This past weekend part 4- Fez

On Sunday we went to Fez! I didn't particularly like Fez. It's main attractions are that it has the largest old city (medina al qudeema) in Morocco, it has the best handmade leather in Morocco, and it has the world's first and oldest university! Fun facts: the university is also a mosque, it was built by a woman, but only men can study there. 

For me, Fez was way too big and overwhelming. Seeing camel faces hanging on store windows and live chickens being killed on counters, combined with the disgusting smell in the leather workshop (it was so bad that they had to give everyone a giant sprig of mint to press to their nose while we were inside), I seriously contemplated becoming a vegetarian this weekend. 

However, the university was very pretty, and our tour guide in Fez was extremely kind. 

Two things I liked in Fez- we saw how mosaics (zelij) are made, and learned how to make turbans out of hand woven scarves.

Here are some pictures: 

Cutting each tile by hand! 

They lay the tiles upside down, then pour the cement on top, then flip it over and it becomes a table! 

Finished products

Hand woven scarves, wrapped as turbans! 

The university/mosque from a distance

From the inside 

The very pretty house-turned-restaurant we ate in