Asilah, though not quite as bright as Tangier, was warm and humid, but also relatively quiet and tranquil, as most of the students were still in class when we arrived.
We found a hotel, dropped off our bags, and proceeded to explore the city in search of food. The Moroccan exposure to Western culture, especially in Asilah, provides for an interesting mix in the streets and signs. Some people are dressed traditionally in muslim cloaks or in an otherwise conservative manner, while others wear jeans and miniskirts and high heels (not all at once). Although i should have expected this globalization, especially after our time in Istanbul, I had been led to imagine a more cut-off Eastern culture. Additionally, although English was rather uncommon, many Moroccans speak Spanish in addition to French and Moroccan Arabic. Arabic is, I have to add, a gorgeous and at the same time terrifying language, as the alphabet is so different from our own. I would like to learn to read and speak it, though. Another addition to the list of languages I want to know.
We found a restaurant near the water where the menu was in Spanish and the restaurant specialized in seafood. Not only was the waiter we spoke with extremely friendly, but as we stood there, two other chefs/waiters walked through carrying a giant bucket of fresh shellfish straight from the ocean (only meters away). They weren't ready to open yet, so we wandered along the beach for an hour. We saw other men collecting seafood (presumably for the other nearby restaurants), as well as two children beating a plastic bucket, 3 men knocking old glass shards out of an intact window frame, and an old man throwing rocks (and yelling) at the waves. To each his own.
When we returned to the restaurant at noon, we ordered fish soup, paella and a cheese tortilla (omelet). We were also served bread as a complimentary appetizer, along with small, mild fish in an oil-garlic sauce. Together with the bread, this was delicious and the paella was amazingly full of seafood - prawns, clams, calamari, and other fish meat that I couldn't identify, along with freshly roasted peppers... delicious.
After eating, we had to nap for a few hours to allow all that food to digest, but returned outside in time to view the gorgeous (if short) sunset before finding an internet cafe and a small dinner.
The next morning we set out to catch the 9:40 train to Fes (we'd vetoed the 6:40 train at 5:00 am -- pre-dawn is no time for decision-making), and are now on the second leg of said train. The landscape here is gorgeous -- plenty of lush vegetation, and in places where earth was cut away to make room for the train tracks, red-orange dirt contrasts with the bright green bushes and yellow flowers on top of it. We've passed streams and farmlands with goats and donkeys, and cities baking in the sun, with children running happily through the streets.
In the change-station (Sidi something), we met a very nice Moroccan man who spoke English. He introduced himself by making the ever-popular commentary that Jay looks local and I look German or Irish or otherwise very foreign (gee, I love this conversation starter) and proceeded to chat with Jay as I silently fumed a wee bit. They spoke about the Arabic language (read from right to left, apparently), and he wrote both our names for us in Arabic. He had apparently learned English at an American school in southern Africa, and his accent was amazing. He spoke highly of Fes, but cautioned that it is easy to get lost in the Medina. He suggested that we find a guide when exploring that part of the city. Our train came a few minutes later, and we will be in Fes in about an hour - then we can see how the situation looks.
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