Day 14 Hirkilion (Iriklion) – or – “they respected the nature…AND!!! the womans”

A Minoan house in Konosis
Joanna and I on the edge of the cool valley
Another pic of the cool scene when we got lost

Most of our next day in Heriklion was spent figuring out how to get off the island and where to stay. It looks like the best option was to fly from Heriklion – Shanghai – New York – Moscow – Brussles – Istanbul – Bodrum and then a 14 hour bus ride from Bodrum to Kayseri, ending with a Camel ride from Kayseri to Urgup. We chose the next best option which was Heriklion – Athens – Istanbul – Kayseri (overnight there) – bus to Urgup.

After spending the day coming up with these fantastic flight options, we headed to the palace of Konosis. The guide book suggested we get a guide – which isn’t hard because at almost any site you visit there are 50 guides asking if you want a guided tour.* There were two guides at the door, one didn’t seem to speak English and seemed barely legitimate, the other (a women) seemed to speak English well. She said that if we waited 35 minutes we could go with her. That was fine with us. While we were waiting we watched the guy who didn’t speak English well hussle everyone that came through the door and then went into the palace to hussle more folks. Our woman stood there and did nothing. We liked our choice. About 45 minutes into our wait, we watched the woman go off with a small German family – for a personal tour. The other guy who was hussling generously offered to show us around, but he wanted us to wait until he found more people. After about an hour, we finally started our tour.

The tour was actually pretty interesting. The Palace was base of the Minoan civilization. Its pretty old (over 3500 years), but its still pretty decently preserved and you could still see the labyrinth of the city. It didn’t take too much imagination to see how they lived. We lucked out with our tour guide – in terms of the unintentional comedy that he brought about. He started off by saying two things:
“You see, they had no protection, this means they didn’t fear the peoples and the peoples were welcome, this means two things, they didn’t have wars and they didn’t fear the peoples and the peoples were welcome.”
“This is important, they respected the natures….AND!!!! the womans (with emphasis and a huge smile on his face.”
The tour could have stopped there, because it pretty much consisted of him repeating one of those two phrases…as if he had never mentioned them before. Towards the end, “respecting the natures AND!!!! The womans” ended up winning for most times repeated, with greater emphasis each time.

After the palace visit we decided to visit a small town just outside of Konosis. We of course got lost along the way because there are again, no street/road/direction signs. While getting lost, we happened upon an amazing valley full of vineyards, olive trees and general picturesque views. Once in the town, we found a surprisingly untouched place where all the locals seemed to know each other, everyone seemed to hang out at some sort of café and was deep in conversation. There were small shops all over the place and everything seemed to be very nice. I am convinced that we walked into some sort of movie set, because nothing can be that clean and nice without a) industry or b) tourism. Someone is paying these people to just hangout. We had a dinner in the main square and a crepe in one of the shops.

* except the Acropolis when its closed

Days 13 Heriklion (Iriklion) - or - renting the mini-bus

Once we landed in Heriklion we had two immediate orders of business: 1. get a rental car and 2. find out how to get off of Crete (to Turkey, Mykonos, Santorini, Croatia, Egypt, Libya). After some fairly extensive flirting, Mer was able to get a rental car or van or bus from a random guy at the airport. Somehow, she got him to call around to some ferry terminals and find some ferry times. While Mer was securing a car and a date to the prom, the rest of us were at the tourist information counter trying to figure out how we were getting off the island. There was a small problem, no one was there. Fortunately, we ended up talking to a nice local, who was somehow connected to tourism in Greece. After a lot of talking she basically said that we needed to go the ferry terminal.

But, now we had a rental bus. It was pretty clear I wasn’t happy with Mer’s car choice – but who would? It was a huge minivan with a 0.5 Liter engine. So, it had the pick up of a…John Hamilton sprinting in 8th grade.*

So – it was a big ugly not fun to drive, van. Let’s move on.
We spend about 5 hours driving around in said minivan looking for our accommodations for the night. I think I might stop mentioning that we drive around for a long time looking for accommodation. It should just be a given that we spend forever looking for our place to stay. Sure, part of it is our fault, but a big part of it is:
1. There are few, if any road signs
2. It doesn’t matter if there were, because a) no one uses them and b) the road name changes about every ¾ of a block.
3. Its never very clear what is a one-way, two-way, no-way. Because there aren’t signs and when there are signs, they aren’t clear
4. The guidebooks maps leave a lot to be desired and don’t indicate one-ways, etc.
Our accommodations are great. And there is a parking spot that will fit our school bus – the handicapped parking space. I don’t ask any questions.
Frommers had provided a couple of great places we were excited to try for dinner. We must have walked up and down the street for the first place about 5 times. We found the street, we were looking for number 12. we found 10,11, 13,14,15,16…no 12. I asked a local, they had never heard of the restaurant and pointed out that my book was printed in 2006, so it was waaaay out of date. We decided to find the next one. Initially we couldn’t find the street because the map in Frommers was wrong. Once we find the place that Frommers had raved about as an amazing experience, we quickly decided there must have been a mistake. The food was old and disgusting and it just didn’t look good. We finally settled on a restaurant that was near (if not in) the location of the first place (across from a place called Koukolos). It was ok.
For drinks we walked through a magical door in Koukolos and onto a seemingly hidden street that was full of music, bars, people and fun. It was ridiculous. It was similar to Lan Qui Fong (I am sure I butchered that) in Hong Kong, just wall to wall bars and people. We found a great place sitting out side at the Orient and ordered drinks. It was a fantastic end to the night.


* Most of you weren’t there, but I can assure you that it was awfully slow, not much fun to drive, nor much fun to watch. On top of my general out-of-shape-ness, I was also sporting hair down the back of my neck and hadn’t quite figured out how to wear baseball caps. I was also listening to a lot of Poison and Metallica and Skid Row (I loved skid row). It wasn’t a great period for me. Incidentally, my overall lack of writing skills can be attributed to my horrendous 8th grade English teacher – Mrs. Beam. I learned literally nothing from her. It’s a shame if she’s still teaching. She has single-handedly ruined the writing skills of an entire class of kids from Marion, Ia.

Some videos

Here are some videos we've uploaded to youtube.
Sorry, they are so late, it takes about 45 mins per video:
Split at night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6uls8GIzXE

Plitvice waterfalls:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1460sG0luA

Sea organ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RXyrM220XI

This is a Hijacking! Take this Blog to Dallas!

