Finland recap

I filed my write-up of my trip to Finland with Finlandia Vodka in my personal blog, as there isn't too much information about vodka in it beyond the ridiculous amounts of it that were consumed while there. But if you're interested, you can read part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Land of the Hangover

Hey y'all- I'm in Finland right now courtesy of the people at Finlandia vodka and Brown-Forman, whose products I drank way too much of last night. I'll post a more complete entry later, but here are my thoughts so far:

• If the luggage loader breaks and they can't load half the luggage on the plane, why not wait until it's fixed before sending the plane off? My comfy airplane t-shirt did not make a great urban exploration t-shirt for the additional 24 hours I was forced to wear it (so far).
  
• Finn Air's wine and spirits selection in business class was delightful. The veggie meals? Not so much.
  
• Monday night and we went bar-hopping to four venues. I think we got back sometime after 3:30AM. I like this place.
  

Thursday update-I'm back from a night of partying in Lapland, where the sun is shining 24 hours a day now. I am absolutely polluted with vodka that at some point of the night we stopped drinking in cocktails and began chugging out of the bottle. Boy do I ever need a shower.

Sunday update- I'm back in SF now. Pictures are here. More details after I'm back from my next trip.

Booze Cruise News

Here's a story on the rules of bringing aboard wine and spirits onto cruise lines from ports of call. Most cruises prohibit bringing anything aboard (so you have to buy it from their bars), and though you can buy bottles in the onboard gift shops, most of them still won't let you drink it in your cabin, but hold it for you until the end of the cruise like an airport duty-free shop. The article lists the rules for various cruise lines.

Where to Drink in London

The New York Times runs a nice long piece on where to drink in London. (Print and save it before they make you pay!) There's not a whole lot of new information there as to why it's better than New York (or SF)- bartenders tend to be career bartenders rather than people passing through the profession so there is more consistency in the quality of drinks. The drinks themselves are what you might find in better bars everywhere, with fresh ingredients and bartenders trying to outdo each other by incorporating obscure liqueurs into their cocktails.

There is, however, a nice list of bars in which to drink, that includes more than the ones I've always heard about: Trailer Happiness, Milk and Honey, Lonsdale.

I wonder, though, if the drinks are better overall, or just more consistently good. How good can a cocktail get? Have I tasted perfection already, or is there further to go? I guess I'll have to wait for someone to fly me to London to investigate in person.