We've arrived..!

Ok, so here we are! I'm writing this from the balcony of the Cretan apartment that will be our home for the next nine weeks. While we're here we will mostly be sleeping, drinking water, swimming in the sea, sunbathing, reading the millions of books we have been meaning to read for years, visiting some lovely places, eating Greek salads...oh, and writing the best music and songs we've ever written for the forthcoming independent movie "The Bell Pool" by Joe Tibbets!

The story so far: we left Barrow at 5am yesterday morning to catch the 5:31am train to Manchester airport. Here's Matt when he came to realise that there is, in fact, two five o'clocks in one day:

This was the view from the window of our train - Cumbria has some spectacular scenery, we'll give it that!

Here is our Jet2 plane - we had front row seats, 1E and 1F with a bit of extra leg room but no window, just in case you were wondering.

Oh, and here we are, above the clouds! Whenever I'm on a flight and I actually STOP and THINK about what exactly is happening I sort of panic a bit... Flying? Amazing. Best not to think about it too much or I'd actually never get on a plane again!

I was listening to this on my headphones at this moment of the flight, and those of you who are fans will realise how special it was:

We arrived safe and sound, if a little tired, at Bay View Apartments Makrigialos Crete at about 7pm. After a feast of the flavours we'd been longing for for ages (vine leaves, tzatziki, feta, souvlaki, Amstel, ouzo) we stumbled into a nice long sleep... 

This is the view from just next to our little home:

In case you've never heard of Makrigialos in Crete (like we hadn't!) then here is a little map. It is on the south-east coast of the island, just down there to the right of Erapetra

So it's 12:10 Greek time (we're 2 hours ahead) and Matt is still not awake. Just as in the UK, his snoring shakes the very foundations of wherever he's sleeping. He was even snoring on the plane yesterday, and I'm almost certain it was responsible for the bit of turbulence we had on the flight...

Anyway, as he's not up yet, I've been for a little wander. It is around 31 degrees outside but there is a very pleasant sea breeze blowing in. We are about 5 minutes from the sea - and a nudist beach, apparently, but we've yet to check that one out!

Here are some olive trees right next to the apartments - the olives are tiny but I had a few in a restaurant last night and they taste lovely.

Here is our little red hire car - Matt is gutted as he vowed never to own or drive a red car, he's an Everton supporter, see.

Aw, and here are some goats living just across the road. I heard their bells jingling in the dark last night so I went to say 'καλημέρα' to them this morning.

Here are the apartments, viewed from the road.

And the view of the mountains too.

Oh, and finally for now, some things growing on a tree nearby - does anyone know what they are? Pomegranates maybe? I'll be back with an update soon - now, how to wake up a sleeping beast...?