So I think it's only fair to point out that I am no longer on the trip and am writing this from the comfort of home. I, like many, am a little confused by the incongrous nature of the blog and will not add to the confusion by posting details from two weeks ago now that the group has moved onto Greece (actually, they're now in Turkey, so they've been holding out on you, dear readers). Rather, I will focus my attention on some highlights from Day 2 through...well, whatever.

1. I've already warned everyone not to give Hamilton your cell phone number in a foreign country. Any thought pops into his head, he's dialing and you're getting the roaming charge shaft. But there are times when it is important to take his calls - like when he wants you to buy ferry tickets while he and Joanna return the rental car at the airport. I got the message and bought the tickets, but my cell phone battery was wearing thin. I told Joanna and John to hurry to make the 5:00 ferry, reminding them that the boat actually leaves at 5:00. Those of you familiar with the concept of Hamilton time will appreciate the necessity of pointing that out. Meredith and Heather boarded the boat at about 4:40 to save some seats while I waited on the docks for Joanna and John, since I was holding their tickets. I watched the boat quickly fill up, anxious to spot Joanna and John's taxi. Finally, at 4:54, I got a call from John. He said they were there at the ferry terminal and I spotted him waving about 100 yards away. I calmly and politely suggested he hang up, retrieve his bags, pay the driver and board the ferry.

2. Family restaurants are overrated. Just because some people open their home and put up a sign claiming to serve authentic native cuisine doesn't guarantee a good meal. I mean, if my family opened their kitchen to tourists and served beef jerky and bathtub gin, it would suck.

3. The only thing John likes more than Euros in man-pris dancing in uns-uns clubs are Euros in man-pris singing nationalistic songs in the square after midnight.

4. For the love of God, if anyone ever mentions Ned and Ed, just let it go. You'll thank me later. And I will have no pity on you if you do not heed my advice. Curious? Forget it.

5. I'm going on record as saying I really enjoyed the concert at the cloister. I really enjoy a good cloister anyway. The general sentiment beforehand was to "not not go to that." After showing up late, we paid half price and were treated to a half hour of beautiful music that probably meant something to someone at some point and may not have suicidal undertones, but is still culturally relevant.

6. Be prepared for boats in Croatia to be "broken." Plan accordingly.

7. Foreigners hate John Hamilton. It's hard to put your finger on exactly why, but it seems like every time he opens his mouth, they start ripping on him. The woman at the Korcula tourist office and the waitress that night immediately spring to mind. Word has it that John's stint in green spandex is all the rage on Croatian YouTube.

Picture of my coffee stain from Plitvice...

Some folks wanted to see this picture...for some reason

Days 11-13 Athens, or: Athens is closed for the summer, come back when we’re not on strike

this is as close as we got to the Acropolis
Joanna and I in front of a Zues monument
the girls in front of a Zues monument...with the Acropolis in the background
all of us at our fantastic lunch
Me with two cooks from lunch - they were rolling the grape leaves

Oh Athens. According to my good friend Jason Miller, Athens should fit me perfectly: a café culture that spends their days sipping coffee and meanly (hopefully angrily) making fun of the passersby, begin dinner at 10 pm and all throughout they are eating and drinking. That is unless they are on strike…But, first lets back up.

We had to fly from Dubrovnik to Athens via a 4 hour layover in Rome. The Rome airport was fantastic…or at least the food in the Rome airport was. We had a great mid-afternoon meal at Ciao! of wine (how often to do you get ridiculously good wine at an airport café), caprice salad, and pasta, topped off with some sort of chocolate concoction with an espresso and cappuccino. At this point I start thinking to myself that I should just forget it all and move to a Mediterranean country for the food, wine, coffee, hours of operation and lifestyle.

Then we get to Greece and everything changes. They lost one of our bags. Its had most of joanna’s clothes, our toiletries, some of my clothes, etc. It was never very clear where anyone was supposed to go to find their luggage. We finally found a luggage counter. Because we are in Greece, there was no sense of a line that existed. So, Joanna goes in the line to wait…and wait…and wait. When she finally gets there, they don’t quite confirm that the luggage is missing, but tell her to fill out a form with the address of where we are located in Athens in case it is actually missing and if they happen to find it. We are feeling extremely confident that things will end well. Fortunately our philosophy while traveling is, “whatever you are missing you can always buy.”And speaking of that attitude…while Joanna was waiting two college girls come up to ask if there is any vacancy at the hotel in which we’re staying. Why? Because they don’t have a hotel, nor do they have a guidebook, nor anything that will help them book a hotel. We show surprise that they don’t have any of the above mentioned trip resources, they claim they haven’t needed it yet and that they have spent a number of nights in airports. We soon learn that they are in their 2nd or 3rd year of school at some private school that starts with an “H” in Pa…and that they are roughing. They said all this with a straight face as she held her real deal Fendi bag. Yep, that’s right, rich kids, rebelling against their life of privilege, by sleeping in airports. Nice.
After an eventful cab ride, which included a ride through Athens red light district and talk of mafia from the cab driver (he seemed to think it was because of the mafia that he had to take a convoluted route to the hotel), we check in and get excited for an exciting day seeing historic Greece….

Well, we were wrong. The Acropolis was closed…because of a strike. We did see some Zeus ruins and got some good pictures of the Acropolis and Pantheon from the Zeus stuff, but it really wasn’t the same. We were able to walk around some theater area, which did have some old stuff and up to the gate to the Acropolis. Once at the gate, we ran into a heated discussion between the strikers who were guarding the area and some disgruntled customers. I figured that this was my opportunity to finally cause some sort of international incident. I just wanted to ask some questions: why are you striking? Why do you do it inconsistently (just today and tomorrow, not for 2 or 3 weeks straight)? What do you hope to gain out of this? Don’t you think it’s stupid? Don’t you realize that you are not winning anyone over to your cause by doing this? Will you take a $100 to let me and my friends through? It was about my turn to argue, when the girls made me leave. They got concerned because a few people tried to break through and the strikers sent their muscle over to the gate. So, unfortunately for our readership, there was no international incident. Maybe another time.

