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What changed that you didn't expect to change when you moved from one place to another?
(piefed.blahaj.zone)
this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2026
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That always drove me crazy when I went to Germany. “Oops, forgot toothpaste”… wtf, nothing’s open. Guess my teeth will just rot.
Germany’s not even religious, what’s with the Blue Laws?
It's actually interesting thing. In some countries the "stores closed on Sunday" is a religious thing, like in Poland. Stores used to be open but it was changed recently because the right wing government pushed for it and most people think it's so that people go to church more.
In Germany it was the other way around: all the stores were only opened Mon-Fri and closed early because everyone just assumed that people working in stores should work the same hours as everyone else. This led to terrible experience for the customers (everyone scrambling to do their shopping on Friday evening, right after work) so they slowly started extending the opening hours and finally allowed stores to open on Saturdays.
In Spain stores are closed on Sunday but again, not because of religious reasons but as "worker's rights" thing. One shopping mall near me tried to extend shopping hours on some days during summer and all the workers complained and threatened a strike. No one wants to work on Sunday here, they prefer to spend time with friends and family.
Totally understand and to be honest I wish we had that here (Dystopian States of America). People deserve the dignity of spending time relaxing and with their families. It was just a culture shock for me the first time, and now I know to plan better when I'm in Europe. But. yeah the idea that things should be closed or prohibited so that "you'll go to church more" is obviously idiotic. Where I live, Alcohol sales were banned on Sunday even though everything else was open. They changed the rule recently, but only if a bar/restaurant/retailer specifically gets a "Sunday sales" license (apart from the other one for the rest of the week) and they can't sell until after noon; ostensibly because of course everybody should be in church before then. Stupid-ass Bible Belt eyeroll
When I lived in Poland everything was still open on Sunday and when I moved to Spain everything was suddenly closed and I had 0 issues adapting. I'm sure it's an issue when traveling but once you make that mental switch it's super easy to plan around it. I remember having discussion on reddit later and people form Poland coming up with the craziest reason why they need the stores to be open on Sunday (like "I'm disabled so I drop food all the time and what I'm supposed to do when I drop my last food on the floor and it's Sunday?"... IDK, buy more food on Saturday?)
Germany is religious AF still. Officially not really, but its a deeply Christian country. Most holidays are christian ones (the ones that are not, are not religious). The "christian" party is still the biggest party (although that is changing, and their values are more "let's suck off the rich" than christian). In some cities (like cologne) no building bigger than the cathedral is allowed. There are more examples :)
I think people confuse Christian past with actually being Christian. In Poland about 50% of people attend mass every Sunday. In Germany that's 7%.
It's still tradition in Poland to have a priest visit your home once a year to do some magic, every child gets baptized in church, 75,6% of kids attend religion classes at school because yes, religion is still part of curriculum in public schools. Abortion is illegal, there's no civil unions let alone same-sex marriage, no no-fault divorce, no euthanasia or even legally recognized DNRs.
That's a Christian country. Germany just has some Christian traditions.
True, I guess I counted Christian traditions as being Christian
Which is hilarious, because I’ve been to Cologne many times and know it’s the gay capital of the country :)
It gets stricter the further south you go, where people are more religious. In bavaria shops close earlier and can't sell alcohol after a certain time either. Overall the country is quite religious though, and especially historically has been extremely so. And something like a sunday where almost no one has to work isn't without benefits, so it won't just go away. Even shops being open on saturday past early afternoon was something that was only allowed in the early 2000s iirc.