Eight days elsewhere, annex
May 2010
I thought that a cruise might be a solution for someone recovering from spinal problems. But it was a mistake, unless you stay locked in your cabin. I couldn't get to Istanbul without going ashore. So we walk a lot, too much.
A restaurant in Istanbul. On the left, the hot plate for cooking pancakes
Actually, there are much bigger ones. The "jumbo ships".
One of the passengers told me he had a nightmare cruise on a ship carrying 6,000 passengers, with 3,000 crew members.
- Just going from the cabin to the restaurant was so complicated that it took away your appetite....
Here is this kind of Leviathan, in front of the island of Santorini:
Personally, I used to prefer less crowded holidays:
Chamonix, photo JPP. The three points in the foreground represent a climbing group on the glacier
Or, just a few years ago:
Egypt: at the Dashour site, 2006. In the background, the rhomboid pyramid
On a cruise, passengers go from briefing to briefing:
Briefing before the assault
.
Average age: between 60 and 90
Example of statements, which it's better to ignore:
- It's fantastic, this bin Laden. For almost ten years, thanks to small cheap explosive attacks in sneakers, he has managed to keep the USA on a war footing, forcing them to make a costly military effort, in order to economically exhaust them.
Nothing is neglected on board, including sports activities
However, some safety measures would need to be reviewed. In the lifeboats, seats are assigned by marking, which may no longer correspond to the size of the number of passengers:
Unless it is planned to sacrifice a certain number of female passengers. Possible...
In general, it is better to benefit from the experience of previous cruise participants before rushing headlong into excursions. A little further on, I will dedicate a series of drawings to the island of Santorin, a tourist site completely ruined in previous decades. Only twenty years ago, access to the village could only be done on foot or by mule. Today a cable car has been built, each rotation could carry 36 people, in six cabins of six passengers. The rest followed, including a Chinese restaurant.
On the right of the cable car, the path up, used by hikers and mules (
The photo, in Wikipedia
dates from before the construction of the cable car )
Each time a ship carrying three thousand passengers drops anchor, transporting them to the peak, using the cable car, would take ten hours. Therefore, another pier was set up, on the right, not visible, where buses can load tourists and take them, along a winding road, all the way to the commercial street, where they can do their shopping. Then the same buses bring them back down, carrying objects made in China or Thailand.
This island, once a fantastic stop, no longer exists. Santorin, the island of wines, is now just a dark reef. This tourist site has become unrecognizable (I had been there thirty years ago). To give the visit more interest, they have invented a fake excursion to the "volcano", at the price of a boat ride.
This spring of 2010 was particularly inhospitable in terms of weather:
The walk is totally uninteresting. The boat then takes its passengers to another island where a "hot spring" is supposedly located, complete nonsense.
These few aspects are probably a reflection of the evolution of Santorin island over previous decades. It should be recalled that this group of islands marks the caldera of an immense volcano, which destroyed the Minoan civilization on Crete in 1600 BC.
Greece - Crete - Turkey
After posting this page, Greek readers accused me of being anti-Greek. I would prefer to be called anti-idiot. The destruction of tourist sites is not a Greek specialty, by any means. Generally, in some tourist areas of Italy, certain sites have escaped the massacre. I would cite the example of a sort of Saint-Tropez of the Sorrentine coast: Amalfi.
The comic strip that follows only illustrates what is happening
in all regions of the world
. Everywhere, the inhabitants of these places bear responsibility, and more importantly, their local politicians, tempted by small bribes. There is no tourist site that is not besieged by businessmen and real estate developers. I would cite a region I know well: the Calanques between Marseille and Cassis, one of the most beautiful coasts in the world, where I have climbed for years, and where defense committees have so far managed to prevent the construction of a coastal road, which would have been filled with hotels. By what miracle?
May it last.
Of course, one cannot sigh and say:
- Ah, if you had known the Côte d'Azur at the beginning of the century!
Everything is a matter of degree. But the development of the Santorini site is certainly not a success ...
A comment from a Greek reader, after the publication of this comic strip
Anyway, in organized tourism, one must be discerning, prepared, and take advantage of others' experience. Istanbul is obviously a fantastic city. It happens to be located in the heart of different countries that have become fond of tourism. The crowds in the "main attractions" are staggering, ten months out of twelve. Thus, sites like Topkapi Palace, both a residence and a harem, used by the local masters for centuries, is the Turkish equivalent of our Eiffel Tower. It is advisable to avoid it, unless you have time, which is not the case during short cruise stops (the companies have to pay a fee to the port authorities, which increases with the time spent at the dock).
On the other hand, nearby, an extraordinary archaeological museum, three floors, rich in Sumerian and Assyrian antiquities and very well presented. There is not much crowding, which is not bad.
The Archaeological Museum of Istanbul
Apart from places like the Louvre, the British Museum or other foreign museums, when it comes to Assyrian-Babylonian antiquities, it is advisable to take a detour to visit the Baghdad Museum, the bulletproof vest being provided at the entrance.
In the same museum you can admire one of the wonders of archaeology: the so-called "tomb of Alexander the Great", discovered in a large necropolis, in Sidon. Let us recall that Alexander the Great was Greek, Macedonian to be precise, and his tutor was Aristotle.
Sarcophagus "said to be of Alexander the Great",
of Greek craftsmanship
Whether or not it housed the body of the hero, the object, intact, is magnificent
Alexander the Great, British Museum
Regarding Greek sculptures, I believe that the most beautiful one I have ever seen is a bronze representing the god Hermes, in the villa San Michele, on Capri. A masterpiece in its purest form. For Greek temples, do not ...