Instead of seeing old stuff, we went to lunch. We had a great lunch at Kouklis Ouzeri. It was in the plaka, but away from the mass of unimpressive, undistinguishable tourist restaurants. We did a bit of extra walking, but found a charming restaurant which had a sign in garbled English said something like, “the only authentic Greek restaurant in the Plaka.” Authentic or not the experience almost immediately changed our mood. The owner/waiter said that he could feed 4 of us including water and wine for a cheap price – maybe 12 euro/person. We chose 10 small dishes off of his tray that included some fantastic meatballs and lamb as well as some apparently good eggplant (I don’t know, I don’t dig on eggplant). The homemade wine was fantastic as well. It was a perfect lunch. We were feeling good about Greece…

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to leave Athens….Bodrum, Rhodes, Santorini, Crete, Mikynos, Paros…There were a number of problems with this:
1. It is high season in Greece. I have to imagine the highest of high season in Greece is the week we are here. Awesome
2. No one knows anything about anything. Worse yet, they think they do. So, you have to try to figure out what is real and what isn’t
3. You have to go to the ferry terminals to actually figure things out. The ferry terminal is about a half hour away and a ridiculous mess. Its filled with five types of people:
1. People that don’t know anything, but think they do
2. People seeking any sort of reliable information
3. Travel agents. They have accurate information for about 10% of what is actually going on but insist they have 100% of the information
4. People that are traveling that have no idea where they are supposed to go
5. People that know stuff
After about 3 hours of walking back and forth and around and around and back and forth, we determine that we will likely not take a ferry and will fly. Its not much more and it seems like ferries aren’t super reliable…oh and they actually have availability. We finally book some flights to crete (with no idea of how we’ll actually leave crete) and head out for a late dinner. Lonely planet suggested a restaurant that didn’t exist in a touristy area (but, with a great view of a lit up Parthenon). So, we walked around for a while and found a super charming place (for those who care, we think it was called: Kalipartia? On 8 Astiggos - not in guide book, found it off the main strip). The food was again fantastic. We ended the evening at a bar around the corner which didn’t have much in the way of English menus – so that was good (Inoteka on Avissynias Road - in a back alley somewhere)

Our next day in Greece was spent trying to leave Athens. We did spend some time at the archeological museum…they had a bunch of artifacts – but that’s all it was. No story, no structure, it wasn’t awesome.

Getting our tickets was sort of a debacle. We waited in the line for our tickets/boarding passes…just like we normally do…as it turns out, the tickets we bought on-line, were not e-tickets. So, we had to go wait in line to get the tickets. The woman at the boarding pass counter said that we could wait off to the side so we wouldn’t have wait in line again. We later learned that this actually didn’t matter because they routinely call folks up for flights that are about to depart if you haven’t yet checked-in. So, it doesn’t matter if you get there on time. If you come on time, everyone still gets to go ahead of you; if you come late, you get to go ahead of everyone else as it gets closer to flight time.

While Joanna and Heather stay in boarding pass line, while Mer and I head over to the ticket line. It takes FOREVER. There were two reasons for this: 1. The Greeks seem to either not care for or have no sense of a line or what it is for. They just walk up to the person – even if they are helping someone else and begin asking their questions. The key is that that person behind the desk will then help the line-cutter immediately. 2. The process to get your tickets appears to require a lot of typing, printing on a dot-matrix printer and going behind a window to do something else. The entire process takes about 5 hours per person. We finally get our tickets and rush to our gate because it is in final boarding…or not. They hadn’t even started boarding yet. I then realize that there is very little similarity between what is on the boards/screens in the airport and what is actually going on. After about 20 minutes we board our plane. Off to Crete and happy to leave Athens.

Guest Blogger Addendum: Leaving Orebic for Dubrovnik and Cruising with Josep

We woke up on our last morning in Orebic and realized the only two things we had to do that day were to go to the beach and get to Dubrovnik. We sat by the pool, got some sun and waited for our cab while reading on the deck. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon. Rather than take a three-hour bus trip to Dubrovnik, we hired a local cab driver named Josep to drive us since he was heading that way anyway (as John already mentioned). There are a few key highlights from the journey that merit mention.

1. The roads were ridiculously curvy. In fact, we made a short stop to the side fo the road at one point in the journey to leave a gift for the patron saint of travelers in a road-side mini-church / box. Apparently this is a tradition Josep does every trip, but we were especially relieved when we saw how perilous the journey was.

2. The scenery was incredibly beautiful. Mountains, water, foliage... you get the idea. For those of you who've done the drive down PCH, this was better.

Because of #1 and #2, we were too distracted to befriend Josep until half-way through the journey. [Good thing Meredith is an excellent navigator, otherwise that left turn could have been detrimental to our journey]. Meanwhile, Josep began to tell us a story from his recent visit to Hungary where he was delivering furniture. This story is too good not to share:
Josep was standing idly on the roadside at the Hungarian border while others were unloading the furniture delivery. In his bored state, he began to pick up some small stones and throw them into the cornfield below. After throwing a few stones, a man suddenly yelps out from below! His head pokes up above the corn stalks and he begins yelling at Josep in Hungarian! Josep apologizes profusely, having had no intention of hitting anyone, when the man switches to English and Josep begins to understand what he is saying... the man had been "taking a shit" in the middle of the cornfield and thought Josep had seen him there and that was why he threw a rock at him!

We passed a town named Ston that has a huge fortress and wall built around it. Josep tells us this is 2nd in line after China as the longest wall in the world. Pretty impressive.

Finally, we made it to Dubrovnik. The bar John mentioned deserves to be be mentioned again. It was so breathtaking to be enjoying drinks outside the fortress wall, up against the water.

Onward to Greece...

We're adding pictures

Here are some more pictures of Hvar

Hvar Town
We're doing Shots at Carpe Diem
Bob and John drinking
the girls are happy

We're done with Croatia...and we're sad

Thoughts on Croatia
This country isn’t a secret to Europe, everyone seems to go here for Holiday, it probably won’t be long before Americans start understanding what the fuss is about. I’ve heard Americans who have been say, “it’s the place that you think you only need a week for, but once you’re there, you need two.” So true.
Here are my ten favorite things about Croatia:

1. Crazy beautiful. The mountains, the turquoise waters and waterfalls of Plitvice, the drive from Orabic to Dubrovnik, the view from our hotel in Hvar, the entire country is amazing.

