Although still unemployed, due to my girlfriend Marianne now working regular office hours we have entered the world of living for the weekend and Saturday night being the big one for the week. The night life itself I will save for another time but I just wanted to quickly touch upon Sundays in Norway.
Traditionally I think in many parts of the world everything closed on Sunday, you were meant to go to Church, see your family and all that jazz. This is of course no longer the case again in most places as far as I'm aware. In England for example although shops will typically close a little earlier, basically everything is open. Many banks even work full days Saturdays now so its probably only time before even they have to face the grind with the rest of those who work in retail and hospitality and swing open there doors on what was once the sacred day of rest.
In Norway however, everything is closed on Sunday. When I say everything, I really of course mean most things, but still loads more than I would expect. Bergen it seems to me has a lot of shopping malls for example, apparently you just can't have enough H&M and Carlings (clothing stores) within a thirty mile radius. It therefore seems strange that of just two none working days in the week they are all closed. If you look a little deeper though this does sort itself out quite nicely. These stores are largely open till 20/21 in the evening throughout the week and with the majority of Norwegian offices clearing at 16:00 (and not a minute later if what I have been told about Norwegian working culture is to be believed) then this gives ample time to still shop during the week and saving Sunday for its blissful simplicity.
It's not just the shopping malls though, the supermarkets too. In order to be legally allowed to trade on a Sunday the store in question must be of a certain size, I can tell you from experience this size is small. About a quarter of the size of a regular Norwegian supermarket which itself less than half the size of a decent English supermarket. I have no doubt American ones are several times bigger than that again. I'm aware that probably all got rather confusing, and short of creating a crude diagram I must ask you simply take my word for it, you have to be prepared for Sundays. You don't want to be under-supplied, its deeply tedious
The easiest way of not having to think or worry about all this hullabaloo in my opinion is to make sure you plan to have a big night Saturday and have along with your preparations for the night also organised yourself for the subsequent hangover on Sunday and then, viola! You don't want to leave, you don't need to leave, who cares whats open. Bliss.
The point that started this all off in my brain was that this weekend Marianne and I went out Friday, this meant hungover Saturday and a chilled Saturday night in. This was then inevitably followed by a very boring Sunday. The weather had not quite lived up to our hopes for a trip to the sea and therefore we were left twiddling our thumps all day. If I'm being totally honest this doesn't bother me too much, I have previously been described as an expert at doing nothing, and some may consider a hangover to be doing nothing! But I'm afraid you would be wrong, a hangover is like putting the tent down after a camping trip, a tedious but necessary task that follows the initial enjoyment.
As always I have found myself going off on so many tangents, who knows what my initial point was and I have no idea how this post ended up so long so I should probably quit digging.
Please feel free to suggest you best Sunday activities :D
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