I started wondering about Finnish drinking habits from Finnish stand up comical Andre Wikström’s show in Sweden. He said  that a Swedish woman had been scolding him when he was drinking, but he made a good comeback:

“Young man! I can have fun without drinking!”
“I bet you do, but I’m from Finland. I can drink without having fun.”

So.. yeah…. .. … …. I know Finnish people like drinking, youngsters like partying..

I found facts telling that in 2006; 3000 Finnish people died of facts relating to alcohol consumption and in 2008 they said that the amount of drinking even rose to 10,5 liters per capita. We have alcohol related sickness  60 procent more than the French..

Use of alcohol has increased considerably in Finland over the last decades, in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s  the use of alcohol stepped in to the  in youth culture. This meant more people started drinking and the drinking habits increased with time.

I know people who started drinking heavily at a young age and still do, they aged pretty fast, some of them got kids at a young age too.

I myself have to admit trying the state of drunkenness at the age of 13, but i had strict parents and i newer got to truly live the party life. But as a clever kid i disguised some parties as sleepovers and at the age of 15 i got bored. I wondered was this it all, random crazy house parties, sure it was nice and all. But maybe as i was a outsider of the gang i partied it in the beginning, the feeling  when i got in it wasn’t that special.. My hopes had been set to high..

And Helsingin Sanomat (a Finnish newspaper) wrote in 2004:

“Consumption of alcoholic beverages hit a new record in Finland last year. In terms of absolute alcohol, Finns consumed a total amount of 53.7 million liters in 2004. This corresponds to 10.3 liters per capita or more than a bottle of spirits a week per head of population. Previously, 10 liters had been considered an almost unattainable figure.”

Alko  is a government controlled company, It has a monopoly in the wine and spirits market in Finland. Beer and other mild beverages are sold in supermarkets, but wine is only sold in Alko. Only over 18 year olds can buy alcohol and on only to a level to 22 procent. Everything over that u have to have a age over 20 years old..

But truthfully, you always find someone that will buy out stronger staff fore you. When we wanted sider as youngsters we just called someone who was 18:teen and even some 20 year olds bought stronger stuff for us. It was all about connections. Everyone just wanted to have fun.

These days they say young people are drinking less these years. But i think it’s because the will to resist has grown, we learn from others mistakes. Watching a 14 year old girl taking care of a kid and her drunk boyfriend makes us realize what we want from our lives..

I stopped going to parties at the age of 15, i just didn’t care anymore about them… But when i turned 18:teen i started my fun in small portions again..

Just hang out and socialize in bars sometimes. It’s relaxing to do it something and thankfully I’m one of those that can take care of themselves.. If anything that i learned as a 13 year old…

Maybe we are just us, the melancholy viking from the north.. ;D It’s in our blood…