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 bareable and I actually dozed for a couple hours. Valerian can work too and everyone has their favorites.
• 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.
• 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, which is one big construction site because they are building the new metro. I turn right on Athinas street and walk away from the Acropolis and 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 Giannopoulos. 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 is 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 walk back to the Monistiraki 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 , Spetsi, Salomina 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 Salomina 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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