Coq Magic and Hassan the Carpet Man

*If you havent read the post below this, read it first and then read this one*

After our big Moroccan fete, my friend Janet and I decided to spend the weekend in the small university town of Meknes. We arrived at around 12:00 pm, and so we decided to walk around to look for lunch, before heading up to the palace of despot Sultan Moulay Ismail and the Medina. Thank God we did, because we found the most amusing restaurant. It was called "Coq Magic"...naturally we had to go there. The owner thought it was hilarious that we couldnt stop laughing for long enough to order our roast chicken. The owner talked to us while we ate our meal and told us that lots of english speakers like to take pictures of the restaurant, but he doesnt understand why. Janet and i looked at each other, but neither of us had the nerve to tell him it was a rather hilarious innuendo.

After having our fill of Coq Magic we grabbed a petit taxi up to the palace and mausoleum of Moulay Ismail. Moulay Ismail has a rather interesting history. He is revered for uniting Morocco in the 18th century, but also frowned upon for massive amount of death inflicted by both his ministers and himself. Indeed, at one point he had about 4000 christian slaves who built walls for him all over Mekness. Moulay Ismail was obsessed with walls, and wanted to build a palace as grand as Versailles. Ironically, in his haste to build the walls, he neglected to use good materials and so most of the walls were crumbling even before the end of his reign. However, his granaries and store rooms are absolutely mindblowing. Advertised as the prison of christian slaves, our guidebook informed us that in actuality the "prison" was most likely a storeroom. However, it was very atmospheric, and all i could think of was the Count of Monte Cristo. Underground were seven hectares of thirty foot vaults, with a skylight twelve inches in diameter at the top of each vault. Janet and I wandered around in the cool dark vaults for about thirty minutes before ascending the steep staircase into the bright yellow courtyards of Meknes.

Wanting to take a break from all the crumbling walls, we headed for the Meknes medina. The Medina of Meknes is painted in alternatively in either a bright warm yellow, or a bright pink. It is quite beautiful and a lot more calm than the Rabat medina. We were wandering around when Janet spotted some Berber jewellry she liked. THe proprietor invited us inside his shop (always a big decision because the pressure to buy something becomes infinitely greater) to learn about Berber carpets. He offered us mint tea and started to explain and display his wares. It was very interesting, and he explained the differences in the make of each carpet and the function of each carpet in the Berber world. His french was very easy to understand, and Janet and i were having a ball! As it turned out, he knew our Anthropology professor, Hassan Rachik, who is a big name in the Berber community. WE continued talking about anything but buying carpets for about an hour until this AMerican man walked in the door. From Colorado, Samer had known Hassan the carpet man for eight years, having befriended him on his first trip to Morocco. Samer told us that he was a really nice guy and that while we should bargain, that he generally sold carpets for a reasonable price. THis was great news because Meknes is known for its cheaper-than-Fes-or-Marrakech carpets. We departed from Hassan promising to return after visiting the Mausoleum. Upon returning to the carpet souk, Hassan took us on a back roads tour of the medina and showed us courtyards covered with cascading grape vines and ancient, gnarled trees, bright pink alleyways so narrow my small backpack brushed either side, and silver demascene workshops where men hunched over copper plates pounding silver thread to create intricate designs. We returned to the shop after our tour and had more tea and cookies and he finally revealed his starting price for my favorite, gorgeous Berber carpet. I informed him that it was way too much and that I had to save my money for the rest of my trip, and that i had to talk to my parents etc etc. We ended the night promising to return with my final price the next day, and we headed out the door.

Janet and I grabbed a petit taxi down to the train station where we met our cousin's mother, with whome we were staying overnight. A nurse at a local hospital, Aziza lives about an hour outside Meknes and walks 2 miles from her house to the grand taxi station and than another 3 miles to her hospital twice a day for work. Needless to say, she is a pretty amazing woman. SHe cooked us dinner, made our beds, and left us breakfast in the morning. It was lovely...although we did have our first experience with a squat toilet. It was confusing, and we had to call another family member to explain what the bucket of water was for (to flush) and whether or not we could use toilet paper (you can).

THe next day we returned to Hassan the carpet man, ater haggling a little more, we brought the price down. Just then, the American returned to say goodbye to Hassan, and asked us how much we were paying for the carpet. I told him, and he said, woah, I have known these guys for eight years and i have never purchased a carpet at a lower price than that. Make sure you thank them! So at the end of the weekend, we ended up with a new Berber folk carpet for my room at KU and a new family friend. Hassan kissed us twice on each cheek (a sign of affection in Morocco) and told us that should we ever return, to make sure to visit, and that he wanted us to have couscous with his family. As Meknes is only two hours away, Janet and I intend to return to visit Hassan within the month for more wonderful conversation and good home cooking!

Well, that is about it for Morocco at the moment. Our group is headed for Marrakech on friday so I will post about that trip soon after returning on monday night! Hope to hear from you all!

Love and peace
Magpie

p.s. forgot to mention that Moulay Ismail had a chariot that he rode that was alternatively pulled by either women from his harem or his court of eunuchs!