Sleep(less)

We’ve traveled to Europe before to visit family in Malta, where there’s a 7 hour difference from Central US time and never had trouble adjusting. In Ukraine we’re 8 hours ahead and we can’t seem to reset our internal clocks. A handful of homeless guys on our street singing loudly at 3:30am and making a ruckus probably isn’t helping either. Daybreak occurs around 4:30am here and the noise of cars speeding up the street, coupled with a hard matress that doesn’t budge under your weight is a lethal anti-sleep combo. We’ve been going to bed really late, hoping to be exhausted enough to sleep through the unfamiliar atmosphere, but we still end up waking up after 3 hours or so. Then we get up and get tired again around 8am and sleep till noon or slightly past, waking up groggy.

On our second day here we went to Double Coffee late in the evening and had a cappuccino that was…well...double! We thought it exacerbated the sleep issues so since then, we only take one in the morning or late afternoon. You have to add a good dose of sugar as it’s quite potent. Do Svidanya grogginess!

Here’s our natural reaction at the sight and smell of coffee.

I had totally forgotten how much I hate cigarette smoke and cherish the fact that smoking is banned from public places in Houston. There are a lot of smokers in this city and you can smell it wherever you sit in restaurants. Another observation we made is that food comes out as it’s plated. They make no effort to pair up dishes so two people or larger groups can eat together for example. If that bothers you, I think you pretty much have to order the same menu items. We’ve been taking turns watching each other eat!