Well, after our arrival we had a look around in the city but – honestly – the city is nothing special.
It was Saturday and suddenly around lunch time, most of the shops closed. Well, siesta, we thought. But: No, not siesta, they would reopen on Monday.
Thorsten became a bit hectic and searched around, because he needed “something” for my birthday the next day, e.g. a bottle of sparkling wine for 12 o’clock. We went in each and every still open shop and finally found a huge supermarket, open 7 days a week. Perfect, we thought.
But there were big signs at the alcohol corner: “Closed from Saturday 12 o’clock till Monday 7.30am.” WHAT???
Ok, in Germany you can buy alcohol everywhere at any time and you can drink your beer on the street. We know it’s different in New York or Boston: The consumption of alcohol on the street is forbidden, therefore on the Christmas Market (the call it Holiday Market) “Kinderpunsch” (Hot wine with tea instead of wine) is served. No, I am not kidding! And we learned, that in Australia and New Zealand alcohol has to be sold in special bottle shops – fair enough, however you get a wine or a beer there any time. Restaurants need a licence to sell alcohol, if they don’t have one, there is a sign BYO, yes, bring your own (bottle of wine). Finally, the UK with it’s last round is famous, of course. And in Morocco, especially in rural areas you might end up in villages without any shop or restaurant selling wine or beer (not even Äppler, gell Pete), due to it’s nature as a Muslim country.
However, we did not expect something like this in Vanuatu… Everyone seems to go to bed really early anyway and the city is dead at 10.30pm – bars are not really an option either *shocked*
Fazit: No “Reinfeiern” for my birthday this year! And next time we will rather explore the Cook Islands and some more islands in French Polynesia!
Wanna hear some more stories about Vanuatu? Be prepared for a looooooong evening session when we’re back in Germany