Day 18: Ferry ride from Algeciras, Spain to Tangier, Africa. Fez, Morocco: A Walk never to be Forgotten.

The entrance to the ancient city.

 
  Today is an early day for us. Lately, we have been having a hard time getting up much before 9:00. The alarm is set for 6:30 and we are out of the house - after saying goodbye to the ants - and on the way to the ferry to Africa!

    "I scrambled the last five eggs that were left in the fridge and we had a

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quick, little breakfast. We said good-by to the little, white house and everyone grabbed a

suitcase and rolled it along the pathway winding down the hill." Grandma Smith.

Catching the food that Tanner is always spitting out.

Our last breakfast in Montejaque.

Poor Ashy throws up on the drive. Although the roads are smooth, they are very windy, constantly weaving and looping around mountains where little white villages gently lay - probably for generations- snuggled into the mountain tops; completely isolated and apparently completely self sufficient - independent from the rest of the world.
   We make it to the African contintent Gone are the perfectly maintained white villages, instead we see a potopurri of brightly colored shacks. The big cities are bustling and confusing. The traffic doesn't seem to follow any rules. We stop at McDonalds - who soon becomes the welcome sight of an old friend.

   We hop back in the car and drive through a little village named, Kenitra. Here, there is garbage generously sprinkled everywhere, children playing in it, and boys just hanging out. Animals roam freely. The homes are cement boxes, with bricks thrown haphazardly along the outside of many.

 

   We drive on to Fez, our destination, and try to find the meeting place with our caretaker, Ahmed. After taking to him on the pay phone until we run out of Durhams, we follow somebody's "brother" - who claims he knows where we are trying to go - on a motorcycle for about ten minutes and after a couple of phone calls, Ahmed arrives to show us our new home. Some men throw our suitcases in a wagon and run down house lined streets. you can't even call them streets. They are more like sidewalks completely surrounded on both sides by cement walls dotted with doors of varying sizes - people's homes. it is dark. There are countless men and boys just standing around and staring. We seem to keep chasing after our suitcase cart - becoming more uneasy with each step. We follow the cart through the maze - wondering not only where we are going, but how and if we will ever find our way back out of this labrynth. The children are quiet- seeming to sense our unease.
    I am heavy - the wight of this experience smothering me, as I know I am responsible for whatever unknown fate we will face.
    Suddenly we turn down a dark corridor, and my heart almost stops beating as Ahmed leads us down a tiny opening - almost a cave- where everyone has to duck down to enter. Where are we headed?

The "street" outside of our Morocco home.

   The door opens. We walk down a long, dark hall and it opens up to a beautiful courtyard, into a palace. An oasis in the middle of a dessert. We are removed from the smells, stares, and dark of the streets. We are safe.

The courtyard at the end of the long, dark hallway entrance in our Morocco home.

   I felt safe and relieved the moment we walked in to the house. It looked exactly as it did on line and Ahmed matched the picture the French owners had emailed us. They just forgot to mention the ten minute walk through a dark maze. We met Yausseff at at he house. He speaks very good English and gave us a tour of the home. It was a huge home, a palace! IT is over 300 years old, but completely restored to its original beauty. The hallway opens up into a courtyard which is surrounded by two family room areas and the room our caretakers sleep in. On both sides of the main floor are two sets of stairs going down. One is the kitchen and the other is the laundry room. In the center of the main floor is a stair case going up and twisting around. In between each floor is a half bathroom - I don't know, maybe in case you can't hold it until you get to the next floor. On the second floor are two bedrooms and a bathroom. More winding stairs (another half bath) to a third floor which consists of a blue room and bathroom for Dallin and Peyton. They are too scared, so Dallin joins the girls and Peyton sleeps in our room. The next winding stairway leads to the fourth floor/big kids bed/bathroom-with beautiful detail - hand painted. 

A view of the terrace from the courtyard.

And one last set of stairs leads to the terrace where you are literally on the top of the entire Medina! Ok., they wash the clothes in the basement and hang them up to dry on the terrace on the fifth floor - no wonder they are skinny!

   Benson was still concerned for our safety. He had made plans to sneak out our suitcases two at a time, in the morning, and try to find our car (I don't think that would have been possible).

