MSC OPERA– Experiencing turbulence

Another day at sea as we travel back towards Greece on the return leg of the journey.

The weather has turned choppy, although this ship must have good stabilisers as it doesn’t feels too rough.

But, we know when its rough at night by the light in the wardrobe.

Its on a sensor so it turns on automatically when you open the wardrobe door,

But when the ship rolls toward port it flicks on and off when it rolls back to starboard!

*click… click*

The ship had a few problems this morning, when ALL the toilets stopped working!

But they fixed the problem within the hour.

I wonder what signal Graham is trying to send here?

(S.O.S. = soak our smalls)

There was a great show tonight.

They have shows every night, some good, some ordinary.

Tonight they had an act, which I guess would be described as quick change artists.

The girl could change a complete dress in less than 3 seconds!

They’d dance around he’d pull up a screen, she'd go ‘wiggle wiggle’, and hey presto new sparkly gown!

I’m sure this involved a lot of Velcro and other tricks. 

Until next time, Kim

MSC OPERA–Where Europe and Asia meet

We docked back in Istanbul and today we had a whole day excursion of the city.

We started the day at the Blue Mosque which is above.

It is called blue because of the colour of the tiles.

It was packed with thousands of people all with their shoes off, so you had to watch your tootsies.

All the chandeliers are low as the used to have candles and this made it easier to light them.

Then we went to St Sophia which was a mosque, but is now a museum.

(I’m very pleased with this pic – sorry Mum, I know, more postcard photos!)

Lunch was included, which was lovely tasty Turkish goodies.

Which was great as we are really bored with the bland and salty Italian type dishes they serve on this ship.

Then we had free time at the Grand Bazaar.

We didn’t buy anything as I was too nervous to haggle.

And they knew we were tourists as soon as they looked at us.

We also went to the Topkapi Palace, where the Sultan used to live.

We saw the Royal jewels, including some spectacular diamonds.

There are four cruise ships in port today.

The Opera is the little one in the middle!

Can you imagine the swell in the population, we have about 2300 passengers, but the big boats must have double that number.

Out of the 2300 passengers, 50 are American, 6 are Australian and there are a handful of English.

The other 2230 are mainly German, Italian or Russian.

Can you imagine 3 more noisier languages? It makes my head spin.

26th October 2011 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Until next time, Kim

MSC OPERA– City tour of Odessa

Its freezing…

Its feels like the cold is coming straight from Siberia…

Ha, ha, ha………… it is.

Thank goodness I’ve been lugging that coat around for weeks!

Its the sort of cold that goes straight into your bones.. eeek

No one told me to pack a wooly hat and gloves for this trip, I would have liked some today.

Anyway, today we spent the morning in Siberia, whoops, I meant Odessa.

Odessa is a large city and really the morning was not long enough for a proper look.

It has very wide boulevards and some very nice buildings, although many are crumbling.

 

My goodness we are sick of Italian food, its sometimes so salty.

Send me a curry!

Until next time, Kim

MSC OPERA – The Romanovs and the Crimea

This morning we berthed at Yalta in the Ukraine with is on the Crimean Peninsula and on the edge of the Black Sea.

The black sea is more of a green colour, although apparently it  was called ‘black’ by the invading Turks for two reasons.

First that it was evil and the second was that the Turkish use colours for directions and black equals north. (and red is south I think).

Anyway today we took a bus tour around Yalta to see the town and visit two of the old palaces.

We visited the Palace of Alexander III, Tsar of Russia, although he never stayed there as he died before it was finished.

It is now home to 30 happy and friendly stray cats, although they are not all inside.

Then we visited Livadia Palace also known as  the White Palace.

This was used by the last Tsar, Nicolas,  and his family for holidays.

Nicolas was the one who was murdered with his family, the youngest child being Anastasia.

The White Palace is also famous for being the place of the Yalta Conference during WW2.

Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill (and others) met here to decide how Europe would be managed when the war ended.

I bought a babushka doll, much cheaper than the ones I was tempted by in Prague.

Until next time, Kim

MSC OPERA – Another day at sea

Today we are travelling from Athens to Yalta in the Ukraine.

We sailed up the Dardanelles strait and past Gallipoli, but at about 4 a.m.

so we didn’t get up as we wouldn’t see anything in the dark!

We then travelled up the Bosphorus Strait and past the city of Istanbul

(which we will return to in a few days)

Much colder and the seas are rougher today.

There's been an Earthquake in south east Turkey.

They say, Istanbul is due for a big quake too, lets hope it holds off for a few days.

Until next time, Kim

MSC OPERA– Its all Greek to me….

Guess what?

We missed having our photo taken with the captain…. (they charge you 14 euro for a copy anyway)

because we were too busy winning last nights BINGO!

We won 140 euros, woo hoo, this will keep me in cocktails for the rest of the trip… *snigger*

I particularly like the cocktail with is like a banana smoothie with baileys….

but I digress….

We woke early this morning because the boat had stopped moving and had a lovely view of Athens at dawn from our balcony.

We left the ship early for a shore excursion to the Acropolis.

Below is the Parthenon, which was built in the 5th century B.C.

It changed denomination many times in its history, depending  on who was in power in Greece.

The Turkish used it for a ammunitions store which blew up during a skirmish with the Venetians.

Then of course Lord Elgin came along and souvenired bits of it, which are now controversially displayed in the British Museum.

The Greeks want them back….

Its built on a hill made of marble which is really slippery and must be treacherous when its wet.

Its a bit hard to judge a city when you are only onshore for 4 hours but here are my initial impressions.

Athens is jam packed with buildings, mostly apartment blocks.

And generally there is an air of nobody caring to do any maintenance on their homes.

No pride in their homes.

Unlike some other old cities were the houses are neat and tidy and have flowers in windows etc.

There is shabby chic and there is just pain grubby.

Also there is a layer of brown smog hanging over the city.

These impressions were not helped by the garbage problem.

I guess that as a result of the strikes and the other recent problems in Greece they have not had garbage collections for weeks.

Big mounds of smelly rubbish lined the roads, they were trying to collect it but its going to take them weeks to clean it up.

Add to the garbage the number of stray dogs wandering the streets, all large dogs like Labradors and collies.

(I guess little dogs don’t survive) Can you imagine the mess when you combine garbage heaps and stray dogs!

And, homeless people.

You see homeless  people in all big cities but there seems to be an a lot of them here.

Anyway, I guess you can tell that I didn’t like Athens much…

 

We went back to the ship for lunch, I thought I’d have a little rest and fell asleep for 2 hours!

Then there was a sail away party at the pool.

 

 

22nd October VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Until next time, Kim

MSC OPERA–In the middle of the deep blue sea

We are sitting on deck chairs on the top deck of the ship.

Lots of people about, swimming or lying in the sun.

The entertainment crew have been teaching people to dance, jump through hoops and other silly activities!

The sky is blue and the sea is a deep sapphire blue.

Today we are at sea and are arriving in Greece tomorrow morning.

(That is if its ‘open’ and they are not still on strike!)

NAUTICAL INFORMATION

(from the ships daily programme)

Sailing early in the morning in the Ionian Sea at approximately 12:00pm

we will pass  Keffallania and then Zakinthos islands,

which will both be visible from the port side. With Southeast courses at

approx. 8pm we will be south of Peloponnesus Peninsula

altering course to east bound to the Aegean Sea.

Passing the narrow Steno Elafonisou channel we will alter course

to north crossing the southwest part of the Aegean Sea bound to port of Piraeus the port of Athens, Greece.

Tonight is dinner with the captain, so we need to get dolled up and Graham can get out his new jacket.

Until next time, Kim