Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - A Sleepy Bookshop in Santorini

Starting point is 00:00:00 Before tonight's episode, I want to let you know about our supporters' feed Get Sleepy Premium, the best way to experience the show and get a good night's sleep. With Get Sleepy Premium, everything is ad-free. You'll receive a bonus episode every week, and have full access to our entire back catalogue. Your support really helps, and means so much to us. Simply tap the link in the show notes to learn more. Now, a quick word from our sponsors who make it possible for us to bring you two free episodes each week. Good evening and welcome to Get Sleepy.

Starting point is 00:00:42 When we listen, we relax and we get sleepy. My name's Thomas and I'm your host. Tonight marks our 300th episode of Get Sleepy here on the public feed. From the bottom of my heart and the hearts of everyone on the Get Sleepy team. It really means everything to us that you continue to listen and make this show a part of your bedtime routine. When we started out in November of 2019, we had absolutely no idea how the show would be received. But even to this day I'm still blown away by how much it's resonated with you all, and I personally feel so blessed to be a part of it. So thank

Starting point is 00:01:34 you to each and every one of you out there. And we've got a great story to celebrate tonight too. great story to celebrate tonight too. We're heading to the stunning Mediterranean island of Santorini, where a girl named Olive goes in search of an elusive bookshop. This was a listener request that we actually received via our Get Sleepy TikTok account. We're grateful for every which way you choose to reach out to us, so remember you can find us on all your favorite social platforms by searching Get SleepyPod all as one word. Okay friends, before I start our story, let's settle in and take a moment to unwind. Just as we have for all 300 episodes so far, and we'll continue to do so.

Starting point is 00:02:34 I know that the majority of you really appreciate having a bit of time to transition into a more relaxed state of body and mind when you come here to listen at night. So let's enjoy that opportunity once again, here and now. Begin by easing your breathing into a slower, deeper pattern, feeling the calming sensation that comes with the release of the out breath. And while you focus on your breathing, I want you to know just how grateful I am for your company here tonight. However you feel right now, good or bad, settled or restless, or anything else lingering within. or anything else lingering within. It makes no difference to how grateful I am for you. By being here, you're granting yourself a token of care. You are here to rest well and

Starting point is 00:04:01 to feel more energized for the day ahead tomorrow. But your presence here also supports everything the team and I are doing. And for that, we are so full of appreciation to you. So be in no doubt as to just how special, unique and appreciated gentle exhale. Let your head sink further into the pillow and allow Now, let your imagination carry you through our story. Bring to mind the supremely relaxing image of the clear turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Let the sound of the dazzling white expanse of Santorini, perched a top for hill in front of her, it was a bright blue day without a single cloud inside. Sunlight glinted off the buildings, turning around, olive watched tiny waves lap against the side of an enormous cruise ship. All around, the oceans sparkled like diamonds on a bed of turquoise.

Starting point is 00:06:52 This was the kind of day that Olive loved best. Perfect skies, a light breeze, and time to do whatever she wanted. Today, she planned to explore every nook and cranny of a very special place she discovered last week. first came across it, she was playing with a paper airplane. A gust of wind carried it out of her hands, around a corner, and into an alcove on a street she'd never seen before. A little way on, she spotted a hand-painted sign hanging from an iron rod protruding from the wall. It read, the hole in the wall bookshop. Olive thought she'd found every secret place in this town. She'd climbed every cobbled road, scurried up every hillside and peaked under every wooden dock down by the water. But somehow this narrow winding alley and its tucked away shop had eluded her. When Olive woke up this morning, she knew today was the day.

Starting point is 00:08:41 She didn't have to be back until dark, so she'd have hours and hours to follow the twisting, turning little street, wherever it led, and inspect the shop if she could find it. Ollif liked to see the big ships come into Santorini in the mornings. She'd get dressed and make her way to the Caravallade stairs, the long, wide steps that zig-zagged down from the cliffs to the old port below. At the bottom, she'd find a place to sit and watch all of the people coming into town. She especially liked the ladies wearing the wide brimmed hats. Some of the hats had ribbons, whose ends fluttered about the women's faces with every gust of wind Santorini was rocky and exposed to the elements.

Starting point is 00:10:12 But the wind always carried with it the briny smell of the Agian Sea and the dusty, salty fragrance of some baked rocks. Olive loved the familiar scent and took extra deep breaths whenever the breeze wrapped her in its warm embrace. As Olive watched, a group of travellers disembarked a smaller watercraft that had carried them to the port. Everyone looked so happy and so excited for their day on shore. Olive understood their sense of anticipation. Though she knew Santorini, like the back of her hand, she still felt a tingle of excitement every time she was about to spend a day exploring, too. A few of the passengers glanced her way and smiled as they walked past. Sometimes

Starting point is 00:11:34 she'd wave back, but today Olive was feeling thoughtful. She usually stayed down here for longer, but she felt the familiar pull of adventure. The mystery alley, as she had named it, was waiting. So was the bookshop. She hopped off her perch and skipped to the bottom of the stairs. Coming down the hill was the easy part. It was much harder to go back up the nearly 600 steps to the top, but the incline wasn't bad. The switchbacks made the path meander up the face of the cliff. It would be impossible to climb if you had to go straight up. It was moments like this that made Olive wish she had a pair of wings so she could fly back up to town. But she supposed her own natural strides to get from one to the next.

