Day 8--Dec 16, 2013: Roman Ruins and Ancient Medina

The day started with a sit down breakfast of bread and a croissant with butter, jelly, cream cheese. And that was it.
We drove through fertile farmland and past markets and local scenes that I so wanted to stop and photograph. How the people live their lives is fascinating to me. Hopefully, more opportunity will come. Outside of the cities, people get around by donkey, and the donkeys carry the loads. Horses are a sign of wealth. Olive trees are plentiful, and it's harvest time now, just once a year. They lay a tarp below the tree and then beat the branches with a stick. Sometimes they drag the tarp out to the street and a vendor may drive by and buy their whole harvest (they hope). We stopped at some scenic views where there were vendors selling fruit.
We arrived at the Roman ruins of Volubilus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They were mostly destroyed by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The town was built about 2000 years ago (!) and was abandoned in the 11th century. It covers about 100 acres. It was a prosperous town which is evident by the remaining building ruins; pillars, outlines of houses and rooms, spas, olive press, and amazing mosaic floors with scenes of animals, Gods, stories, etc.
We then drove to Fes and toured the medina, the worlds largest, with 9000 winding streets. It's a walled city with no cars and covers 900 acres. Some buildings in the medina date back to the 9th century.  There are 350 mosques inside. Devout Muslims pray 5 times per day. The call to worship is heard from every mosque when it is time to pray. It is a real person chanting from every mosque. There are areas for each type of vendor; silver, leather, fabrics, food, carpenters. We were given a sprig of mint before visiting the tannery because the smell can be so offensive. It was not, though, possibly because it was not a warm or sunny day. We visited a weaving co-op and many scarves were purchased by the group. And we saw the 1st university in the world, founded in 859. Loved the medina! So exotic! We go back tomorrow for our free day!
Four of us (me and three of the four 20 somethings) chose to go to a dinner show. We were served 6 different appetizers; an eggplant dish, a cauliflower dish, a tomato salad, beets, olives, lentils, and bread, of course. There were 4 musicians on stage playing instruments and singing. We then got pastille, a traditional meat pie with chicken, ground almonds and cinnamon, and a phyllo like dough, and maybe powdered sugar on top. Soooo good, especially if you are addicted to cinnamon, like me. Amanda loved it, too. They also brought us a beef tagine, apparently usually with prunes. Dessert was fruit. (They call that dessert?)
The show had a traditional female dancer, a magician, and a belly dancer.
The place wasn't very full, only 4 tables of people. The dancer pulled all of us out of the audience to dance on stage with her for a couple minutes. Then they had a mock wedding. They took Amanda and one of the other 20 something girls. They dressed them in traditional finery and demonstrated what a wedding would look like. Photos to come, eventually.