Volubilis: going back to the Roman times

Volubilis is a partly excavated Roman city situated near Meknes and is about an hour drive away from Fes. We decided to get there by taking the highway (blue one), and back by driving on the second available road, so that we can see some countryside and the lakes.

Remarkably, in Morocco people prefer to build houses on the hills instead of in the valley... I guess it's because the land suitable for agricultural purposes is scares, and they didn't want it to go to waste.

At the main gate we got our tickets and were asked several times if we needed a guide. We declined, and went on. 

The site is huge and you can easily spend 2-3 hours walking around. Coming here in the late afternoon is better, as the site is completely open and has now shadows whatsoever.
At first sight, the place looks quite plain and it seems that there isn't much to see...

... but there are plenty of secrets to be discovered.

Hidden between the grass and the stones there is a 1500 years old mosaic that was laid by the Romans when this settlement was a city in the Roman Empire.

Some parts of the ancient city are still very much intact and interesting to see.

There were some groups walking around with their guides, so we just followed them around using the same route and listened in. Worked like a charm :-)

We were impressed with the mosaics (there are about a 100 of them in different condition) and the stories the guide told about them. Not all the mosaics are immediately visible and to find some you'll really need to watch the group guides showing them. 

We really liked coming here.

Near the exit was a small café where we crashed for some shadows and refreshments, and that's where we met this little guy. He and the family are locals and are not at all shy to hustle the tourists for some food!

On the way back we took a different road. It was quite decent the first couple of kilometers, but then the pavement was gone. 

Dima was anxious that we will puncture a tire and that we will be stuck in the middle of nowhere without help. Luckily in about 20 kilometers, the pavement was almost back. :-)

The road was spinning through the hills and small villages, there was almost no other cars around and it felt really idyllically, at least to me; Dima on the other hand was still worried that something might happen with the car. 

Once we started to drive downhill towards the lakes, the views became absolutely spectacular.

Comparing to what it was, the last part of the road was almost perfect.

Just before arriving back to Fes, we saw a guy selling watermelons on the side of the road. So we stopped to buy one. The guy told us that the price is 5 dirhams per kilo and the watermelon we chose was about 8 kilo, so 40 dirhams (about 4 euros). By coincidence, earlier that day we asked our guide in Fes what the price of a watermelon would be for a local. He said that it should be not more than  15 dirhams (about 1.5 euro) for a larger one. Obviously we started to bargain. The guy was absolutely reluctant to budge even a little and was insisting that we pay the price he asked. The same time a local women stopped by and asked about the price. The guy looked at us, looked at her, and told her that it was 5 dirhams per kilo. The expression of disbelieve on her face was priceless! She started to scream at the guy in French, probably asking if he gone mad. The guy tried to convey to her as smoothly as possible something close to the following " I told them (pointing at us) 5 dirhams, I can't say less until they are gone...". The women gave him a look, and start signaling us behind his back that we should insist on paying 15 dirhams and not 40! In the mean time, other locals stopped by to see what will happen next. The funny thing was they were all on our side, and were saying to the guy to give us a fair price, since we can bargain so well. Outnumbered, the guy gave up and took 15 dirhams we offered :-)
This was our small victory and it tasted great!

Back at the riad, we spent the evening eating our delicious trophy, chatting and watching the sunset from the roof top. An awesome end of an awesome day :-)

Next: the drive through the country