Are the Danish schedules very different from Catalonia schedules?

Last Saturday I went to IKEA because I wanted to buy a lamp for my room, which is too dark. But when I arrived at IKEA, after paying two buses (that are too much expensive!), IKEA was closed.

Odense's IKEA. 

But what is the schedule of the Danish people and the shops, restaurants or bars here? Is very different from Spain? Let’s see.

The day-to-day schedule of the Danish people isn't the same as Spanish people or people of other countries in South Europe. In general, here, people begin to work at 8-9 and they have a powerful breakfast based on bread (different types of bread); butter; jam; tea and coffee.

Bread with butter and jam

Danish have lunch between 12-13h, but they don’t eat so much. They usually eat smørrebrød; that is the typical Danish black bread and they add different ingredients to it, like vegetables (tomatoes; cucumber; avocado...), eggs, tuna, different fishes, salami, and a lot of different sauces (remoulade...). They also eat carrots, potatoes or fish (especially salmon).

One smørrebrød is formed by lettuce, eggs and tomato;
and the other is based in ham; onion and cucumbers

They rarely leave the work after 4 pm, and in this way, parents can be with their children for all the afternoon/evening. They think that the creating a family union is very important and adapt their schedules to that.

You can see that Danish people work fewer hours than people in Spain. I think that they work less hours, but actually they work more, because we waste a lot of time making small breaks, having lunch, talking... and, in my opinion, Danish people organize better their time and are concentrated in their work until having finished it. That is only my opinion and I don't know if that is really true. I promise I'm going to investigate that and write a entrance comparing the working hours between Denmark and Spain; based on scientific studies.

The hour of dinner is, as average, between 7:30-9; depending on each family and they eat more than during the lunch. I’m thinking in make some entrances about Danish dishes. So don’t worry about that.

So, that’s the general schedule of Danish people. But what about shops, bars or official buildings?

The open hours of shops depends on if they are small/local shops or big/supermarket chains. Local shops are opened from 10-18, as maximum; while the bigger ones are opened more hours. For example, LIDL and NETTO are opened from 8h to 22h every day, and FØTEX are opened from 8h to 20h every day and on Saturday/Sunday from 8h to 18h.

NETTO is a good supermarket, and it is as cheap as LIDL. I like it.

Regarding to bars, they usually open at the morning and close at 12h from Monday- Thursday (There are a lot of bars that are opened on Thursday until 3-5h); and Friday and Saturday theyopen until 3-5h. But I have to write about bars/discos. I’m thinking in making some small entrances of different good bars/discos here. What do you think? It’s a good idea?

Australian Bar (AB) is opened from Thursday to Saturday, from 22h to 5h.

Finally, the official buildings are opened very few hours and the schedule is different every day of the week. For example the “Statsforvaltningen”, which is translated as “State Administration” the day that is opened for more time is from Monday to Wednesday, which is open from 10h to 15h.

So, you know that my schedules in Barcelona are very different from the schedules I’m following here; but I’m getting used to their schedules and their eating hours.

Finally I want to share an opinion regarding to the Danish hours parties. I think they are advanced that ours and they are clever! We perfectly can go out to party at 1 am and leave the disco at 6 and have breakfast until 8; but they begin their parties at 7 into the bar and then they go out to discos, like us, until 6 am. It’s easy to see that they prolong the party some hours more than us. And, of course, I’m trying to adopt their party’s schedule. 

Skål !