2. Rivas. Basically promenades along the harbor with lots of cafes to drink beer and coffee and eat gelato/ice cream.

3. Josep the driver from Orabic to Dubrovnik

4. Dubrovnik. One of the most charming towns in the world. And that’s even with all the tourists.

5. Café Bruz… both of them. I can’t imagine a better place for a drink at sunset.

6. Croatian humor. Notably, Josep and the waitress in Korcula.

7. Croatian Coffee in general. No need for a starbucks in Croatia. They have cafes every 2 feet.

8. Gas stations along the sea with cafes. It makes stopping for gas something to look forward to.

9. Nights in split. Hanging out in the square listening to a girl cover American pop hits or a three string players playing songs I don’t know, surrounded by old stuff. Very Cool.

10. Dubrovnik. What is not to love about a city that revolves around strolling, cafes, drinking and eating?

I guess now we're off to Greece.

Day 9-11 Korcula, Orabic, Dubrovnik, or: bye, bye Croatia

We left Hvar town for Orabic via Korcula. Its still not clear to me why we went to Orabic. The way things looked, we could take a ferry from Hvar to Korcula and catch a quick ferry/taxi over to Orabic and once in Orabic, according the guy at the reception desk of the Grand Hotel, we’d be able to see the hotel from the ferry and it would be a “short walk…maybe 200 meters.”
When we arrive in Korcula, we find out that we effectively have a choice between the 9 or 11 pm ferry. Korcula seemed like another great small town, so we wanted to spend more time there.
We had initially planned to go to a restaurant suggested by a friend, Andy Katzman, but it turns out that this restaurant is too far away given our schedule. Its in pupnit. Pronounced: poop nut. Good times.

We found a great restaurant Monego Girgili, referenced in Mer’s book. The meal was again fantastic. Everyone, except for Mer, all ordered the exact same thing: noodles with shrimp in some sort of cream sauce. When the waitress told us it was the best thing on the menu, Mer, responds in her best Veruca Salt voice, “But, I want the best dish on the menu.” So, the waitress got a vegetarian version. This was of course after we had ordered, canceled, re-ordered every dish on the menu. We finished ordering when the waitress said, “can I get you anything else,” and literally ran away, not to come back. It may have been because she had quickly developed a pretty major crush on me. She was concerned I wasn’t going to finish my food so she grabbed my fork, made an airplane noise and fed me. Later she brought me my own tiny glass of beer.
After dinner, we rushed to catch our 15 minute ferry and upon landing, as expected, the grand hotel was not in sight. After a confusing conversation with the man at the front desk (he kept saying that I needed to take the ferry to Orabic and I kept saying I was in Orabi), he finally handed the phone to a nice girl who spoke English. She instructed me to follow the path by the water to the hotel. It should only be a fifteen minute walk – about 500 meters she said. After walking about 15 minutes and 500 meters and immediately before the Orabic parks district decided to discontinue lighting the path, rendering it pitch black, we stopped to understand where it was. I was instructed that we were almost there, to continue on the path another 300 meters and about 10 minutes. So we plowed forward. About 10 minutes into the walk we ran into some nice folks who knew where the hotel was. Apparently the hotel is new, so they hadn’t changed the signage…and it was another 10 minutes and 200 meters. After 2.7 miles and a half hour of walking we reached the hotel. Fortunately the bar was open for another 15 minutes (closing at exactly 11.59 pm) and I was able to have a beer once we were checked in.
After spending the day sitting at the pool, where I got sunburned, we were able to negotiate a private taxi to Dubrovnik. Our driver was fantastic. His name is Josep and if you are ever in Dubrovnik or Orabic…or I am sure Korcula, he should be your man to drive you around. He gave a history lesson, made fun of everyone in the car and drove us through ridiculously beautiful scenery on curvy mountain roads that overlooked the Sea. Josep (who is 27 and looks younger) even endured Mer’s questions. He was talking about the war and the relationship with Bosnia, when Mer asked, “did you fight in the war.” Confused, he looked back and said, “do I look that old?” He would have been 11/12 during the war. Later, we came to an intersection that pointed left to split and right to Dubrovnik, he chose to go left. Mer immediately perks up and asks, “why did you turn left, shouldn’t we be going right, aren’t we going to Dubrovnik?” Josep explains that he does in fact know where we’re going, but that we are going to stop for soda.

Once we arrive in Dubrovnik and find our respective residences (Bob at the classiest place in Dbv and the rest of us get random Sobe’s), we meet up for drinks. We find Café Bruz or we think. There are two cafés just outside of the walls with drinks and great views. This one said no nudes on the wall outside. It was sort of magical how you walk through this hole in the wall and find tables on the rocks by the Sea with Frank playing. It was a perfect beginning to our last night in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. We had Frank on the cd player, cold drinks and a great sunset. After drinks we went to Arsenal for dinner. It seemed trendy and expensive…it sort of was, but the food was good and inside they had air conditioning…and scotch…and Keane was playing on their cd player, so it wasn’t bad and Mer got drunk. We finished at one of the cafes on the main strip for drinks. It was a perfect end to our time in Croatia.

Day 7 - 9 Hvar Town or: Uns Uns mixed with Mozart

Hvar Town Harbor
beautiful view, tasting wines, easy listening, get together
Joanna and Bob with some old stuff
Bob peaking through the fort

The ferry from Split drops you off right in the center of town. As you exit the ferry, theres a fresh fish restaurant, which lies immediately next to the famed, “Carpe Diem,” billed as the mother of all harbor town bars (more on that later). Hotel Dalmacija (our accommodations for 150 Euro/room/night) was about a five minute walk away. We immediately headed to the rooftop balcony overlooking the Sea for, as the hotel signage says: beautiful view, tasting wines, easy listening, get together. Or, as Bob says, “non sequitur, non sequitur, non sequitur, non sequitur”
Of course, they didn’t have all the wines and there wasn’t any hard alcohol. After a few drinks we head to Konobo Manego, an authentic Croatian family restaurant. It was hard to find because Lonely planet had it in the wrong spot, but after wandering aimlessly, Mer finally found the place. As we walked in, the owner offered us a place outside, that he said would be hot and uncomfortable or a place downstairs…after a long thought, we opted for the place downstairs. As he sat us down he explained that this was his house and he only serves traditional Croatian food, which means no Coca-cola, no pasta. We were excited about having this fantastic Croatian meal…As he explained the menu and our options, we quickly became confused if were supposed to order or he was just going to bring us food. So, we explained that mer was a vegetarian and we needed vegetarian options. I think the owner took this as all the girls were vegetarians. We also ordered some home-made spirits. So, when our food came, we got a nice cheese plate, about 31 plates of vegetarian food and bob and I got a plate that had a couple pieces of proscciutto and something that tasted like a combination between beef jerky and pepperoni. I guess the girls loved the vegetarian dishes (I thought they were somewhere between disgusting and bad). So, after our ham and pepperoni/beef jerky, the owner brings Bob and me our spirits. Wow. It tasted like a combination of Jaeger, rumple mints and everclear. Bob said it felt like an elevator inferno. It definitely woke us up.