"Today we took our suit cases to the car and then drove off to a ferry. After an hour drive, we arrived at the ferry. We parked our big car in the ferry then went upstairs to sit down. We got a big booth. Tanner played peek a boo with everyone on the ferry.

 The ride was only one hour so we got off and started our five hour drive from the ferry to our house. We stopped for McDonalds on the way because t he food in Africa looked scary! 

Once we were close to our house, we needed to stop and ask for directions. The people we asked were so nice and helpful. Finally we met up with Ahmed. he was the one to show us to our home. He was so nice. He kissed Kennedi's head. He showed us where to park our car and brought some guys to carry our suitcases in a wagon. It looked heavy but they kept pushing! (It was night time) We walked for like ten minutes. It was scary. There were a lot of creepy people! We were all scared for our lives! We went through pitch black tunnels. It was scary! Everyone was staring. 

The "streets" that we were chasing our suitcases through at 10:30 at night.

 We arrived safe inside and our house was a PALACE! it was so cool! It had like four stories and flights of stairs. We found out it was built like 300 years ago! That must have been difficult without the tools we have today. 

I slept on the top floor. There was one room and it was really pretty. I shared that with Dallin and Ashlynn. You looked out from the terrorist (terrace=) from this room. We were scared for our lives because Ahmed and Yausseff slept in that house also. They slept downstairs." Talie

We printed off some basic vocabulary in Arabic and the numbers. On the vocab. sheet was hubbly bubbly water pipe.

"Today we pack up all our stuff, put it in the back of the car and drove to the fairy. Spain going to Morocco. It was fun. We went to the front of the boat and watched it take off. It was cool. Then we got 3 Fantas and 1 long sandwich. It was yummy. 

Saying goodbye to the Rock of Gibraltar and Spain.

 Then we got off and started our 4 hour drive. I read most of the time. Then, when we got there, A guy helped us get to the guy who will get us to the house. They were both nice. Then we got to that guy, there was a ten minute walk to our house. It did not mention anything about the walk on Homeaway. 

When we got to the house it was huge! There were five stories. The kitchen was first, then it was two family rooms. The third story was my Mom and Dad's room. Peyton and Kennedi and Tanner slept on little mats on the floor. Grandma and Grandpa's room across the hall. 

 

And on the fourth was one room with one bed. And finally the fifth story was Talie, Dallin and Me's room.

All the beautiful detail in Talie, Dallin & Ashlynn's room. Quite the hike, but well worth it.

 There was also a balcony. It was very pretty. It was also big. 

A view from the terrace that night.

After we explored the house we figured out that the guy who helped us find our house was sleeping there too. We were all scared that the guy would do something to us. Then we went to bed." Ashlynn.

"We arrived near dusk in the new part of Fez, and had to make connections to enter the

old city of Fez where arrangements had been made to stay for the next three days. A

man on a motorcycle drove us all over town trying to help us find a place to park the

van. Ben drove the van down into a dark and dingy, underground, parking garage. We

all piled out and with back packs and little ones on our backs, we began a long trek into

a scary, unfamiliar world. A bent, little, old man loaded our suitcases on a rickety, two-

wheeled, cart. He lead the way and we reluctantly followed down a very long, dark,

passage way in the labyrinth of streets in the old city. Communication was limited,

darkness was crowding in around us, smells of sewage reeked, and we didn't know where

we were going. We were all feeling very nervous and insecure. "What have we gotten

ourselves into?" I whispered to myself. I was very frightened and wondered if we were

walking into a trap where all our money and belongings would be stolen and we would

never be heard from again. There seemed to be no choice but to keep on walking and

finally we came to a cave like opening that lead us to our apartment. The door opened up

into a beautiful palace! It was an old building that had been restored by an Englishman.

It was about four stories tall with five or six bedrooms, enough for all of us to sleep

comfortably. The inside had beautiful, ornate, tile work on the floors and some walls.

There were long, steep, stairwells leading up to bedrooms and finally to the roof, which

was a patio with chairs and tables. That first night was a sleepless one for most of us.

We were nervous and wondered how trustworthy these people really were." Grandma Smith.