It's really comfortable. In Argentinean winter, as you wake up at 9am the light day begins, and you've got a long evening still where restaurants do not open before 9pm.

In Chile:

On weekends, the time to go out for a drink (Chilean people call it "salir de carrete") starts no earlier than midnight, though somewhat earlier during the week. The pubs and clubs close at 5 AM on weekends, and 4 AM on weekdays.

(c)ourtesy wikitravel

The fact that most of Europe is in the same timezone is disturbing. I remember visiting Budapest (East of the timezone), coming from Bordeaux (West of the timezone), and noticing how much earlier (1h30) dusk was.

I wonder if it has an impact on the mood of the inhabitants.

Having lived in all 3 countries, I can tell you that Austrians (roughly centred on solar time, and Vienna, 1/4 of the country's population in one city, almost half an hour ahead of solar) are very much early risers compared to Spaniards. (the eastern part of Spain is almost 1 hour behind solar, most of the country even more so) Opening times of shops reflect that; it's not unusual for supermarkets in Spain to open at 9:00, while in Austria 7:30 is probably the most common. The evening meal is generally also consumed much later (clock time) in Spain. The UK is somewhere in between, which again fits with the solar time offset.

Drawing any conclusions beyond that is frought with the peril of confounding factors…

Indeed: I once walked into a restaurant in Spain and was told they were not yet open for dinner. The time was 8 pm.

There's a story about Spain.

Spain used to be in the same timezone as the UK. It made sense, as the Greenwich Meridian crosses the east of the Iberian Peninsula. But in 1942, the fascist dictator Franco decided to use the same timezone as the Nazi Germany and adopted the continental timezone (GMT+1).

The fun part of the story is that, as the Sun didn't actually move, the people kept doing their life at the same moments as before. That's why nowadays in Spain is usual to have lunch at 14 and dinner at 22. Specially in the West.

I'm pretty sure it has. I always feel jet-lagged in Paris, in a way I never felt in London or Berlin (both closer to their solar noon). Also felt deeply unwell in Bilbao (although the city's so brilliant). The most noticeable thing is that 7am is night time about half the year in Paris (from October to April) when it's at least dusk in London all year long (maybe not in December).

It's pretty clear that Paris is less of a morning-city than London.

In China we have a single, big, timezone. It's a bless, there's no need to convert time when you are travelling. I live at northwest China, has more than two hours difference from Beijing. You only need to delay your living pattern by 2 hours, so no bonus for late sleepers.

> It's a bless, there's no need to convert time when you are travelling.

Hah, and people here are all for having timezones. "Imagine how crazy it would be to have the sun coming up at 3AM in some places and 7PM in others!" I can't be sure without trying, but I'd argue it's pretty much equally messed up with and without timezones. Right now as a computer guy, I know time zones make everything more complicated.

When traveling somewhere for business you make an appointment anyway, so you know when you have to be somewhere and can plan accordingly. For holidays you'd look up the local sunrise time (which varies pretty much everywhere on earth anyway, albeit a bit more predictably now).