Then we head to Carpe Diem….the mother of all beach-side/harbor-town…etc. clubs. I don’t know which was worse: the expensive drinks, the horrible Europeans dancing in their manpri’s, the lack of decent non-fruity drinks, the really Cocktail bartenders (they were actually throwing stuff in the air, but they didn’t catch them) or the fact that everyone there seemed to be taking this whole thing so seriously. Bob and I stayed long enough to finish our initial drink…and a couple cigarettes and went immediately a bar on the square. This bar was perfect. Not too many people around, a table to ourselves, beer. The evening ended with some random Germans drunkenly screaming songs, or rather the first verse of the songs.

The next day in Hvar town we went to some big fortress. It was old and big and there are only a couple of notes: 1. there was a long hike up a big hill and no coffee in sight, 2. I told Meredith and Heather the Ned and Ed joke. I’m surprised that they didn’t mention it in their update, as they said it was the highlight of the trip. Bob and Joanna were there, so this makes it 1,351st time for Bob and the 1,251,336th time for Joanna. It gets better every time.

For dinner, Bob and I wanted real food. I thought we should check out the fresh fish place near our hotel. I liked the idea of them taking a fish out of the harbor, beating it against the ground and throwing it on a grill. Upon sitting down, we realized that experience costs about 70 Euro. So, I went with the, “3rd tier” fresh fish. I don’t know what it means exactly. It was ok.
After dinner we checked out some sort of pianist playing in a Monastery. It sounds cool. I wanted to like it…and I did, just not as much as I wanted to. I’ve never really seen a classical/concert pianist play. I guess, it seemed to be more about the technical ability to play the music and not about the song or what the song is trying to say. And, it was quiet. Only polite applause, which seemed to occur only sometimes after she finished playing a song or part of a song. And, she kept having to turn the pages of the music. Its just me, but shouldn’t you have the song memorized if people are paying to see you play. I think she played an encore that she had memorized. Does she always play an encore? It didn’t seem like crowd applauded more so at the end or requested another song. I don’t think I was the only person there who wanted to like it more…I caught about 10 people sleeping.

Later that night (another late night of drinking), Bob and I found a late night food stand open, that seemed to be hidden from everything. They said that all they had was hamburgers and hot-dogs, but when we asked for fries, they quickly fried up some fresh ones. It was the best fries we ever had

Our final day in Hvar Town was spent doing laundry and mooching off of the 450 Euro/night resort on the side of the harbor. Mer, Heather and Bob bought chairs for the day and we spent the rest of our time swimming in the Sea and sunning.

Guest Bloggers: Heather and Mer, Days 7 and 8

While John and Joanna ran some errands and focused on returning the car, we were considerably less productive. We'd had enough history; we'd had enough of walking tours. What we really wanted was to lounge by the pool at Le Meridien. And that's exactly what we did... all day. With the exception of a brief intermission to get pedicures at the hotel spa. Some people may look at pedicures as a silly waste of time; these were probably the most necessary pedis anyone has ever recieved. The people of Croatia thanked us.

A little tired, we decide to stop at a cafe on the Riva for capuccinos. While we sat on the outdoor veranda, Mer realized (shockingly) that she needed to visit the restroom. For those who haven't traveled with her before, it should be noted that frequent pee breaks are part of the itinerary. Anyway, upon her return to the table, a little old Croatian lady accosted her. We *think* she was asking for help up the stairs. But the language barrier was far and wide. Mer gets her up the stairs and resumes the search for the restroom. Meanwhile, the little old croatian lady makes her way to Heather who is still peacefully sipping cappuccino. The woman begins gesturing and speaking loudly in what we can only assume to be her native language. Heather is convinced that this woman was either cursing her or telling her that she liked her hair. It's a crapshoot.

Eventually we had to tear ourselves away from the pool for the ferry to Hvar. At the ferry we met back up with John, Joanna and Bob. Our first night in Hvar we were delighted to find that our hotel had a roofdeck with gorgeous views as well as a wine bar. Overcome with inspiration to adopt a real authentic croatian lifestyle we ate dinner at a small family restaurant on the hillside near the fortress. There were highs (stuffed peppers and cheese plate) and lows (everything else). But most importantly, Bob and John tried their homemade spirits much to the entertainment of the rest of us. We literally saw new chest hairs grow after they took their shots. John may no longer have any taste buds. The key takeaway is that the Croatian-food-turned-Italian-to-please-tourists is much better than the real deal.

The next day, we hiked up to the fortress. Key highlights include John getting reacquainted with nature and hiking as well as spectacular views of Hvar and the adriatic. It was beautiful. We also walked around to another part of the island to enjoy the beach. Sure, it would have been more enjoyable with far fewer children. Even the topless women couldn't get John to stay longer than a half hour before getting bored.

We made our way back to the hotel to change and had a pre-dinner cocktail at the famous Carpe Diem. Dinner was eaten at a waterfront seafood restaurant and followed by a Mozart concert in the cloister of the monastery. Surprisingly this sounded cooler than it ended up actually being. Or maybe that's not so suprising to you readers.

As always, drinks followed.

Day 6 and 7 Split and Bob joins us!

After waking up in the heavenly bed in our air-conditioned room and grabbing breakfast at the Le Meridian (thanks starwood!), we met Mer and Heather in Split for a lonely planet walking tour. Basically, we saw a bunch of really cool old stuff.
Lunch was a bit of adventure as we went looking for a vegetarian place for Mer. For those that don’t know – there aren’t many vegetarian options for Mer in Croatia. Mer has had 2 options for meals (for every meal): cheese and pasta with vegetables or pizza. It was on the other side of town (about 15ish minutes away), and we weren’t sure if it was open. We found it, but it was closed. So we ended up at the best pizza place in spit (I think it was called Giglio, but i don't have my book, I'll edit it later). We had ridiculous pizza and great beer. We also got to see an 8 year old drinking beer with is lunch.

