Cruising the Greek Islands - 1-2 April

We are sailing, we are sailing, Cross the water, cross the sea....La, la, la... We board the cruise liner Louis Cristal at 2pm and are sailing by 5pm. By 8pm the ocean is against us with an aggressive swell. A couple of our small tour group of 16 begin to feel the effects of sea sickness. The night cruise through the Mediterranean is extremely uncomfortable and we don't really have uninterrupted sleep until after 6am the following morning when the waters calm as we enter the Dardenelles, Turkey. The Louis Cristal has a capacity to hold 1200 passengers but we are only 600. It is the first 7 day cruise of the season so I guess the season is off to a slow start. Our second day of cruising does not bring better weather with the temperature dropping as we head north east toward Istanbul. However, Ron occupies himself with attending napkin folding, food carving and cooking classes; while I have my hair cut and eyebrows waxed. We dock at Istanbul at around 4.30pm. Regrettably the rain cloud was so low we did not have the opportunity to see the city in its full glory as we sailed into the Bosphorus Channel. We had a quick excursion to the Grand Bazaar before it closed at 7pm, experiencing what it is like to have a mass exodus from a ship with 600 passengers and only one gangplank!