City that never sleeps

It was past midnight. My friends and I have just finished watching a movie in a cinema close to where I used to live for 22 years. Though it was already late, we were feeling hungry. We reached the cinema late - just in time for the start of the movie, no time to buy popcorn or any of the usual movie snacks.

But we knew we were never far away from good food no matter how late it was. It being a weekend also gave us more options. The only problem we had was to choose what to eat.

I miss eating seafood when I was on Sweden so we went to a popular hangout for night owls like us. My friend drove us to the eastern part of the island and sure enough, the place was packed with other sleepless diners like us.

We found a table, picked up the extensive menu and tried to decide on our order. By the time our orders came, it was past 1am. That didn't diminish our appetites. We heartily tucked into crayfish in spicy noodles, cereal crayfish, a very Asian salad of gado-gado with satay, a plate of chicken rice and tall, cold glasses of refreshing drinks.

It was past 3am when I reached home that evening. After a shower and face time chat with Pete, I was ready for bed. The time was 0410.

This is so different from my life in Sweden. We are seldom out when it's dark, except during winter when it gets dark very early. Even if we wanted to stay out late, I have yet to find a place that's open later than 8pm.

Coming back home, I guess these late night suppers would be more common, especially when I'm hanging out with my friends who don't seem to need much sleep. But if means getting to have my fill of delicious local food and good company, I won't be complaining. I'll sleep better when I'm cuddling up to Pete any way.