Alcohol

The only store in town to get your alcohol from!

It was quite normal for me to socialise with my colleagues back in the Netherlands. We would meet up after work and have a couple of beers, before heading home. I liked those times, we would discuss anything from the best beers to who had worked for the company, world troubles to holidays. We weren't fussy. 

When I invited people over to my place it was me who bought the beer and (if necessary) the harder liquor. And of course the food. We would have a beer or a glass of wine even if we had to work the next day. 

Over here in Norway it's slightly different. Talking to colleagues it became quite clear they will not drink a drop if they have to work the next day. Even if it's only one out of six who has to work, all the others will be teetotal as well. Which isn't necessary a bad thing of course. You don't after all need alcohol to have a good time!

But when everybody is off the next day, the brakes are off. From what I understood basically a race to oblivion. The last man/woman standing and all that! Which was a bit horrific to my ears. Then again, you bring your own, so no extra cost for the host! Because I think in all this, cost is a very deciding factor. It is very expensive to buy alcohol in this country. Which I knew from previous experience of course and even wrote about I think. 

 

Anyway, I went to the State Off Licence (Vinmonopolet) yesterday morning to get my own booze. There is only one in the whole town, so it is usually quite busy. But if you want alcohol of any type (apart from beer, you can get that in the supermarket), that's where you need to go. Unless you're bootlegging of course, WHICH I AM NOT!!!

The party last night was great fun. And I got into the spirit of things from the start. I got myself around the first drink at half past six: some sort of Bacardi liqueur with Sprite. After that I stuck to my own: Bols Strawberry: very very sweet, but quite nice. After I had finished half a bottle, I had had enough. I had tried some Peach Vodka and some Liquorice liqueur as well and my head was telling me enough. So, I stopped. Because I knew that one more drink would result in me being ill. 

The race to oblivion didn't happen. At least not while I was there. It was just a lot of fun. With alcohol!