Crete 2015 – Day 1 – New Planes & Bad Memories

After an early start, 03:15am, and very little sleep, the intrepid four (Mr & Mrs R, Mrs CT and yours truly) set forth from Stanwick for the annual Spring Break activities. Not so much USA style but more a more laid back and relaxing 9 days in the sunny Isle of Crete.

Under 2 hours from the door to relaxing in the No.1 Travellers Bar at Gatwick enjoying our first drinkie, wine for the ladies and an excellent beer for the guys.

The little orange aircraft waiting for us had only 6 hours on the clock (yes planes are measured in hours not miles). Smart seats, fresh smell and overall lovely. Amazingly easyJet had managed to put a £65m plane on the tarmac but could not remember to put more than 5 menus on board. The passing of said item from row to row did slow down our second drink of the holiday somewhat. Settling down to watch, The Hobbit, I’ll Give it a Year and The Imitation Game on various iPads made the 3 or so hours pass relatively quickly.

So now we are strapped in for landing, happily listening to the pilot telling us that it is 30c at our destination. Sun, sea, souvlaki and ouzo here we come!

a gentle 2 hour drive through the middle of Crete brought us to the south coast resort of Makriyalos ( no. 41 on the map) and our beautiful villa at The Grapevines.

Only 17:30 and we are thirsty and very hungry. Only one thing for it – a Taverna crawl. Why spend the whole evening in one when there are some many to choose from. Harry’s Bar next door was first stop. Several cold bottles of Mythos and plates of dips, beans, beetroot, bread were consumed with a gusto. Probably a little too quick as the beer hit the ladies instantly – the holiday starts here they declared.

So onwards a little further into town. When I say onwards I mean down a fairly steep hill that we were going to have to navigate upwards on the way back. We actually only made it to the start of town before we found second course. Plates of squid and souvlaki, this time with wine and complimentary Raki. More of this potent firewater later in the week.

The strangest sight of the night was a group of 10 twenty year olds with buggys and identically aged kiddies. All the adults were single ladies – not a father in sight. Either the men were watching football somewhere or this was some evil breeding experiment designed to produce the perfect Scandanavian. Why this nationality? The only hotel, Sunwings, in the town was opposite and the residents were entirely from that part of the world. This brought back some horrid memories of a previous holiday in Crete which was meant to be Adult Only. I wasn’t sure but did I just catch sight of…….no it couldn’t be surely…….oh my god I think it is……..Lollo!! The seven foot giraffe cunningly disguised as a children’s entertainer……….help! Get me back up that hill now………obviously stopping off for a wine and coffee at the Cretan Wine bar – sanctuary half way home.

Laters