Fast Times in Fes

Hi everybody,
So after a good night's sleep, I'm ready to tell you about Fes. The first morning we hired an official guide, which means he is accredited by the tourism bureau of Fes (or something), but unfortunately the guide recommended by the Riad got into a car accident on his way to meet us. He was fine, but we had to use another guide instead, with two young Belgians, named Bart and Kim. Bart and Kim proved to be one of the great mysteries of our trip so far, because it was literally impossible to tell whether they were a couple or brother and sister. They were physically very similar, but that doesn't seem like much of an indication among Belgians. Anyway, the guide was not too great, but we did see some interesting stuff, it was just that the tour seemed to be centered around shopping, which wasn't our intention. One of the cool things we saw was the oven where the water for the hammam is heated, and we also saw the oven for the neighborhood bakery, where all the women of the area bring their dough. The coolest thing we saw was the tannery, where all the leather used for crafts is cured. We looked down from the roof onto this courtyard made up of basins filled with water and lye, where the skins get thrown in so the hair can be easily removed. It was very cool, but stunk like the dickens. At night, we went to a rooftop cafe, where I had a lamb burger and Jack ventured forth to try a camel burger. Following dinner, we played soccer with a bunch of boys in a big square just outside of the medina.
The next day we slept in pretty late, and in the afternoon we decided to go a hammam. We grabbed some street food for lunch and made our way over, but we got a little bit lost and couldn't find the hammam. We ended up asking a boy to show us, and when we got there, it was a clear that we were the first white people to be there in quite some time. It was pretty grungy, but it was undoubtedly as authentic as it gets, which made it really fun. The massage was very intense, it involved getting pretty intimate with the tiny Moroccan man assigned me. Afterwards, we were asked to pay 200 dirham for the second time, and after a good deal of discussion in broken English, French, and Arabic, we realized that the boy who had led us there had taken the first 200 as a "commission". This was pretty frustrating, but in theme we just laughed it off. We were bound to get scammed sooner or later, and as Jack pointed out, the $25 means a hell of a lot more to him than it does to us. To smooth it over, we went to the terrace cafe of the fanciest hotel in Fes, which overlooks the entire medina. It was a spectacular place to take in the sunset and listen to the final call to prayer. Following our coffee, we went back to Thami's, where we had dinner our first night and had another delicious meal. The waiter, who is an aspiring rapper, really liked us, and he was a really nice guy. It was great talking to him, and I know I will not soon forget him, for his enthusiasm and excitement to have friends from New York City was so fun to be around. Great dude.
Yesterday, as I mentioned, we took an 8 hour train ride to Marrakesh. Our riad here is very nice, but it's a little odd, because the riad has two buildings, one with only rooms, and we are the only people staying in this building. But otherwise, it is comfortable and the employees seem very friendly. Today we are probably jut going to try and get lost in the markets, we'll certaintly tell you how it goes soon. Much love, see you in just 3 weeks
Luke