Starting point is 00:13:14 When she was feeling feisty, she pretended to be a tiger, taking extra long steps and curling her fingers into claws. If no one else was around, she'd even bare her teeth and let out a long, low growl. This was always followed by giggling, especially when someone walking up or down the path happened to catch her eye while she was doing it. But today, Ollif was determined to get to the top as me as possible. The tiger stayed inside, and the world famous athlete came out instead. Oliver imagined she was tasked with carrying the blazing Olympic torch to the top of the hill. torch to the top of the hill. No one else could possibly do the job but her. With a steady gaze and muscles engaged, she walked with determination up the stairs. She could almost feel the weight of the torch in her hand. About half way up, her legs were starting to get tired.

Starting point is 00:14:56 But she was an Olympian, and tired legs wouldn't stop her, with the sound of the crowd cheering her on in her mind, Olive kept going. When she reached the final stair, she held out her hand, passing the invisible torch to the next runner, who would take it across the sea. With a little bow and a cheerful smile, I'll lift town and head it into town. Soon she was making her way down a quiet back street. It was barely wide enough for two people to pass each other, going in opposite directions. Luckily, she was the only one inside. While if liked this particular street because of the way it wound back and forth between

Starting point is 00:16:10 tall white buildings and the edge of the hill where she was afforded stunning views of the streets here skirted the outer wall of a residential terrace or shop. It felt too olive as though she were walking on a long balcony that wrapped around the edge of the world. When the street veered inwards, the sounds of birds and water were muffled by towering stone and plaster walls. In these places, long shadows kept the ambient temperature cool. Olive reached out one of her arms and ran her hand against the side of a building. She felt it turn from hot to cool beneath her fingers as she crossed in and out of shadow.

Starting point is 00:17:33 Her footsteps on the stone echoed around her. Sometimes she skipped or hopped to change the rhythm as she went along. When she reached her favourite corner, she paused for a moment. Here, the path gave way to a short staircase, leading down to the next level of homes and shops. At the corner, brightly painted ceramic pots held giant creeping vines that reached up the brilliant white wall. A scattering of pinkish purple blooms dotted the green and brown tangle, like paint, splashed on a blank canvas. The blue pot had an intricate design painted around its rim.

Starting point is 00:19:00 Olliv had often laid down on the colorful tiles that the owner set into the ground here and studied the pattern. It was easy for her to get lost in the tiny world of swirling spirals and boxy outlines. She liked to trace the pattern with the tip of her finger, even though she couldn't go all the way around. The back of the pot rested against the chalk white wall. Whoever lived here had also painted the expanse of ocean in the distance. With her back to the potted plants found the water really was made of diamonds. With every lapping wave came the tinkling sound of crystal as precious gemstones tapped the hull of her imaginary boat, she imagined dipping a wooden

Starting point is 00:20:31 ore into the crystalline depths and pulling it through glittering mounds that twinkled like called like some lit stars. But soon her mind returned to shore as she recalled the mission at hand. It was time to resume her walk. She wondered how she'd never come across the mystery alley before. She often played in that part of town and sometimes stopped for a lemonade at a nearby shop. Maybe she'd always been too busy having fun to notice it. Or maybe it had magically appeared the day she was following her paper airplane. Perhaps it would be gone today, only to pop up again in another part of town, a week or even a month from now. She would just have to wait and see. Olive followed the narrow back street as it curved around behind two houses and a smattering

Starting point is 00:22:04 of shops. A retaining wall facing the sea was covered in delicate vines speckled with yellow and green. She traced the vines with her fingertips, before hopping to the other side of the path, into the long shadow of a tall, whitewashed building. The grey shadow bathed her skin in a gentle coolness, a welcome sensation after a morning spent in the sharp Mediterranean sun. Olive lifted her hands to her cheeks and felt the residual warmth there. She smiled squishing her cheeks with her palms and then frowned pulling her hands down. Finally she giggled and skipped on down the alley as it turned away from the ocean towards the center

Starting point is 00:23:23 of town. from the ocean towards the center of town. After a few minutes she came to a crossroads. This was the place where not too long ago she had been playing with her paper airplane. Olive closed her eyes, remembering the moment. Her hands moved with the memory like a conductor leading an orchestra of just one. She folded the paper just so, tucking in the edges and making a nice crisp line right down the middle. She lifted the airplane over her shoulder, counted to two, and before she got to three, a gust of wind snatched it out of her hand. As she imagined it leaving her grasp, she opened her eyes, picturing the way it sawed up then down before curving around that corner into the alley should never seem before and there the alley was just where she'd left it just where she'd left it.

