I was lucky enough to be sent to Houston for a month at the end of last year with work. Brilliant experience and was great to be living elsewhere, if only for a little while. Below is a shameless list of observations that I couldn’t help but find amazing, wrong or just plain weird. Great place to visit and would recommend Texas to anyone that asks.
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Coming in to land at nigh is phenomenal, as far as you can see in every direction is just lights. Some of the newer streets lit up orange-style resemble hieroglyphs and intricate drawings when compared with the long and straight squared off structure of everything else.
Incomprehensibly huge, flat sprawl. Almost no high buildings outside the main ‘downtown’ area.
Being 60 miles by 60 miles ‘Just down the road’ literally means a +10 mile drive. You genuinely can’t begin to imagine how big it is ‘til you’re actually here.
It’s hard to describe but it’s like there’s an American sub-culture in Texas. They’re very proud Texan’s above Americans. Have a history of wanting to become independent. It’s also a real mish-mash of societies, although in a professional sense there are distinct dividers.
Despite being so big, and cars being absolutely necessary to do anything the place is remarkably green, with loads of trees, grass, big parks and no trace of pollution / litter – especially in the energy district.
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Coming in to land at nigh is phenomenal, as far as you can see in every direction is just lights. Some of the newer streets lit up orange-style resemble hieroglyphs and intricate drawings when compared with the long and straight squared off structure of everything else.
Incomprehensibly huge, flat sprawl. Almost no high buildings outside the main ‘downtown’ area.
Being 60 miles by 60 miles ‘Just down the road’ literally means a +10 mile drive. You genuinely can’t begin to imagine how big it is ‘til you’re actually here.
It’s hard to describe but it’s like there’s an American sub-culture in Texas. They’re very proud Texan’s above Americans. Have a history of wanting to become independent. It’s also a real mish-mash of societies, although in a professional sense there are distinct dividers.
Despite being so big, and cars being absolutely necessary to do anything the place is remarkably green, with loads of trees, grass, big parks and no trace of pollution / litter – especially in the energy district.
- Everywhere’s air-con mad and it’s not uncommon to be burning up outside but needing a jumper for anywhere indoors.
- Extreme weather some days: heat, wind, storms, floods in several hours.
- The high humidity sometimes makes you feel wet as soon as you step outside, and floors in open buildings become soaking wet.
- Because it’s so flat flooding is pretty heavy.
- Can also go days without seeing a single cloud.
Nobody walks anywhere. In a city of +14M people I only saw about ten pedestrians and 5 cyclist the entire time I was there. People literally stare at you. Only other people on foot are usually walking, sweating their tits off under the pretence of ‘exercise’.
From driving around and the non residential buildings are split like this:
- 80% food places, any type and nationality you want, except (good or authentic) british!
- 15% shops that focus on one thing: lamp shades, kids gym, batteries etc
- 5% super marts where you can put jewelry, a gun, a tv, clothes, suitcases and food all in one trolley.
- 2% bars, mostly themed (sports, Mexican, country, ‘british’)
- Everybody has a massive car, some as wide as the road lanes. I saw one new mini cooper the whole time and it looked ridiculous against the regular traffic.
- Cars are very cheap compared to Europe.
- Almost everybody drives on their own.
- Driving and texting / calling / reading are all the norm and not illegal
- Lots of people drink-drive, every night they’re out
- Nobody really cares about driving 15 miles to get to a nightclub
- Roads everywhere but you’re lucky if your area’s paved, even luckier if the pavement’s good!
- Walking through traffic is quite dangerous as U-turns are normal and people can do right turns at red lights, traffic permitting.
- Petrol / Gas prices are stupidly low. $5 gallon approx, and they think that’s expensive.
- Advert on TV boasted about a trucks 19 miles to the gallon!
- All you can drink soft drinks are standard in most places.
- All you can eat steak house, worth the cash, but only if you starve yourself
- Cinema / Restaurant combo where you watch films and get proper food & service.
- Sushi’s about the healthiest thing people tolerate here.
- Most regular food is beef, chicken, lamb, etc
- Tex-mex is popular, and they like their spices big style.
- Only a few veggie specialist that people seem to know of
- Alcoholic drinks prices in clubs are HIGH! $39 for 3 drinks!!! Most bars are on par with the UK.
- Rednecks and ghetto guys all mix together as part of nightlife!
- Guys with the big bucks standing on chairs with full bottles of vodka and, predictably, loads of women in several clubs.
- Not that many dedicated bars and clubs in comparison to UK
- Gentlemen's clubs were rumoured to be the best in the world, but some will apparently rob you blind if youre dumb enough to put your card behind the bar!
- Average person is about 2-3 stone overweight. Not that many slim-regular people on the go.
- Adverts constantly on TV for gastric bands to aid slimming
- Not that many gyms although quite a few fitness shops.
- Drugs and drug stores are a major business. Every supermarket has a huge pharmacy and medication is almost put on a par with shopping (signs say “food & drugs)
- Couldn’t get on a treadmill to run as everyone was using them to walk… walking is some people’s main form of exercise!!!
- Food shopping is ridiculously family orientated: you can’t buy small portions; everything from bags to individual fruit is at least 50% bigger.
- No diluting juice or staple European foods like pasta
- People always pack your bags for you
- Similar to UK prices for everything.
- Most grocery stores are massive franchises and offer amazing rates with loyalty cards.
- Not much wildlife in Houston, midges come out at night and there’s a lot of bugs, ands, insects & beasties.
- Most flats are laden with insect repellant and traps.
- Didn’t see or hear many domestic pets, just the odd dog.
- Massive vultures circle tall buildings
- Internet’s pretty expansive, and because of large geography wi-fi’s not as popular in public places
- HD is the norm for most pubs and restaurants, the HD content is about 200 channels – UK has 35.
- Plugs give off massive sparks every time you put them in the wall (no earth wire) never get used to it.
- Normal technology is on par with the uk for advances, but prices are 2/3 of UK.
- On Demand TV is cool, but have to pay more for premium stuff and not as convenient as Sky+ / tivo
- Cable TV shows all kinds of film during the day: 9am had Striptease and Apocalypse Now on a weekday – nice.
- Fox TV was so unbelievably right wing that I can’t believe it’s even legal to broadcast.
As I said at the top, it's a fantastic city and I'd recommend it to anyone that fancied a visit. For Nerds NASA was the single coolest you'll ever spend a whole day.
