On the last Saturday in February, we finally took part in the new Norwegian pastime - shopping (kjøp)! From our perspective, Norwegians shop as much or more than Americans. The difference is that shopping in America takes place in big suburban malls while Norway still has a healthy, vibrant downtown - bustling with people, and more importantly people
with purchases. (Be sure to click on each of the photos in the blog to see the images closer up!)
We began our day at the Byhaven indoor shopping mall, shown in the photo above, located one block from our apartment. Including Byhaven, there are 4 small indoor shopping malls in Trondheim, each with 3-4 levels of stores selling clothing, boots, accessories, boots, home goods, boots, and food. Did I mention boots? In addition to the malls, about one third of the downtown area is devoted to clothing stores, eating establishments, and hair salons. To support all this downtown retail (in addition to several large suburban shopping centers), Trondheim draws in customers from far and wide. During the summer tourist season, thousands of cruise ship passengers disembark every week to wander the streets and shop.
Next stop: Nordre Gate - the shopping street. We ventured into the Arne Rønning clothing store to look at their stock of Dale of Norway sweaters. A young salesman asked us if we needed help finding anything (first in Norwegian, then in English after we said our "I'm sorry, we only speak English" line). We asked him if they would be getting more sweaters later, or if they were limited to their current stock. He said that they actually stock
more sweaters in the summer for the tourists because "Norwegians don't buy sweaters, we have Grandma's who knit them for us."
The next 3 downtown malls were designed in and around old buildings, preserving and revitalizing the architectural heritage of the downtown. The Mercur Mall, shown above, was built at the end of the shopping street inside an old brick building. It serves as the anchor for the shopping street and preserves a beautiful corner next to the Vår Frue Kirke (Our Lady's Church), which dates to the 1200's.
The largest indoor shopping mall is the Trondheim Torg, located next to the city's center square. One wing of this mall preserves an entire street front of wooden shops from the 1800's, shown in the photo above.
Fifteen years ago, Solsiden was an abandoned shipyard and factory district. Today, it is the most trendy shopping and eating district in Trondheim. The mall was built inside a series of brick factories, and you can still see some of the machinery and cranes used for the construction and repair of ships in drydock. The largest grocery store downtown, Meny, is located inside Solsiden. At Meny, we can buy American food imports such as Kraft mac-n-cheese, JIF peanut butter, and Aunt Jemima syrup. Good thing it's only a 10 minute walk from our apartment!
Many of the sweaters were disappointingly similar to sweaters in America. Fashion is truly global!
We couldn't help but be drawn to this sweater - although maybe not for its beauty...
We also stopped at a few of the local Fretex (Salvation Army second-hand) stores where we found this beautiful blue wool coat...
... and this red sweater. You can see some of the other random items for sale at Fretex in the mirror's reflection.
We also found this traditional Norwegian sweater at a Fretex - just Meghan's size! Look for her roaming the streets of St. Paul in her new knit sometime soon!
