Coppull to Crete - The Arrival

What lay ahead was a turbulent 9 hour ferry journey, with waves adequate enough to make our internal cabin see-saw. Watching the dog eat his food, both he and the bowl sliding from left to right with each subsequent wave, provided us with some light entertainment for a while. We used the rest our time wisely and finished the last episode of 'How To Get Away With Murder' courtesy of my Netflix app. before settling down for the night. I think I've plugged that series twice now, it's definitely worth a watch but I don't think I'll ever trust another lawyer again.

Arriving in Crete wasn't quite the jubilant occasion we had imagined. The dream of floating up to land in an aqua blue sea, with royal blue skies and the smell of wild herbs was discarded as the black storm clouds hovered above us. Apparently, we were experiencing freak weather conditions and the aftermath of the storm that we had just travelled through lingered. The layers that had previously been discarded were quickly added back for some much needed warmth and there was definitely a moment of 'this isn't what we ordered'.

Our good fortune returned as we made our way out of the Port without a hitch. The onward journey would take around 2 hours and I had still not participated in any of the driving, but I wasn't complaining. I'm a perfectly competent driver (other than the time I misjudged the height of my Husbands van and ripped off his nee-naw lights after I got stuck in a multi-storey car park), but he had driven the distance so far and I decided he may as well finish it off. To be able to say he drove 2500km's in just over 3 days will be something he can talk about for many months to come - who was I to take that away from him?

If we were shocked by the temperature as we disembarked at the Port, it was nothing in comparison to our arrival at the house. I haven't seen my breath inside a house since I was a child, in my little box bedroom, writing my name in the icy condensation on the window. But that's exactly what happened - the temperature inside was actually lower than outside. We marvelled as we breathed slowly and deeply, in and out, watching the vapour trails. It was actually quite novel for the first 5 minutes. If I told you we spent the next few weeks sleeping with a duvet and 3 fleece blankets, would you believe me? I was confused. What the heck was happening?

Gone was the image of us lounging away our 7 day quarantine in the sunshine, drinking Mythos and eating Greek salad. Instead, we mostly huddled under our snuggle blanket in the evening watching films. During a few of the warmer days we helped to do some of the house maintenance, painting the external walls, replacing some patio tiles - very much a busman's holiday for us!

It did however give us an opportunity to sit back and reflect on the madness of the last 12-18 months. There was no way we would ever have imaged that our plans would change so drastically during the year 2020.

What had 2021 introduced us to?

We had moved to a brand new country.

We would forevermore put our toilet paper in a bin.

My humidity-induced frizz of holiday hair would now be known as just 'hair.'

We no longer had to hustle a postal service to get our supply of the local raki.

We no longer had to go to Lidl for our supply of Greek food. The entire store was now Greek food.

We were ready for our next chapter.

Talking of Lidl, the view from our local store is a cracker.