I think this position is correct. Everyone has the right to rest and time that can be spent with family and friends. If work on Sunday was allowed everywhere in Austria, then interest in Sunday purchases would be disproportionate to the cost of doing business on Sunday.
Therefore, as things are today, everyone is winning: companies do not work at a loss for themselves and burghers are satisfied with their free day when nothing distracts them. You must admit that it is difficult to spend time, say, somewhere in nature, when you know that today you could buy the same cabinet that you saw yesterday on the Internet and begin to assemble it.
However, this is how small difficulties arise for us, who are used to stores that are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you come to Austria for the first time for a long-term stay, whether it is study or work, it is difficult to get used to the fact that you need to buy products either after this study / work on weekdays, or go shopping on Saturday. In this case, you have to enjoy large queues and a huge number of people who have waited all week (studied / worked) to go shopping, buy products for the week ahead, issue a new sim card, connect the Internet and much more.
At first, difficult to rebuild
So – for the first time, having arrived in Austria, you can’t get used to the fact that you need to plan trips to the shops you need. And then I wanted, for example, to cook something on Sunday, but there was no potatoes, meat, vegetables, butter or milk, so sit without your culinary delights – eat what you have in the fridge.
In the first months of my studies in Austria, when classes started at 13:00 and ended at 20:30, it was quite problematic to do something after school. Yes, nothing was done. After 19 hours restaurants, bars, cinemas and clubs are open. Therefore, one had to visit the necessary shops before studying.
A trifle, of course, but when I’ve got used to the fact that in St. Petersburg you can always go to “Grocery 24 hours” around the corner, to “Dixie”, “Pyaterochka”, go to “Lenta” or something else without bothering how much time is now , it still takes some time to rebuild the consciousness for a new schedule.
Be ready for this.
Products are not so bad
I was a little wry, saying that on Sunday in Austria you will all die of hunger. This is not true. In Vienna, there are definitely grocery stores that are open on Sunday. The big city has yet to adapt to its metropolitan status (according to the Austrian and European frameworks). Still, after all, in the capital of Austria as of August 31, 2014, there are 1,781,105 people.
But I am still telling my story about the smaller cities of Austria, be it Innsbruck, Salzburg, Graz, Klagenfurt, Linz, Dornbirn, Bregenz, and so on. Thus, we come to the most interesting: on Sunday in the Austrian cities you can still buy food. Let’s see where and how.
Train station i love you
In most cases, there is a grocery store at the main station of your city. Whether MPREIS in Innsbruck, SPAR in Salzburg or any other store at the station of your city. I did not immediately find out about the existence of such a “station trade”, therefore I am not writing about this at the very beginning of the article. You, like, learn about the “food features” of living in Austria with me.
The station is really a salvation for those who come, for example, to the city on Sunday. There is no food at home – then go ahead to the station to buy at least something to stretch until Monday. Of course, you can go to a restaurant and eat something on Sunday, but agree that you can go to restaurants just to eat during the day and not cook at home, we do not go as often as we would like.
To get an idea:
– MPREIS at the station in Innsbruck is open daily from 6 to 21.
– SPAR in Salzburg is open daily except on Sundays from 6 to 23. On Sunday, from 8 to 23.
This is already something. Such station purchases often rescued me, when it was necessary, for example, to spontaneously go to someone for a visit on Sunday, and there was not even a fault at home, so as not to come empty-handed …
“Refill” at any time of day
I think many people know that if in Europe all the shops are closed, it is likely that you will be able to buy the thing you need at the gas station. Refueling open daily. Some work all night, but this is more of an exception to the rule. Therefore, do not be 100% sure that the gas station that you saw at the entrance to your hotel / hostel will be open on Saturday or on Sunday at 3 nights.
Thinking of buying something at a gas station, you need to understand that the prices at gas stations are decently higher than ordinary store prices. According to recent studies, about which I only heard from friends, the main source of income for refueling is the store with it, and not the sale of fuel. Therefore, I advise you to buy at a gas station only in extreme cases, if there are no other options.
For the same reason, I do not recommend that you refuel at gas stations or eat at roadside restaurants on the autobahn – everything is more expensive there. It is better to get to the exit from the highway to some town and fill both the car and your stomach there.
It is worth mentioning the trend of grocery stores to open its mini-branch when refueling. So, for example, you can see all the familiar food brands Billa, Merkur, Spar, Mpreis at gas stations. Products in these mini-affiliates are cheaper than in conventional gas stations, however, according to my feelings (I don’t often buy something at gas stations), it’s still more expensive than in their urban equivalents.
Post
I always thought that since the post office is a state organization, it does not work on Sunday. I was wrong. At least the central postal branch of your city should work on Sunday. And the trend is usually this: on Saturday the mail is open until about 14 o’clock, on Sunday – up to 18!
Therefore, if you suddenly need to urgently send something on the weekend, you can always come to the central branch and arrange the departure. Another thing is that the parcel will be physically sent on Monday anyway (unless, of course, you use the services of expensive DHL, UPS and the like. Express delivery services). But you will be calm that on Monday you will not need to get up at 6 am in order to have time to send a parcel before the start of classes at the university / working day in your company.