Starting point is 00:25:12 Olive tipped Oed over to the wall, running alongside the street, dividing her from the mystery alley. If this place really did appear out of nowhere, she might have to sneak up on it she thought. It was better to be safe in any case. She cracked along the wall. When she reached the corner of the mystery alley, she took a deep breath. Letting it out she peaked around the bend. Her eyes widened as she caught sight of the hand-painted sign hanging from the iron rod protruding from the wall. Ryan Rod protruding from the wall. It rent the hole in the wall bookshop.

Starting point is 00:26:13 With one final glance over her shoulder, she stepped into the mystery alley. Standing below the sign, she could hear it squeaking gently, every time the breeze caught it. To Olive, the sign seemed quite a bit higher up than it had from a distance, but it was what she found beneath it that captured her imagination. Nestled into what seemed to be a natural depression in the face of the war, was a round door. was a round door. On either side were old fashioned windows with thick paints edged in blue. What a strange door, all if thought to herself, should never seen one quite like it before. It was painted a bright white colour that blended in perfectly with the wall that surrounded

Starting point is 00:27:34 it. It would be easy to pass by without ever noticing it unless you were looking for an entrance like Olive was. She pressed her face against the window, cupping her hands around her eyes. The view was somewhat distorted by the wavy glass, but she could still make out hundreds and hundreds of books inside. She stepped back and considered what to do. Looking up, she saw that the sun was still high in the sky. She had plenty of time before she needed to be on her way home. Olive made up her mind, and placing a hand on the brass door knob, she pushed open the round door.

Starting point is 00:28:55 Inside the bookshop, the wild around Olive was transformed. She was met by the familiar scent of old books, worn pages, and smudged ink. The air was still, yet brimming with possibility at all the worlds to be explored within the books that lined the walls. Even the quality of the light was different. Outside it was a bright and sunny island day. But here antique lamps covered in thick decorative glass, glowed in shades of rich amber and silky honey. Pools of light spilled onto the deep red and forest-green carpet, spilled onto the deep red and forest green carpet, and over the worn mahogany tables, covered in stacks of books. Near where should come in was a small counter with an old cash register and even more topsy-turvy piles of books. Olliv didn't see anyone else in the shop, not even the owner,

Starting point is 00:30:38 but since it was the middle of the day and the shop was open, she thought it would be fine to have a look around. She shuffled her feet across the carpet, enjoying the way it tugged at the bottoms of her shoes, unlike the smooth stone that covered much of Santorini. When she reached the other side of the shop, she found a section full of mystery novels. While if ran her fingers up and down the spines, feeling how some were long and others were short, some had creases from being read countless times, while others had never been opened. Every book told not only the story in its pages, but its own story too. How many people had owned it, read it, marked it up, or given it as a gift to someone else. She played with the titles as they passed through her mind, putting them together and taking them apart. The curious case of the cat and the doorbell, the drop of the pin, a new man in town.

Starting point is 00:32:34 They soon became the cat case of the doorbell and the pin man in Olive's imagination as she moved from shelf to shelf. Soon she came to a section with books about dinosaurs. These had the best covers she thought. Many of the books were tall and thin with full colour illustrations of life in the Jurassic period. She flipped through one and then another, reading all about fins and wings and claws, and the world before it had buildings and restaurants or even airplanes. Slowly and methodically, Olive made her way around the whole shop. She peered into every cabinet and checked every knurk and cranny. She found the corner with the beanbag chairs and the one with the blankets and floor pillows. There was a nice little alcove near the cookbook section that even had a hammock suspended between two heavy bookshelves.

Starting point is 00:34:16 Olive climbed in and wrapped herself in the fuzzy blanket she found, along with a book on Santa Rini's history. She flipped through the pages, reading all about how the island came to be, and what made it so special today. There was something magical in reading about the town outside, from the cozy comfort of this bookshop, which felt like another world. Olive Yorn, as she considered, just how sleepy this peaceful place was making her. The pools of amber and honey-coloured light, the smell of old familiar books, even the Even the stillness of the air made her ready for a nap. She closed her eyes and before she knew it, she had dosed off.

Starting point is 00:35:45 While if a woke sometime later, still holding the history book, all wrapped up in the comfy blanket. She wasn't sure how long she'd slept, but knew it was probably nearly sunset. It was time for her to be on her way home. She crawled out of the hammock and shuffled sleepily over to the history section where she'd found the book on Santorini. Just as she was about to put it back on the shelf, she heard a kind voice behind her. Why don't you take the book with you if you aren't finished reading it yet. Olive turned and saw an older man wearing half moon glasses, peering down at her. She explained that she didn't have any money to buy it, but he only smiled. Why it's my gift to you, as a first time visitor, he said, and you're welcome back to

Starting point is 00:37:12 read anytime you'd like. Clanked the owner, holding her new book proudly in her arms. Walking towards the front door, she looked back at the hole in the wall book shop. It was quaint and cozy, like the smell of her mother's cookies, or the pavement after a rain shower. The soft glow of the lights to the shop some day soon to see what awaited the next thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing. I'm going to do a little bit of the same thing.

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Get Sleepy: Sleep meditation and stories - A Sleepy Bookshop in Santorini

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