My Least Vulnerable Spot

FES

I spent the last weekend in Fes, the city with the oldest and largest Medina in Morocco!  In fact, the Fes medina is the most populated pedestrian city in the world.  It feels like a giant maze, and at times, you don't think that you can ever find your way out. 

The Fes medina is also known for its leather tanneries.  Pictured below is the largest tannery in the medina.  The leather starts in white buckets (not pictured) and is softened with pigeon poop.  The tanneries buy copious amounts of poop from pigeon poop collectors; a job I hope I will never have to do in my life.  Then it is soaked in the die and set out to dry. 

Fes Tanneries 

Islamic New Year

I celebrated the Islamic New Year with my Morocco family when I returned from Fes.  Specifically, we celebrated the 10th day of the new year, the day of Ashura which mourns the death of marks the anniversary of the Battle of Karbala when Imam Hussein Ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad was killed by the forces of the second Umayyad Caliph.  To celebrate, people light bonfires in the streets and set off firecrackers to recreate the battle.  You usually eat the butt of a sheep on this night, but my family decided instead to eat the tongue of a cow.  And its head for good measure.  They didn't want to buy sheep meat when they still had so much cow leftover from when they (personally) slaughtered it for Eid (the biggest Moroccan holiday of the year that occurs the first week of October and involves sacrificing and animal and eating every part of it). 

Up Next:  Agadir and Paradise Valley, I'm journeying to the South of Morocco! 
P.S.  I don't know how to undo the white highlighting that I accidentally clicked on