The excitement of the day was Bob joining us. This will be my fourth international trip with Bob in as many years and my 7th time traveling with him (not counting weekend trips and weddings). We’ve been to China, Vietnam, Prague, Budapest, London and Hawaii. I don’t fully understand why he continues to travel with me, but I like it. Since I’ve met Bob I haven’t had to plan a trip. And, we have the added bonus that he studied history in undergrad, so he is effectively a tour guide.

Bob and I grabbed beers along the riva and about 3 beers in, the girls showed up to go to dinner. We decided to repeat last night (dinner at Tifani and drinks in square). This time, they had a string section playing the square.

Bob and I forced the girls to go to the only bar open on the Riva for beers. However, we ended up drinking most of the two rounds for five people. Good times.

The next day in split was spent trying to figure out how to leave. Joanna and I didn’t have much time to run some errands and drop the car off before our Catamaran left for Hvar. But, in true Hamilton fashion we pushed things. As we were leaving for the airport to drop off the car, we realized that we were supposed to buy our tickets for the boat at that exact moment. However, we didn’t have tickets, couldn’t get ahold of anyone and no one was near the ferry terminal. We wasted most of our batteries confirming that someone, somewhere could get us tickets.

The thing is that there are no road signs in Croatia. So, we mostly guessed our way to the airport. We ended up missing turns, taking wrong turns and driving on a barely functioning gravel road to the Split International airport. My blackberry, Bob’s cell phone and Meredith and heathers phone are all running out of battery, when we finally make it to the airport at 3.20. Our boat leaves at 4 pm sharp. We hop in a cab and tell the cab driver to step on it. Step on it must mean drive as slowly as possible in Croatian, because the driver was passed by nearly everyone on the road. I should add, that we did not know where the boat terminal was or any other information of where to go. The cab driver insists he knows where to go, even though we get in an argument about his path to the terminal along the way, causing him to stop and potentially change directions. Somehow we make it to the terminal just as the last few people are boarding and get onboard. Heather and Mere had saved us seats and Bob was diligently waiting outside with our tickets. We are the last people on board (no surprise there) and off we go to Hvar town.

In closing on Split, we loved it. I don't think it gets enough credit for being such a great city. Its mostly looked at as the jumping off point for island hopping, but i definitely think it holds its own.

Day 5 Zadar and Split

Zadar was a nice city with some interesting sights. But, to start our day we got a killer parking spot near the main town square, along the harbor. We saw the Church of St. Donat. I was hoping it was Donut. But no. It was still cool and according to the Lonely Planet it is one of the most outstanding monuments in all of Dalmatia (dating from the 9th Century). It was built over the old Roman Forum (from 1st Century BC and 3rd Century AD), which I thought was actually much cooler. There were all sorts of columns and blood alters. What I always find amazing about Europe is that all of this stuff is just sitting in the middle of a city somewhere. People can climb on it, have lunch in it, just hang out by it and its no big deal. I am aware that the last statement makes me sound abit naïve and like an American.

The highlight was the “Sea Organ” which somehow has a bunch of organ pipes that make sounds based on the waves and currents of the ocean. It was free to just go sit on it, dangling your feet in the water and enjoying the beautiful day. We had an unremarkable lunch at one of the thousand pizza places lining the street and then headed out for a coastal drive to Split.

The drive to split was beautiful. And, along the way we stopped at a gas station for soda and bio-breaks. The view at the gas station was pretty breath-taking. I stopped and got an espresso at the café in the gas station and just took-in the view. Our beautiful drive was interrupted by road signs directing us to take the Croatian interstate the rest of the way. Croatia built a new, efficient highway through half the country. It’s great if you want to get somewhere fast, but its not attractive. The conspiracy theorist in me says that they put the signs there to get us to pay the tolls on the highway.

We quickly found our hotels. Joanna and I chose to stay at the Le Meridian. The first of a few SPG point stays on this trip. The lack of air-conditioning in Zadar and overall, lack of…hotel experience that I’ve grown accustomed to, combined with paying upwards of $150-200/ night per room, had me wanting some good old, heavenly bed and shower and a FREE room. When we called SPG they said they were sold out. I asked them to call the hotel to make sure. When the guy got back to he said, “we have one room and the manager is willing to give it to you for $365 euros.” I responded, “great, we’ll pay with points.” It was a great deal!

Once getting everyone settled in their hotels, we met up for dinner and went to Tifani (which is located at a hotel in Diocletian’s Palace). By far the most ridiculously awesome meal we’ve had so far on our trip. We had some fantastic Croatian wine and a mixture of some of their dishes. Everything we had was amazing. During dinner we heard a girl singing American pop music. We couldn’t hear it too well and didn’t think much of it. After dinner we walked toward the music and saw the old town square filled with people sitting on steps and ledges drinking and listening to a duo singing. It was AMAZING. We had a few beers (our new favorite since we arrived in Croatia: Karlovaċka) and just enjoyed the experience.

Day 4 Plitvice and Zadar

As you may have read, it’s basically nature. Lots of nature. Waterfalls, hiking, turquoise lakes, hiking, steep cliffs, hiking, dirt, plants and lots of other things that grow. And kids and dogs. But, I made it through. Just to be clear, there was no fainting. The guest bloggers were just being dramatic. I think they were hoping I’d faint but I didn’t.

Ideally we’d publish pictures to this thing, but we’ve had some struggles getting pictures from our camera to our laptop. Before I wrote this update, I was reading the camera book. Its possible that I was supposed to format the SD card before taking pictures on it. So…well, that’s my bad. Anyway, if you see the pictures, you’ll probably enjoy them, because I am probably the only person who gets bored of waterfalls. Mostly, I just wanted a coffee.

Speaking of coffee…When we got to the top, I really wanted coffee. I know it was hot, but the morning coffee was pretty terrible, so I hadn’t quite quenched my craving. I saw folks drinking coffee at the end of the hike, and yes, I thought it was very refreshing. Until the ice cream girl knocked it out of my hands and all over me. Not an ounce of espresso was on the ground, it was all over my shirt. Incidentally, it’s a good thing I changed shirts. I was wearing a black Bryant-Lake Bowl earlier in the day, but didn’t think it was an appropriate shirt for nature.
So, I changed into a Kellogg t-shirt that I wore inside out. Thank God. Since, its now ruined and covered in espresso. The good news is that she felt bad and bought me another espresso. Now, off to Zadar.

