Today is a national holiday here in Russia. It's Russia Day (День России), which celebrates the 1990 Russian declaration of sovereignty from the USSR. Most people, however, call this holiday Russian independence day, which isn't exactly accurate, but who am I to judge. The important thing for most people is that this is day off from work and school, and very few people really do any Russia-Day-connected celebrating on this holiday. I get the feeling that a lot of people have a disparaging attitude to this day, perhaps because it is a holiday that is trumped up by the not-so-popular government and that doesn't have any real grounding in Russian culture. It most certainly isn't anything like America's Independence Day.
In Russia, of course, a holiday is an excuse for many people to do a lot of drinking. Vodka and beer retailers are doing an even brisker business than usual today. An interesting thing about Russia is that all alcohol sales in stores stop at 11pm and don't begin again until 8am. That is actually a federal law, and mostly it's enforced, at least in big cities. You have to plan out any beer runs because, after 11:00pm, you can't buy anything alcoholic. I know no such law exists in the United States, at least not on the national level, and I remember my friends and I were once surprised by the fact that 7-11 in Columbus refused to sell us a 6-pack of some classy beer at 1:00am--they claimed it was store policy not to sell beer after midnight.
Back to Russia, I guess the motivation for the law was to reduce the supply of alcohol available in an attempt to reduce alcoholism and alcohol-related fights and other problems, but the result is that there are big lines of people racing to buy their booze at 10:50pm, and 11:00pm looms as a stark boundary by which you have to have bought your alcohol for the evening. Also, Russians believe that a good hangover cure is a beer in the morning (it doesn't really make you feel any better--it just makes you feel...drunk again), so there are also lines at stores at 8:00am waiting for the harried cashiers to open the locks and shades that cover the shelves with beer and vodka.
Anyway, I'll try to avoid the alcohol mania here in Russia like I usually do; a drink here and there is fine, but I can't get slammered every weekend like a lot of people here do. On an unrelated note, check out this video of traffic in Ho Chi Min City:
The Most Dangerous Traffic Circle In The World?
In Russia, of course, a holiday is an excuse for many people to do a lot of drinking. Vodka and beer retailers are doing an even brisker business than usual today. An interesting thing about Russia is that all alcohol sales in stores stop at 11pm and don't begin again until 8am. That is actually a federal law, and mostly it's enforced, at least in big cities. You have to plan out any beer runs because, after 11:00pm, you can't buy anything alcoholic. I know no such law exists in the United States, at least not on the national level, and I remember my friends and I were once surprised by the fact that 7-11 in Columbus refused to sell us a 6-pack of some classy beer at 1:00am--they claimed it was store policy not to sell beer after midnight.
Back to Russia, I guess the motivation for the law was to reduce the supply of alcohol available in an attempt to reduce alcoholism and alcohol-related fights and other problems, but the result is that there are big lines of people racing to buy their booze at 10:50pm, and 11:00pm looms as a stark boundary by which you have to have bought your alcohol for the evening. Also, Russians believe that a good hangover cure is a beer in the morning (it doesn't really make you feel any better--it just makes you feel...drunk again), so there are also lines at stores at 8:00am waiting for the harried cashiers to open the locks and shades that cover the shelves with beer and vodka.
Anyway, I'll try to avoid the alcohol mania here in Russia like I usually do; a drink here and there is fine, but I can't get slammered every weekend like a lot of people here do. On an unrelated note, check out this video of traffic in Ho Chi Min City:
The Most Dangerous Traffic Circle In The World?
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