Meknes: City of Awesome, Part 1

One of Morocco's famous date palms.

So, lots to talk about. Funny how that happens when you neglect you blog for several weeks.

First, J and I have both mostly been in better health for the past few weeks. We're still too tired because of the bed here. I think it might be older than I am. Other than that, though, we've only had minor aches and ailments. No pink eye, no long lasting stomach distress, no fevers, and no food poisoning. Thanks for all your prayers!

Second, classes are going well. J is making leaps and bounds in her Arabic. She's even able to get a lot out of listening to news broadcasts. She can't understand them nearly to her satisfaction, but she can at least follow the general topic of conversation quite well. My classes are also going well. I'm flying through the material, and I've found that I can stumble my way through reading Harry Potter in Arabic. I probably only follow 25% of what's going on, but I do follow it. It's amazing how important already knowing a story is to understanding. Besides knowing all the names and characters, knowing the general thrust of the plot allows me to figure out much more than I otherwise would.

The platform for Rabat's main train station.

Third (and our final subject for this post), two weekends ago J and I visited the city of Meknes. This is the city that J and spent six weeks in two summers ago. It's about an hour from the city of Fez, of headgear fame.

To put it shortly, our day trip was fantastic. We were expecting to enjoy visiting all of our old haunts, but we were not expecting to enjoy them quite so much.

First, we got to train station about five minutes before our train left. J and I have done a fair bit of travelling in our time, and we can rarely afford to cut it so close. So it was kind of gratifying not to have to wait half an hour in an uncomfortable terminal this time. There really is something immensely liberating about not travelling with most of your earthly possessions weighing you down, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, the train ride was uneventful. J dozed most of the trip (got up early in the morning so we could have breakfast in Meknes) and I read a book. We found our stop without too much trouble or stress, and upon leaving the station were accosted by about three cab drivers offering us rides. This was a fun bit of nostalgia for us. In Rabat, taxi drivers almost always use their meters and are rarely aggressive. In our first trip to Morocco, however, we usually had to bargain for our fair, which is a stressful thing to do with tons of luggage. This time around however, we had no intention of taking a cab, so aggressive cab drivers were a fun contrast rather than something to deal with.

Rabat has gates, but they don't have the beauty or
craftsmanship of the gates of Meknes.

Right outside the train station in Meknes, there was a cafe, and since we hungry, J and I decided this was as good a place as any for breakfast. It was a fortunate decision. The food was tasty, as usual for Moroccan breakfasts (usually some combination of bread, sugar, orange juice, and uncarbonated caffieine), but the tea was the best I've ever had. Mint leaves floated in our cups, which left me wary at first. But after one taste I was wondering how I had ever been satisfied with the dishwater (relatively speaking) that I get in Rabat. It was fantastic.

Fueled and ready to go, J and I walked over a few streets to the our old apartments. We had walked these same streets many times before, and it was bizarre to see them again. We saw shops that we hadn't thought about for over a year, places where we had gotten ice cream, and streets that hadn't changed. It's the same place, but it changed without us. Like it's this living thing that won't wait for our return to keep growing and changing. Somehow all the new things we saw made us appreciate the old even more. It felt like coming home to a family member you hadn't expected to see.

That poster of the old woman that looks over the carnival
was there when J and I lived in Meknes. It was gratifying
to see that some things hadn't changed, even if the changes
included a carnival.

But J and I hadn't seen anything yet. When we got to the main square, it became clear that somebody upstairs likes us, or at the very least wanted us to have a good time that day. In front of my apartment had been a large open square. When we came in sight of that square, we were amazed at what we saw.  But when I saw it, I knew that J and I were going to have a good day.

I mean, it's always a good day when the carnival comes to town, right?