You might be thinking, “why zadar.” The answer is, “mostly because we thought it was a cool name.” We found it was so much more.
But, first, accommodations. I had booked us in “the only apartment in the old town.” We spent about 2 hours driving around the old town trying to find, “a gate with a lion.” We finally found this gate with a lion and I met up with a nice woman who had been guiding us to the gate with the lion. She took me to see her apartment…It was old, rusty, there was no air conditioning or elevator to our fifth floor rooms. It didn’t look clean, the beds didn’t look great. I was just not happy. So, we left to find accommodations that better suited our needs. We found those at the hotel Albin. The staff was friendly; the rooms were clean and nice. It was 10 times better than the other place. And, it was about 15 minutes from the old town. We had dinner at their restaurant, which was again, FANTASTIC. We had drinks at the LA café down the street where they played a combination of random Tupac, Croatian rap, Lionel Ritchie, Billy Joel and some sort of live Croatian Celine Dion (the Croatian version of her is about as bad).

Note

We've had limited internet access and when we have had access, we spend about 3 hours searching for ferry times. Its been difficult to add pics, etc. So, we're adding pics to the posts today. Recheck some of the previous posts for pics.

Guest Bloggers: Heather and Mer, Day 4

After all of the commotion with yesterday’s journey, we awaken in Plitvice.national park at the Hotel Jezero. The hotel is pretty basic but has a great location about 100 feet from the entrance to the park. And it boasts an awesome breakfast. Mer and Heather were delighted to find among the basic/expected breakfast options a beacon of light in the jams/spreads area… a nutella-like half-chocolate, half-vanilla cream spread. Never mind that it came packaged in a cartoon character packet. This was clearly for adults.

Little did we know just how mission critical this breakfast would be, when we set out for what would become a five hour hike before we’d get to lunch. As most of you who know John would expect given this information, John fainted of starvation less than 27 minutes into the hike. We did not know whether John’s fainting spell was the result of insufficient nutrition or overexposure to nature, given that he complained of both. With John passed out, we began to enjoy the breathtaking scenery surrounding us. There were waterfalls around every turn and turquoise lakes that extended as far as the eye could see. The turquoise color was actually a little ironic because earlier in the morning, while looking for postcards in the gift shop, Heather refused to buy a postcard with images of the turquoise water convinced that the image had been doctored… in fact, the water truly is an other-worldly color. Apologies to those of you who could have received said postcards.

The highlight of the day came at the end. After lunch we began the final leg of the hike which turned out to be the most physically demanding, uphill and in the sun. Don’t worry, John made it. But Heather had to carry the backpack up the hill. We think John made it because there was ice cream waiting at the top. So, we stop for a respite and a refreshment. While some refreshed with water and ice cream, John chose espresso. Did we mention it was hot outside? Anyway, what happened next cannot truly be summed up with words. We’d like to share with you a brief video below.

Holding his super #1 coffee while ordering an ice cream, John soon found his espresso covering his shirt when the ice cream lady opened the freezer with a bit too sudden movement. I think John may have yelped. He was not happy. And he smelled a lot like espresso.

We made our way back to the car and hopped in for a two-hour ride to Zadar, a charming coastal town. It should be noted that we are a very hi-tech bunch. Joanna in the front seat with computer on, burned a cd for us to enjoy as a soundtrack for our journey.

When we got to Zadar, John went to check out the accommodations that he’d reserved on the phone earlier in the day while we waited in the car. John couldn’t handle that first hotel, so we wandered around getting lost in the neighborhood looking for a new hotel: Hotel Albin. This was by all definition identical to the first, but according to John the presence of air conditioning made it a thousand times better. Little did John know that the a/c in his bedroom was broken and that he would find himself taken two cold showers in the middle of the night to avoid overheating.

Guest Blogger: Bobby Day 1 split

I don't really understand this numbering thing from Day 0 and don't really know what which day that would mean I left Dallas. Leg 1 was the trip to Chicago from Dallas. I checked into my hotel, hopped on the Blue Line and joined Vanessa and Jay (approximately 1/5 of this blog's readership) for dinner. Afterwards, they drove me back to the hotel and I decided to stay up all night before heading to the airport at 4AM - my own way of thumbing my nose at Hamilton's laborious (and useless) jet lag avoidance tips.

Leg 2 was Chicago to Dulles, a quick plane change and then Leg 3 was Dulles to Heathrow. I checked into a hotel at Heathrow for the night - I had my usual Edinburgh Suite at the Sheraton Skyline - and was surprised to find my cell phone worked. I hadn't touched base with John that day, so we had to figure out where we would meet the following day. Note to travellers contemplating a Tour de Hamilton - don't tell John your (domestic, regular old AT&T - that you're paying for mind you) cell phone works in a foreign country. We talked for about ten minutes - so that will probably run me about $162.

Leg 4 was Gatwick to Split - ran into Dan Joss at the airport. I got into Split about 3:00, checked into my hotel - a very cool hotel inside Diocletian's Palace - explored a little, and then met up with Hamilton. We had a few cocktails on the Riva, the main pedestrian thoroughfare along the waterfront. The girls joined us, we had a few more, and then headed to dinner. Thanks to Mrs. Williamson for the octopus salad recommendation - fantastic stuff. Then we took in a string quartet concert in front of the Protiron, a few more cocktails, and then went to a late night bar on the Riva - for ONE drink - or so I promised the tired, and even more tired of the non-stop John-and-Bob show, ladies we were escorting. One round quickly became two, but John and I were forced to finish all of those. We dispersed and I woke up a few hours later in still in my clothes somewhere in the palace.

Days 2-3 London to Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik to Zagreb to Plitvice

Days 2 and 3 we spent mostly driving or flying. Here are the highlights:


Dubrovnik was a freaking charming city. After checking into our apartment (the only one listed inside the old town), we quickly set out walking along the walls and ultimately ended up having drinks at café Buza. Its right outside the original walls and sits on some rocks overlooking the Adriatic. It was a great way to see “start” our vacation

We walked around the old town to determine our prime dinner location. Its worth noting that no cars are allowed within the city walls. So, the

main streets are lined with cafes, with all of tourists walking down the middle. There is apparently no need for me to find a starbucks in the city because every inch of every street has a café serving fantastic espresso. We finally decided upon Proto. It was highly recommended in lonely planet. But, the prices were pretty high and we just weren’t sure that the food was going to live up. LP was right. Food was fantastic. Well worth it.






















