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 freshly-
squeezed glass of citrus, and I got a double burger that had an egg (over-
easy) 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 Er-
Raissouli 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 El-
Kamra 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