Re Scandi alcohol

Iceland is similar in that you can only buy strong liquor in govt licensed shops which are not the same as supermarkets which generally don't stock any alcohol but a few do carry bears.

And in a country already famously expensive (for outsiders, at least) they tax it to the absolute hilt, especially the strong stuff.

When you go in you can get up to a certain amount tax free in the duty free shop - again it's strictly controlled.

Which is odd because Icelanders - I've worked in publishing and Icelanders publish more books per capita than any other nation and so I know a fair few of them - drink like f**king fish. I'm not known for being abstemious but I am a rank amateur compared to even the most professionally-serious of these guys.

At book fairs it's the Finns, though, who deliberately try to get me pissed (usually they succeed; but I can't honestly claim to put up much in the way of resistance).

Posted By: Old Man, Nov 19, 18:29:30