Day 3 was spent flying from Dubrovnik to Zagreb, then driving to Plitvice, a Unesco World heritage site and national park. Before we left, I diligently printed off directions, however, I didn’t have any specific addresses, So, I had to print off directions from town center to town center…um, that didn’t work so well. The Zagreb airport was not in the town center. So, we are now driving our manual transmission car around Zagreb trying to find our way to Plitvice national park. This was complicated by the fact that there weren’t a lot of opportunities for me to turn around. Anytime I took a wrong turn, it took us around 15 minutes to just get back to the original spot. As you can imagine, after about 45 minutes of this I was fuming, cursing german automakers for their manual transmission, cursing croatia for posting their road signs only about 1 foot before you need to turn and cursing the internet for not providing good directions. On top of this, I was hungry and hadn’t eaten. At this point Joanna says, “wait, doesn’t your blackberry have GPS?” I grumbled about how it probably didn’t work and we shouldn’t bother. Joanna was unfazed and found the “directions” portion of the maps application. Turned on the satellites and entered Plitvice as the location that we need directions to. The blackberry found our location and told us exactly how to get there.

At about 9 pm, we arrived in the park. We quickly checked into the hotel (hotel Jezero in the park). And, we were rewarded with another fabulous meal (Restaurant Licka Kuka): A meat platter with potatoes that were cooked under a bell. I don’t know what that means, but I think it means that they were soaked in oil and cooked. It was fantastic.

Days 1-3 (Heather and Mer)

After assorted domestic & international flights, we arrived in Croatia's capital, Zagreb. Most of our first evening was devoted to obtaining a cell phone which we have affectionately dubbed "Drazen" after our incredibly helpful t-mobile sales associate. We followed this with a much-needed night of sleep in a closet they called a hotel room. Our second day in country began with an early morning trip to the northern Kvarnar coast, after the alarm on our new cell phone failed to go off. I guess we aren't very good at following technical instructions in Croatian.

We decided to stay in a seaside town called Opatija (pronounced "oPAtiyah") for some much needed r&r. Our accomodations were found by consulting with the local tourism office upon disembarking the bus, who referred us to a lovely grandmotherly woman named Milka. She rented us private acomdations with an incredible balcony and view of the Adriatic. She also brought us fresh, *strong* coffee and donuts each morning. Not a bad life. Most of our first day was spent wandering aimlessly and enjoying the promenade... and the gelato.

By the second day in Opatija, Mer and Heather were being mistaken as Croatian girls by Croatian men. TWICE. We are taking this as the highest compliment. Perhaps its the fact that we sneak into hotel pool areas and lounge for hours on seaside beach chairs that give us that unmistakably Croatian look.

Day three, we left Opatija to join up with John and Joanna. What was intended to be an easy bus transfer resulted in Mer and Heather being stranded in a communist-era bus terminal many miles from anything. Did this deter these Croatian imposters from continuing their journey? Absolutely not. The key was proper sustainance... this was found in a jar of nutella.

Drazen came to the rescue yet again when we were able to call John and Joanna who conveniently were on route with the rental car at that very moment. The pick up occured approx 1.5 hrs later when John stopped (stalled) the car in front of the primary bus loading zone just as a bus pulled up to use it. Maybe with his new mowhawk, John thinks he can get away with such shenanigans. And so began our 2 hour journey to the beautiful national park of Plitvice... and the beginning of our journey as a foursome.

Day 1 London (john and joanna)

J Thanda, Ben, John

Key statistics:

Hotel: Ben and Thandas place - 4 stars

Food:

- Lunch: The Earl of Lowdone, Notting Hill- good, not great

- Dinner: Some hip place that Ben and Thanda took us too



Our first day of travel was uneventful, but jet-lag free. We attempted to get a quick bite at a pub that i remembered to be "right by the $75 tshirt shops" we walked up and down portobello road about five times before we found it. it wasnt as good as i imagined. After pub food we walked up and down oxford street looking for a selfridges (apparently a cool retail concept). we didnt find it. but, we did get rained on. so that was good. the evening ended with me forcing our friends, ben and thanda to stay out late with us. the result was thanda oversleeping the next day by what seemed like 2 hours.
i know nothing exciting has happened yet.
i will work really hard on getting arrested in croatia though.
coming up: guest blogging by our travel partners - heather and mere

Day 0
Getting ready and the flight to London
We’ve arrived in London and as expected no jet leg for me. I have a fairly successful record of not having jet leg. I attribute this to my anti-jet-leg lifestyle and some tactics and processes I follow prior-to, during and after the flight

Pre-trip
- Sleep erratically, with a stronger focus on not too much sleep
- go to bed at different times, wake up at different times
- Sleep four hours for a few nights, then eight or ten for a night
- Use caffeine to wake up in the morning and alcohol to go to sleep at night
By this point your body will have no idea what time it is anyway. You won’t have a certain time that equates to waking hours or sleeping hours. And, you’ll always feel tired anyway.
The previous two weeks I was up till 3 a couple of nights working, but also was in bed by midnight a couple of nights. Two weekends ago I was up till 4 am a couple of nights, but this last weekend I was up till midnight and got 9 hours of sleep. My body has no idea what time I am supposed to go to bed or wake up. And, I am constantly tired. Even if I were jet-lagged, I wouldn’t know the difference

During flight
- Only go to sleep when you are tired and think you’ll sleep the entire flight. Part of the problem with jet-lag is that travelers try to force sleep and end up sleeping restlessly.
- Drink a lot of alcohol. Much easier if you are sitting in first/business-class. Get drunk, go to sleep. Alcohol adds another component. When you wake up, you’ll feel as if you just had a late night out and are waking up early.
- Start training your mind that it is no longer the time of your departure city; it is the time of your destination city
- When you do sleep it is important to have uninterrupted sleep. If you find yourself waking up, that means that you should stay awake. Only sleep if it’s good sleep.
- Wake-up early. You want time to chill abit before landing. This time serves two purposes:
- You start acclimating to your new time – you are officially in your new time now. If it is 11 am, and you feel hungry, you are now hungry for lunch.
- Coffee and other caffeine products. Start getting them into your system now

Post-trip
- Continue to caffeinate and hydrate. Hydration is good because it causes you to constantly go to the bathroom, which keeps you moving.
- Go about your day in the new time zone. If its lunch hour, eat lunch. If its an hour at which you would normally sleep, then sleep.
- Do not take a nap and keep on the move.