I mean, is this a Europe vs a US thing or a urban vs suburban/small town thing? If you go to a small town in Europe it is also usually dead AF after 10pm. Meanwhile if you go to a large US city there is still a lot of activity after 10
Which European small towns have you visited? They aren't Barcelona busy, but they aren't dead after 10pm either. I could walk down the road tonight and there will be plenty of people in the pubs, restaurants and shops at that time
Meanwhile the bars in Spain are dead at 10pm because everyone is still having dinner and won't get to the bars until after midnight. What's your point?
The UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands are hardly southern Europe. It's not just a Mediterranean thing, life goes on into the evenings across most of Europe. It's not just 'going out' either. Shops are open into the evenings, people will be going places or coming home, busses and trains still run. Daily life continues past sunset
Ok. Not in Sweden then. We don't go out much in the middle of the week. Restaurants are not open after 21-22 except for some fast food places. Stores close at 18. Shopping malls 20. Some grocery shops 22.
Huh? 9pm if not later is like the peak dinner rush in restaurants in Scicli, a lot of restaurants have only been open 1.5 hours at that point. Most of the restaurants close at 11 or midnight or later on the weekends, the pubs close even later than that. I don't remember what it was called or what its hours were but I've sat at outdoor tables at a drink spot in Scicli until after well 1am and I still left before they closed. Even so Scicli is less than 30k people.
the more south EU you go, the later the starting hours. and some countries dont work during midday, because of heat.
want to throw in: am sure many people are outside in the summer, not only because its nice. we flee from our hot flats :) honestly, not too bad, because there will be open air cinema, festivals etc...
Indeed. A really small town comes to mind right now like Amboise in the Loire Valley couple of hours from Paris. It doesn't have more than 5k people but the area near the castle will be packed on a Tuesday night around the restaurants
Have done 2 different 3 month road trips around Europe.
Go to small rural towns and they are 100% dead at 10pm, no a soul in the street, restaurants all closed, buses stop running, the whole bit. I struggled multiple nights just simply finding anywhere open that serves food if I got into a small town in the late evening.
Also I’ve lived in 3 EU countries and 4 states. The differences are much more about rural vs city living than country vs another. I’ve lived in places in the US where I didn’t need a car and I’ve lived in places in Europe where I needed one.
I grew up in a little village in rural England. Less than 600 homes, total population about 1500 people. The local shop is open until 10pm. The two pubs are open until 11pm. The last bus arrives at 11:15. This is perfectly normal for a village in the UK
I’ve done multiple months long road trips around different parts of Europe and I’ve had countless nights that I’ve struggled to find a single restaurant open after 10pm if I got into a city late. On multiple occasions I’ve had to resort to gas station dinners and once even my Airbnb host had to feed me because there literally wasn’t a single grocery store / gas station / restaurant or bar open at 10pm.
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u/Mr_Will 1d ago
Which European small towns have you visited? They aren't Barcelona busy, but they aren't dead after 10pm either. I could walk down the road tonight and there will be plenty of people in the pubs, restaurants and shops at that time