Jet Lag Stories

we had reverse jet lag? We had a flight from PDX-JFK landing about 10:30 pm. I booked the TWA hotel there so walked over. So Portland time it's 7:30-8:00 pm. We may be old but that is prime time for us. We went to get a drink at the bar & it's closing up!!! Very disappointing. We did get one drink but the bartender was ready to get home. There was an anniversary party of some sort there too trying to get the bartender to stay longer. Even the inducement of several hundred simoleones from the party could not persuade the bartender to stay.

It's a (feeble) joke in my family that for many months after we get home from Europe we blame every clumsiness, forgetfulness, poor judgement, bad driving, etc on jet lag.

This is from a topic I started back in 2015 or 16 asking where people might have “hit the wall” due to jet lag/exhaustion. I added a comment later that I wasn’t nasty to the waitress. Rather, I was just pathetically pleading for more than one ice cube.

“My wife, son and I left Chicago in late afternoon last June and arrived in London at 8:25 in the morning. We took the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station, walked to our hotel, stored our bags and set out walking, first to Buckingham Palace, then to Parliament, where we struggled to stay awake, even though we enjoyed a House of Commons debate, walked around some more, had lunch at a pub, including beer and cider, then headed to Westminster Abbey. I might have that chronology slightly mixed up, but the gist is that we got to Westminster Abbey mid- to late-afternoon.
The Abbey was, of course, tremendously impressive. I loved it. But then, around 2 or 3 or 4 in the afternoon, having been awake for at least 24 hours, maybe more (none of us slept on the plane), I totally hit the wall. I said, "I have to sit down and have a cold drink, RIGHT NOW!" We made our way to the Westminster cafe, where I asked for a Coke, WITH ICE. Ugly American, I know, but I was completely fried. Waitress brought a 6- or 7-ounce bottle of Coke. I had to ask again for ice. I then immediately asked for another tiny bottle of Coke.
After 15 or 20 minutes and two tiny Cokes, WITH ICE, dammit, I recovered my composure, and we moved on. Letting our son set the agenda, we went on the London Eye, which was surprisingly pleasant. It was then about 5 p.m. and we were amid rush hour near Westminster Bridge and Tube station. Total chaos, so we just walked. On the way back to our hotel, we walked through St. James's Park, which was the most totally relaxing, natural environment, exactly what we needed at that moment, and ended up being a highlight of our trip to London.
We had dinner that evening at a restaurant near our hotel, and eventually got to bed after some 30 or 36 hours of being awake after leaving home, and we awoke the next morning feeling fine, jet lag conquered. But it had been one long, long day, including short-tempered moments for all of us.”

On one of our first trips to Europe together, we arrived at our hotel exhausted in the early afternoon,. I knew better from experience, but we took a two-hour nap. Woke up late afternoon and stayed up until a normal local sleep time. Woke up around three AM and could not get back to sleep. It messed up our sleep for the next four days, at the end of which, we were fighting over the crumbs of Ambien left in the baggie she brought. Not a good start.

I have "fond" memories of falling asleep on a bench in the Musée d'Orsay on my first ever trip abroad. It was near the white bear statue by François Pompon, and I woke up because a field trip group of small children came by to draw their own versions. To say I woke up disoriented is putting it lightly!

Good stuff here. Thanks.

A few years ago we arrived at our Paris VRBO, really tired. The owner of the apartment was explaining in English how to use the TV and other things. He was a great guy but went on and on, and both of us were so tired we just wanted to take a nap, plus in our state of mind it was hard to follow him with any real comprehension. We later figured out how to use the TV, which was not simple to figure out.

I have a falling asleep on day 1 story that may beat “ordinary” nodding off. We were traveling with our son, DIL and one year old granddaughter. Our first stop was Berlin on a warm day. After walking about for a few hours we sat down on two benches in a park. After awhile I noticed a group of older women stopped in front of our son’s family. I looked over and saw son and DIL, sound asleep propping each other up while granddaughter still tried to nurse. I signaled to the older women that they were ok and just jet lagged. I was thinking they were going to call the German equivalent of CPS. I gently woke the parents up and off we went again for awhile before returning to the hotel for an early evening. They’d given it their best shot to walk off jet lag.

