Tanneries in Fez, Morocco

The very first trip to Europe that I took was a whirlwind three-week long adventure. I went to all of the famously-known European sites and then some.

When planning our trip, I thought that it would be a great idea to head down to Africa for a few days - just to say that we had gone to an additional continent. I mean, when was the next time that I'd be able to go to Africa?

So, we discovered a Ryanair flight from Italy that went to Fez, Morocco. Morocco is essentially an extension of Europe. Passengers are able to easily travel there for cheap from Europe.

It's a Muslim-dominant country and felt very similar to Istanbul - except a lot poorer.

Now, there aren't many tourists there. In fact, we were the only American tourists on our flight. And during our entire time in Fez, I only saw two other Americans.

Fez is not a well-known town in Morocco. Casablanca is more of an attraction. So, why Fez? To be honest, it had the cheapest flights that worked well with our time constraints.

The next obstacle was to find things to do in Fez. The first thing to pop up were the tanneries. As you can see from the above picture, the tanneries are fascinating to look at.

Getting there, however, is a whole other animal.

They are extremely difficult to locate on your own. Luckily for us, we had planned the entire day to wander the city and find the tanneries.

You can't really use a traditional GPS inside the old city of Fez - where the tanneries are located. It's just not mapped out.

There are so many small, narrow roads that you can get turned around in. We got lost countless times.

While it may appear to be an intimidating city and people, everyone was very friendly with us. As one local told us - American tourists bring in money into their city and so they love us more than we could know.

As we came nearer to the tanneries, people started to tell us they could take us there for a fee of 20 dollars. We were prepared for this.

We did lots of research and found out that it was absolutely free to see the tanneries, with a great view, from a local leather-good store.

So, we had to constantly refuse people and their offers. We simply had to find this store. Easier said than done.

A half and hour later, or so, a small boy told us the same thing. We informed him that we didn't have any money to give him to take us there, but he said it was his job because his family owned the store and wanted people there to buy things.

That was good enough for us. He took us there in about five minutes. For the life of me, I don't think we ever could have found the place on our own.

It was a great site to behold. Workers dying skin - mostly goat and the like.

Be prepared for a stench, though. The smell is absolutely atrocious. Really, truly awful.

I'm so glad that we were able to find the tanneries in Fez. It makes for one of my more memorable experiences from that particular European/African vacation.