First trip to Africa: Let's go to Morocco! !

This year's sibling trip was to Morocco.
I was interested in going to Morocco because two of my close friends were planning to go there.
Morocco is the city where the famous movie "Casablanca" was filmed.
When I read the guidebook, I noticed that although it was in North Africa, it was a French colony, so it had an exotic feel to it.
The atmosphere was completely different from Vietnam, which was also a French colony.
There were cultural differences between Asia and Africa.

I hadn't been to Africa yet, so if I went to Morocco, I would have conquered five continents.
I usually travel on my own, but this time I decided to take a tour due to language and safety concerns.
It was my first tour trip in 20 years.
The tour ended in disaster.

The plane was fully booked after several flights were canceled due to heavy snowfall in recent days.
Although I landed at the airport, I waited for an hour at immigration.
It's unusual for airport inspections to take this long these days.
We took the bus and it passed through the town of Casablanca.
We went straight to the hotel that day and went sightseeing in Fes the next day.
Fez is an inland city in the northern part of the Kingdom of Morocco and is the oldest city that was the capital of an Islamic dynasty.
The old town (Fez el Bali) was built in the 8th century, and the medina (old town) of Fez is the same as that of Marrakech.
It is a tourist city representing Morocco.
The main attraction of Fez's old town was the maze of alleys, crowded buildings, and people.
Fez's medieval old town was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981.

Guards at the Mausoleum of Muhammad V (cavalry on horseback is dignified)
 
Even the local guide couldn't understand this maze, so we had another guide in addition to the local guide to guide us through the old town.
The Japanese tour conductor explained in Japanese through earphones the local guide's explanation in English.
In the end, there were three guides.
There are mazes all over the world.
The area around the Ganges River in Benares, India was also amazing.
The narrow alleys were filled with small shops, cows were walking through the crowds, and of course there was feces on the streets.
 
The Italian canal city of Venice was also a maze.
The streets were densely paved with medieval cobblestones, and sturdy stone buildings stood on either side of the narrow streets.
However, the alleys were clean and quiet, and there were small parks everywhere where children could play freely.
The old town (medina) of Fez was Indian-style.

Bou Jourde Gate. This is where the old town is located. The biggest gate in Fes
 

There were many people selling goods at general stores and street stalls, as well as people following them and trying to force them to sell their products.
The smell of fruit from the greengrocer was mixed with the smell of raw meat from the butcher and bakery.
Garbage was scattered in the alley, and a slender dog was wandering around.
Men with nowhere to go were hanging out here and there, staring blankly at the people coming and going.
In Islamic countries, women are not allowed to work, so they were nowhere to be seen.
There was a wall surrounding the old city, and many gates were built in the north, south, east, and west.
All the gates were fairly well built, and most were practical gates specialized for defense.