Blog Five: MSC Fantasia, Istanbul, Turkey, Corfu, Greece

Published by Alastair Reid on

MSC Fantasia [27-30 September]

As we sail into the vast and vibrant city of Istanbul in the morning, we are anticipating that the next two days will be tiring and full of hassles, but hopefully well worth the effort! Although I spent a few days here for work back in 2011, it’s Fiona’s keenly anticipated first visit.

We dock at the huge new Galataport cruise terminal, and get organised to disembark as soon as possible. Galataport is at one end of the European side of the city, and we want to go to the other end of the Asian side – the district of Sultanahmet, where I stayed on my previous visit. We can see it directly across the water of the Golden Horn, but we need to get a tram pass to enable us to take the quickest way through Istanbul’s fearsome road traffic, across the Galata Bridge, and back round to Sultanahmet.

A long walk through the corridors of the Galataport takes us through a brand new cafe development and out to the nearest tram stop. Fiona is tasked with obtaining a two day tram pass and loading enough Turkish Lira on it for our visit.

There is a predictable scrum of bodies around the ticket machines, but two helpful guys are assisting people to pay for their passes and get the Istanbul equivalent of London’s Oyster Card. One guides Fiona through buying the pass and loading it up, then his mate asks for 150TL for the card itself, which should cost 50TL . Yup, they are just likely lads running a scam, so she firmly requests all her money back, which is promptly returned, as they move on to the next potential victim. A very helpful local lady then kindly gives us her old card, and we progress to a satisfactory conclusion, at one fifth of the cost. Welcome to Istanbul!

The tram takes us quickly and efficiently to where we want to be, in about a tenth of the time some of my taxi journeys took back in 2011. My previous visit does help as we know roughly where to get off, to visit the spectacular Cisterna Basilica, which is the largest of several hundred underground cisterns, which historically supplied the city with water. Our pre-bought museums pass allows us to stroll past a queue of literally hundreds waiting to gain entry and walk right in – well planned Fiona!

The Cisterna now features multi-coloured floodlighting, and static and kinetic sculptures, in the pools between the seemingly endless rows of huge vertical columns which recede into the distance. A different surprising effect – some ancient, some modern – lies around every corner of the walkway. The overall effect is quite magical and other-worldly, and the unique atmosphere is enhanced by the drippingly high humidity.

We spend our time in Istanbul doing what we want to do, at the pace we want to do it, stopping for coffees, bakalavas, simple Turkish lunches and just rests, instead of being constrained by an organised tour itinerary. The two days in the city turn out to be much more relaxed than any of the other shore stops on the cruise, and much more chilled than I had anticipated after my last visit. Mind you, that had included a one hour address in person by President Erdogan, in a secure auditorium full of tv cameras and soldiers with sub-machine guns, me completely losing it with a taxi driver and offering him a square go, and then being within 20 feet of a serious workplace accident in the grounds of my hotel.

In the late afternoon we take a very cheap but very long Bosphorus Tour on quite a basic boat, the latter part of which comes after night has fallen – a great way to sample both geographical sides of the city.

Next day we visit the famous Blue Mosque in Sultanahmet – we know that most of it is closed due to renovations, but join the scrum to remove our shoes and enter the bits that are open. The only section of the mosque which turns out to be accessible is the Women’s Prayer Room, so we end up in the daft situation of getting into a small and uninteresting area, whilst impinging unnecessarily on the ladies’ attempts at prayer and contemplation.

We decide against joining the huge lines to enter the massive Hagia Sophia mosque, across the square from the Blue Mosque, and content ourselves with admiring its rather odd construction from the outside. Behind Hagia Sophia, the Topkapi Palace, including the Harem, is spectacular, but so full of tour groups that it is also frustrating and irritating in equal measure. So many of the world’s great attractions now seem to be seriously overcrowded, but I guess we can’t complain as we are part of the problem.

An abiding memory of our two days in Istanbul is that of getting off the tram in Sultanahmet and walking down towards the park between the two great mosques, just as the muezzin begin their call to mid-morning prayer. The loud echo of the call and response chant/song ringing between the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia reminds us that we really are quite a long way from home.

After a day at sea, which gives us some much needed rest time, we arrive into the port for Corfu Town. The bus ride up from the waterfront to the Old Town predictably doesn’t show Corfu’s most atttractive side. There is a bit of an air of depression and dereliction on the way, but the town itself is as attractive as we remember it, and is humming with visitors.

Corfu Town’s streets of Venetian style buildings reflect its strategic importance in times gone by, and make for an attractive setting for a lovely stifado for lunch in a traditional taverna. The lovely food and surroundings are slightly detracted from by the odd behaviour of the waiter, who insists on posing for a photo with a middle aged lady at the next table, then hugging and kissing her as she and her husband leave. She looks a mixture of pleased and embarrassed by the attention. Her husband looks distinctly unimpressed. The same guy brings us our bill and demands a tip for his service, as my hand is actually moving towards him holding a 5 Euro note, which I then feel like withdrawing, but don’t. It is a relief that he doesn’t attempt to say goodbye to Fiona in a similar fashion, as I can confidently predict what her tip would be.

The rest of the afternoon sees us mooching around town, with coffee and ice cream stops, soaking up the nostalgia of being back on a Greek Island. We definitely mustn’t leave it so long again.

My dozen favourite images from our fifth and sixth ports of call on the MSC Fantasia are included in the gallery below. Click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image. If you’re using a mobile phone, turn your screen sideways to see the bigger image to best effect.

Image Gallery

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2 Comments

polly · October 6, 2022 at 9:18 am

Lovely memories being brough back of both Istanbul and Greece. They are great but always something a little dodgy to look out for – as with most places. Photos are terrific.thanks

    Alastair Reid · October 8, 2022 at 4:29 pm

    Thank you – just saw your comments too, although I seem to have approved them! The blog site is really clunky and inconsistent behind the scenes.

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