Jet Lagged

A "re-print" from today's blog post on Our Frank Adventures.

Last time we taveled to Europe, a couple of years ago we had no jet lag, that we can remember. It's not even possible for us to have had it as we left from roughly the same time zone, and we arrived at roughly the same time into Amsterdam, rented a car, and drove to Germany, sure we were tired, we got lost looking for the hotel so it was even longer before we could sleep, then we got up early and hit the road - on THAT trip we had a schedule to keep - and the rest of the trip was getting up early in the morning, being busy all day, and then to bed at a "decent" hour.

Now we find ourselves alternating between not being able to sleep at all (like the night before), and not falling asleep until after 1am - not unusual when we were back in America, but that was 1am American/home time, which is roughly 7pm - and sleeping about 14-16 hours a day. Meaning we're getting up at 2:30pm local (8:30am American/home). It's like we're sleeping in a swing-shift pattern. Not convenient if you want to get things done, or feel particularly healthy, and much of the area closes around 5 or 6 pm. 

Granted it's damn cold, we can still see our breath as we travel through the living room to the kitchen, and that drives us to want to remain beneath the pile of warm blankets, but come on.

Other signs of jet lag, besides sleep disruption all relate to digestion (we will spare you details), hunger, and other body functions. It's hard to tell if always being cold is because we are a woman, or if it's because it's so chilly in the flat. James seems to be fairly comfortable most of the time. Jumping when we touch him with our icicle-like hands.

We've been making sure to get exercise when we are awake though, it's about a 3 mile trip, round trip, into the city center where we have been going each day (yesterday we did it twice), and when we don't do that it's another 3+ mile round trip to most other places. That should be helping us, but it's hard to kick that excessive sleeping.

We've only been here 5 or 6 days though, so maybe that will change? We really didn't think jet lang lasted this long.

James got work today, it may be only one day of it, but he might be offered a month, and it's pretty great pay, so that means we'll get a little more than two hours of heat a day! We're really excited he got a job, for so many reasons, because it'll be good for him to be away from us a few hours a day (and we him) but also we can now take some trips into London, and further North into England (and Scotland), to see the sights, learn some more history (by the way, who needs a travel guide when you have a mobile phone with wireless!) take photos to share will you, our readers, try local foods and restaurants and visit some friends in England!

~Catherine 

More on jet lag: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Jet-lag/Pages/Introduction.aspx