I went to the supermarket here at about 5.30 on Saturday hoping to get a snack while I worked in the office. While I was standing on line, I noticed the enormous amounts of alcohol being purchased by individual Estonians on line. "Christ, what a bunch of drunks, I thought to myself." Then I purchased my food and moved on.
At 5.45 I received a call from my wife, who informed me that if I wanted to buy any alcohol to drink until May 3, I should go to the supermarket now, because the government had placed a nationwide ban on alcohol sales until that date. This sort of explained the behavior I saw previously but, still, how can you drink two cases of A. Le Coq in a just a few evenings. It didn't seem possible.
When I ventured back into the store it was even crowded than before with last minute boozers stocking up. I decided to buy just a few beers, and because these kinds of bans don't happen everyday, a nice Saku Gin Long Drink. I had a cold and I thought the grapefruit inside would do me good.
In line with me were the most unsuspecting drunks you ever saw. Two guys that looked like 19 year old chemistry majors stood in front of me with a whole cart filled with enough booze to make you sick just by staring at it. They laughed when they saw my expression. "Nii palju," I said to them. "Jah," they replied sheepishly.
Another guy in front of me had two huge cases of Saaremaa õlut, which is one of the most alcoholic beers in Estonia. It's basically like drinking beer with a shot of vodka mixed in. I couldn't fathom this one guy needing all that beer until May 3.
But you never know with these Estonians.
7 kommentaari:
Due to gross miscalculation of the needs of my guests, I once bought 26 Puls beers at Rimi for a party. They looked so harmless in the shopping cart, but once at the checkout it looked obscene. I was getting stares from most of the other shoppers. I had no excuse though, as this was on a thursday before the prohibition. And stuff.
I take it some people aren't happy about the ban, LOL:
Madness?
how can you drink two cases of A. Le Coq in a just a few evenings
it seems that someone still has to fully integrate :-p
"to integrate entirely" sounds better
The fact that alcohol needs to be banned in the entire country shows that how large of a problem alcohol abuse is in Estonia. This isn't just happening because of the riots but it happens every year for May 1st.
Estonian needs to do more to address it's alcohol abuse problems going forward imo.
May 2. I am now out of red wine and down to my last bottle of Czech dark beer. If anyone knows the identities of the students seen buying in bulk in various stores on April 27, especially if they were buying Czech beer, please post them.
(Tõmmu Hiid or maybe even Toolse will do nicely too.)
Postita kommentaar