How to drink in Russia..DON'T!! That's how. LOL. I wish someone wouldve given me that advice when i first arrived to Moscow. If everyone else is having another, then surely i can too...especially if the babuska (russian slang for grandma) sitting beside me is still drinking, you subconsciously think to yourself. So you order one after another. Before you know it, youre kneeling over the toilet the next morning...while the rest of your Russian drinking buddies are headed to work, unscathed. I learned my lesson the hard way...Americans arent born for heavy drinking. Our vice is food, but i digress.
Here are a few Russian traditions I have learned for drinking since lving in Moscow...
Never touch glasses together in memory of someone who has died. Raise the glass to the sky in silence. Then take a drink
A lady should never pour her own drink if a man is present.
Never leave an empty bottle of alcohol on the table.
At New Years you smash your glass to the ground, after drinking champagne.
The gesture that you make with your middle finger and your thumb, as if flicking a booger (lmao!! that the best way i could describe it...sorry) ....when you do it against your neck, that means you want some alcohol.
Toast each time someone pours more drink into their glass. This particular tradition i love very much. It encourages you to stop and celebrate the good things in our life we tend to overlook.
In the near future one of my professional Russian barman will teach me how to make a couple of traditional, russian drinks. So be sure to look out for that blog. Until then, drink responsibly, Foxys!! Were too loved, so ruin our life with alcohol. Mwah!!