The Matt
Barrett Cure for Jet lag and Insomnia
Everyone who travels regularly to Greece has their
own method of coping with the time change. Here
are some of the things I have done that have
helped:
-
Don't get drunk on the flight. Yes you may
fall asleep but if you don't you will feel
lousy when you land.
-
Drink lots of water.
- Try to sleep on the flight or stay relaxed.
Some herbs are great. Last flight I took
kava-kava which made the whole thing bearable
and I actually dozed for a couple hours.
Valerian can work too and everyone has their
favorites. Some drugs are nice too but make sure you are under the supervision of a doctor or at least a friend who takes a lot of drugs.
- Don't take LSD or hallucinogens on a flight. It is not really the right environment and you will probably end up annoying your neighbors.
- Get a flight that has individual TV screens so you can watch a movie or several. If the movies are good you may even want the flight to last a little longer. If you have an ipad download a few movies.
-
Take a shower when you get to Athens. If it is
morning or early afternoon take a walk and
check out the city. In other words hit the
ground running. Come back when you get tired
and take a nap for a couple hours. Have dinner
and sleep at a reasonable hour (before
4am).
-
If you take Melotonin or valerian use it that
first night. The sooner you get into the
normal sleep patterns that everyone else is on
the more you will begin feeling like yourself
again.
-
Take ferries. If you have a cabin that is
great. If not bring a sleeping bag or a mat
that you can lie down on. The movement of the
ship and the sound of the engine is like a
lullaby. If I am laying down on a boat I can
read about 2 pages before dozing off. When the
engine stops or even slows down when we enter
a port I automatically wake up.(usually)
-
Once you get to an island jet-lag becomes a
non-factor and can often work in your
favor.(You can party longer)
A Typical
Story of Insomnia...
 It's four in the morning and I'm wide awake. Too
late for Melatonin. I can read ZORBA THE GREEK but
Andrea is asleep and I don't want to wake her by
turning on the light. So what can I do besides lie
here and listen to the early morning sounds of
Athens. I get dressed and leave the hotel heading
in the general vicinity of the giant church on
Metropoleos Street which runs between Syntagma and
Monistiraki square. When I find the church and the
large platia, I walk down Metropoleos until I get
to Monistiraki. I turn
right on Athinas street and walk away from the
Acropolis and past the Hotel Attalos (where I usually stay but it is booked full) towards Omonia Square. Strange
people walk by me but they seem more nervous then
I am. After a few blocks I come to my destination,
the Athens
Market.
I turn into the meat market where small trucks are
unloading carcasses of beef, lamb, chickens,
rabbits, pigs and even an occasional wild boar
that looks like a small woolly mammoth. The market
is actually several streets of shops covered by a
large roof. When I reach the end of the street I
walk into the restaurant on my right called
Ipirus. There's another on the next corner
equally as good called Papandreau. Even at this
hour it is full, a mixture of workers and people
who have stopped for a late meal after a night on
the town. Women in mini-skirts and high heels next
to butchers in blood-splattered aprons and
fishermen in overalls and boots. On stoves giant
pots of beans, chickpeas(rivithea), beef, lamb,
peas and potatoes are simmering or boiling. Most
people are eating patsa, a tripe soup endowed with
mysterious life- giving properties that the
workers swear by. At this time of night this is
the center of activity in Athens and patsa (or podi-which means foot) are the
elixir of life. Feeling a little
under-the-weather? A hearty bowl of patsa will fix
you right up. Hung-over? No problem. Make sure you
eat all the strange pieces of meat even though
some of it resembles indoor plumbing. You're sure
to feel better and it tastes better then it looks,
providing that the intestines were cleaned
properly. There's no better way to start the day
or so they say. Men yell back and forth and greet
each other heartily, then go off to open their
stalls for the customers who will be arriving
soon. I love the Fish market. It's my favorite
place in Athens, and at six in the morning it's
really happening. In a few minutes I have walked
through. Andrea will sleep until ten. What shall I
do until then?
 I could climb the Acropolis since it is early and won't be hot or crowded. But since I have done this a hundred times already I walk back to the Monastiraki train station, buy
a ticket and walk to the right side of the tracks
and take the subway to
Pireaus.
The train is full of people on their way to catch
the boats to the islands. I get off at the last
stop and cross the street. Ships are coming and
going. The docks alive with activity. The sun is
rising over Athens. Passengers are boarding ships.
Port policemen and merchant marine are blowing
whistles and guiding large trucks up the ramps of
the ferry boats. Ice-cream for the Western
Cyclades, fruit and vegetables for Santorini,
cinder blocks, orange juice, everything you can
imagine being loaded in trucks to be distributed
to shops and restaurants on the islands. Ships and
boats of all sizes. Giant ferries to Crete
and Lesvos,
just now arriving from their nightly journey, are
to the right. In front of me the mid-sized boats
to Mykonos,
Ios, Santorini,
Sifnos,
Milos, Kithnos, Serifos, Paros
, Naxos, Samos, Ikaria, Tinos and Syros
. To my left are the smaller boats that go
to Aegina,
Poros,
Hydra
, Spetses, Salamina and Angistri.
Beyond are the ships to the Dodekanese, Kalymnos,
Kos, Rhodes,
Leros, Patmos, and Symi. Beyond these are the
cruise ships, just in for the day or night before
leaving to hit every heavily touristed port in the
Eastern Mediterranean. I would love to be on one
of the ferry-boats right now, and in fact I could
probably be to Salamina and back before Andrea
wakes up. Instead I walk to the train station and
home to the hotel to help my family greet the new
day.
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