Day One Hundred Thirteen - Weddings.

Funny things can happen to you when riding the bus. Take for instance two events that happened to me recently. The first was about five days ago. I was dozing off on a bus taking me to Meknes, a big city in the central region of Morocco. A nice young lady sat next to me and asked me if I was British or French. Neither, I replied, I'm from the US. We got to chatting about this and that, her English was good enough so that we could hold a conversation but at times it was difficult. She was with her friends on their way to an oasis in a town nearby called Meski and she invited me to come with her. It was a really hot day and I felt a dip in a pool would be really nice, so I went with them.

We had a good time hanging out at the oasis but all the while I got the feeling that this little girl, she told me she was 18 but I have some doubts, was way too forward with me. She was extremely flirtatious to the point of making me a bit uncomfortable. I wasn't interested on account of her being too young for me, but she didn't seem to care. Her friend, Hicham, invited me to stay at his home in their town, Goulmina. I saw it as a great opportunity to get off the tourist track and accepted his invitation with gratitude. His family's home was incredible! These people must have been loaded. Unfortunately Hicham spoke zero English so this complicated the matter of holding conversation. But we did the best we could and managed to communicate somehow.

The next day I was determined to get to Meknes. I had to leave Goulmina because I knew this girl would not leave me alone while I was here. I hung out with Hicham at his hanoot, a tiny shop that sells a little of everything, and showed off the photos that I have accumulated over the past 4 months. Of course the girl showed up, after she got out of school, and hung out with us until I had to leave to catch the bus. Her friends kept joking around about me marrying her and taking her back to the US. That was pretty weird. It almost seemed like that might have been her plan all along. While on the way to the bus station she gave me a gift. It was one of those metal charm bracelets; this one had all hearts for charms. Cute. It was a very kind gesture on her part but I wasn't really sure what to do. Awkward to say the least. I could see that she was visibly bummed out that I was leaving. I kept thinking I've only known you for a day! How could you care so much that I'm hitting the road? We barely speak to each other about anything important since you don't really speak English. I didn't get it.

Soon enough the bus arrived, much to my excitement. I bid farewell to her and tried to let her down as easily as possible. Luckily for me the language barrier actually helped in this situation since she couldn't articulate what she wanted to say as a goodbye so it was a quick and simple parting. I sure was relieved to be out of that awkward situation and on my way to Meknes.

After spending a couple days in Meknes I caught a bus to Fes, possibly the most historical city in Morocco. While in transit to Fes I met a nice guy named Abdessalam. He was from a small co-op farm 20 km outside of Fes. He spoke the slightest amount of English and I tried all the Arabic I knew in order to hold a conversation with him. Unfortunately neither of us we very good at communicating in these foreign languages. But we had a good time trying our best; apparently he enjoyed it enough to invite me to his family's house for lunch. Of course I accepted, how could I miss the chance to have lunch with a real Moroccan family? I met his family and tried my best to speak with them but they spoke no English at all. It's situations like this that photos are the perfect remedy. I busted out my netbook and started showing them my photos from around Europe and it was a great way to communicate without words.

After thoroughly stuffing myself for lunch Abdessalam and I went for a bike ride through the countryside. It was really neat to check out this area that I'm sure sees very few foreigners. We stopped under a tree and ate a bunch of berries that looked like white blackberries. They were incredibly sweet, just like everything in Morocco. Abdessalam showed me all the areas in which his family lived on the co-op; this guy's family was huge! A couple hours passed by and I started thinking I should get to Fes before dark so that I may find a decent hotel. It took a few minutes to get that message across to Abdessalam but after he understood he took the opportunity to tell me one last thing. He was going to be married on the 10th of June and he would love for me to come. How awesome is that? As much as I would absolutely love to go to a Moroccan wedding by the time the tenth of June rolls around I'll be in Spain. Abdessalam was sad but he understood. Maybe I'll give him a call on his wedding day.

This just goes to show, when you travel, ride the cheap bus! Whatever the locals use for travel you should use. Then you can get little girls to fall in love with you and also get invited to weddings. Fun!