A number of years ago my husband and I went to Germany to celebrate our 15th anniversary. Our plane was late leaving, which made our connections impossible. We were lucky enough to snag the last two seats on the last flight of the day, but were not seated next to each other. My husband, a non smoker, was stuck in the smoking section. Neither of us slept a wink on the flight . We arrived early in the morning, picked up our rental car in Frankfurt and headed to our first destination, meant to be a romantic stay in a castle. Unfortunately what I hadn’t thought about was that castles were rarely right in the middle of town and nearest town was very small with nothing to do. By 8 PM, we had eaten dinner, explored absolutely everything there was to do and were ready to call it a night. Unfortunately our suitcases had not arrived with us, so we decided to wash out our underwear, hang it to dry overnight and head out the next day to our next location. Another thing I hadn’t thought about was that castles are often chilly and dark, and our underwear wasn’t drying well, so my husband had the bright idea to drape his undershorts over a lamp in our room, thinking that the lightbulb would provide enough heat to dry them. It did, indeed, provide enough heat – – actually enough to char them. We woke up about 4 o’clock in the morning and waited around till the earliest time we could get breakfast and check out, driving to Nürnberg to visit friends. Our suitcases made it there before we did, and our hostess was kind enough to do our laundry for us. She was very amused at seeing my husband’s burnt underwear.

Oh Patricia that is priceless !!!

hey hey all
great question and answers.
several years ago, customer told us about annual wine festival (fest dell uva) in bardolino on lake garda. looked it up, told my friend and booked hotel nettuno for an overnighter plus car rental. we were staying in venice for a week before our cruise thru the greek islands. lake garda is an absolutely gorgeous area with small villages, boa rides up and down the lake, we stopped for lunch at pescheira del garda for lunch. i could stay for a few days to ride a boat and travel around the lake. anyone have a chance go, lake como can get overated and crowded, even though it's pretty, get away from the crowds. my own opinion.
landed in morning saturday, our apartment owners held our luggage till check in and we roamed around the san polo area. so excited not knowing where the hell we going, toll tickets what you do with them. but we made it to hotel. parked in front dropped luggage off and festival right outside hotel at center of village. paid 15E for wine necklace and off we went, OMG so much fun, wine tasting of bardolino wine, food, dancing, music, wine stomping, fireworks later that night over the lake. got back to room about 1am feeling no pain. meeting many friendly folks from germany and austria.
my friend and i are early risers since we worked at 6-7am daily here in states. not this morning!!
heard knock at door, maid walked in, found us under covers and said we need to leave it's 12noon HAHA
showered and packed faster than a speeding bullet, out the door by 12:45pm. we laughed and laughed along with our 6 bottles of wine in the trunk. got back to venice to return car in the pouring rain, walking barefoot back to apartment, bought salami, cheese and baguette to sit on balcony and still laughing. stayed close by window shopping, sitting outside at restaurant having more wine and people watching. bought a pizza to bring back to our fabulous apartment with great owners to enjoy our bardolino wine.
thanks for my friend and i together to tell our funny stories, our friends say, always some issues with you two which we make lemoncello out of lemons.
aloha

Patricia, good to see a humorous post from Milwaukee, the "king of beers."

Underwear is not critical as going commando is an option and a surprisingly comfortable one I might say.

It doesn't qualify as jet lag but a story I still love to tell. Back in our younger, poorer days and doing everything on the cheap was necessary, we were flying to Philadelphia to visit some friends. To save money we took the red-eye from Calgary to Toronto and arrived at about 6am and had a few hours to kill before our connecting flight. My wife is not a good flier and had taken a full Gravol tablet before takeoff and was still groggy when we landed. I hit the first washroom I saw and I thought she would be waiting for me, but as I come back out she's nowhere to be seen. I ended up following our bags that were left like a trail of bread crumbs as she found a bench about 50 yards away and was fast asleep. Even her purse was about 10 feet from where she fell asleep.

That Dramamine/Gravol is good stuff. On our last flight my husband told me he was greatly amused to watch me keep nodding off with my head drooping forward and every time there was an announcement I would apparently jerk awake like I'd been shot.

Westminister Abby Evening Song Service 2018.............among the throng attending and we were directed to sit in most excellent and highly visible seats........I promptly fell asleep.......I snore..........bruise on arm from "wife poke" is still visible.............bemused looks from others still sears my memory...............was not struck by God's wrath.

Marbleskies, good one. When I went to that service I was a little nervous I'd be doing something wrong, which kept me awake.

In 2016 we flew into Barcelona for a few nights. The first night we got no sleep because our room was on a busy and noisy street. By the third night in a quiet room), I would have thought we were over jet lag. But we woke up at 8:45 am and I yelled “holy sh*t, we have to go”. Our train was leaving in 45 minutes…. We had to get dressed, pack, check out of hotel, find taxi and get to train. Surprisingly we were able to catch our train, with a minute to spare. Now we know we have to set an alarm.