the Kenitra train station and had about an hour wait for our train to Meknes so we went to a café that we both had some of the best local food we’ve had thus far in Morocco. Alicia got a super fresh salad (enjoyed every bite!) and an unbelievable orange juice (the waiter walked across the street somewhere empty-handed and returned with a freshlysqueezed glass of citrus, and I got a double burger that had an egg (overeasy) on it that made it remarkably good. Quite pleased with our luck after the fairly traumatic fish heads experience, we finished up and got on the train and a few hours later we were on a late night bus back to Ifrane. Asillah, the trip itself was kind of a reoccurrence of the Kenitra trip in the sense that it was somewhat oriented around relaxing and having a good time, there is one major difference though, the medina in Asillah is gorgeous! We arrived in Asillah late at night maybe 11pm and made our way to the strip on the beach where our apartment was (400MAD/50USD for six people a night) after staying up for a bit we headed to bed

at around 1:30am. Alicia and I, waking up a good three hours before everyone else, decided to explore the Medina by ourselves. We spent some time on the beach at the base of the ramparts surrounding the medina, and then walked around the medina itself. It being early in the morning we were able to catch glimpses of quiet streets and markets which made for a pleasant journey. At around 10am we met up with the rest of the group who were up and about and eat breakfast at a decent place. We then went back with group into the medina to explore it in its entirety. The walls like the Kasbah in Rabat were whitewashed with blue doors and windows and strips usually around waist high. The big difference though is that since we were much closer to Spain there is a heavy Andalucía influence on the architecture which can be seen in not only the whitewashed walls but also a slight resemblance to southern Spain. This is by far more prominent and obvious in some of the more modern homes in the city outside of the medina. Exploring the Medina we made our way past some traditional Moroccan entertainers and up to kind of catwalk lookout, where we could see the coast and a vista of the outer wall encroached upon the ocean. I am also pretty sure that this catwalk comes out directly next to the palace of Rascally ErRaissouli who was somewhat of an outlaw and mass murderer in the region who the Sultan of Morocco in the early 1900’s decided to deal with by making him a provincial governor, while at the same time the Spanish supplied him arms to keep up a resistance in the Rif Mountains, and odd story and kind of counterproductive from the Sultan of Morocco standpoint. Anyways there is a spot at his palace where he used to make convicted murderers walk off the edge of the wall to their death and I believe that is where we were.

After only spending a few hours in the medina the group wanted to go to Paradise Beach supposedly 3km away in the Lonely Planet book, we couldn’t confirm this and ended up taking a horse drawn ”carriage” (flat wooden board) about an hour to the beach. Between holding on for dear life and the scenic off-roading, we did agree that it was a good experience, and Paradise Beach was beautiful – entirely deserving of its name. We had the beach to ourselves and so we stayed there for about four hours before returning back to town. Once we got back everyone was hungry as even though it was Paradise Beach it was as secluded as it could get (i.e. no food and we hadn’t brought much in the way of provisions). We wanted to go to a nice Spanish restaurant around the corner from where we were staying, but it was closed and we ended up eating someplace else that was far worse. After trying to eat more poorly prepared seafood and Alicia with her couscous (love couscous, but this one was a poor version of it), we headed back to the apartment for the night. After playing several card games and a bottle of “Grant whiskey” which is apparently made in Madrid, the night came to a close. The next day,

disappointingly, everyone wanted to go home rather than check out some of the old Roman ruins in the area, so we went to the train station only to discover that the next train wasn’t until 6pm. Trying to find alternative solutions, Grant, eternally the navigator of any new city we are in (mountain we are on?), expertly guided us to the bus station where we found a bus for 4pm, still some four hours for us to wait. So we headed back into the city to get food and try and keep entertained. As soon as we got into the main square some of the group was suckered into following a guy who claimed to know of a great restaurant, reluctantly Alicia and I followed only to discover that there wasn’t anything vegetarian. Skeptical about the food, a group of us left and ended up eating at the Spanish place we tried going to the night before, which turned out nice. We got to enjoy another hour of sunshine as we sat across from the Medina eating our lunch. After eating, the group, back together again, went into the medina and hoped to go up to the top of the ElKamra Tower which has a great view of the medina and the city as a whole. As it turns out it was 10MAD about 1.25$ per person to go up and so Alicia sponsored me to go up and take picture for the group, which turned out to be about its money worth. Back down with the group we went to the beach at the base of the ramparts, where Alicia and I were before, and hung out until our bus departure. After about a 4H bus ride to Meknes we ate at a nicer restaurant (think pasta) where Grant had his first Moroccan corona (I think he liked it!) and then took a rather expensive taxi (nighttime rates) to Ifraneand to hopefully recover from whatever sickness (colds) we can’t seem to leave behind! While the beaches are picturesque and it is certainly unreal to be in a bathing suit in February (hopefully no one

is getting jealous right now), we have decided for future weekends that we would like to see a little more Morocco and a little less beach! Au revoir ~ Love Alicia and Grant Brill