Monday, July 28, 2014

There is a souk for that...Day 21

A clean bill of health for me = shopping in Fes! Shopping in Morocco can be a full day affair.  The old medina in Fes is a lively place for shoppers. It has shops of all kinds.  I am on the hunt for leather goods and wool.  Fes is the unofficial hanicraft capital of Morocco (our tour guide said this).

Our group decided to venture out for shopping at 9 pm and the streets in the marche were especially packed, tomorrow is Eid. In the marche it's okay to bargain with the shop owners for a good deal.  The US dollar goes far here, 100 Dirhams is about 10 USD.

I was interested in buying a hand of Fatima on a necklace (I have been looking for one for awhile.) The hand of Fatima is a special tradition in Morocco and across the Middle East.  Fatima is the daughter of Mohamed the prophet.  Her hand is meant to bring protection to those who wear it.  It is often found on the doors of homes and dangling from the rear view mirrors in taxis. Some more religious Moroccans believe each finger on the hand is meant to symbolize the five pillars of Islam. I went to a place that boasted real silver and bargained for a good deal....I even got the shop keep to throw in a silver chain too.

Impressions:  the store owners are sometimes a bit aggressive with their prices.  I found that a fruitful bargaining tactic was to pretend to leave the store and soon enough the price had dropped.

Massalama! 

The Traveling Educator


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