Welcome To Lund - Lesson Three

To complement yesterday's piece on food, I thought I would tackle the other staple of academic life...booze. Sweden is not the place to be if you enjoy cheap hooch and lots of it. A lush life can easily cost you twice your monthly rent....the government has to pay for the public systems someway right? Anyways, there are ways to cut costs and still indulge every so often. The best tip...avoid the bars. At almost all the bars in Lund a beer will run you as much as a pizza. Add to that a hefty cover charge for the privilege to buy such novelty and you will wake up with an empty wallet surely every time.

So, what is a lad to do if he needs to itch that thirst. Well, there are two options....the first option is to use your mandatory membership into the university nation society to attend 'pub' nights at the hosting nations as they come about through the week. A beer at the nation (Swedish equivalent to a fraternity) will still run you 25sek ($3 USD) per pint, but it's half or less the price than at a bar. The second option, and my personal favorite, is to simply buy booze from the Systembologet (state run liquor store) and consume it at your leisure wherever you desire. Now, for 10sek ($1.25 USD) you can buy a half liter of cheap Swedish or Danish beer in a can. The brew doesn't win any sort of awards for its tastiness, but it's tolerable and a good option for the price....don't forget to save the can when you're done....each can has a deposit of 0.5sek on it....that adds up to be big bucks if you clean up a corridor party the night after a big bash. One unique feature of Lund is that you can have an open container in the city and it is completely legal. This is a unique feature in Lund and not something that is tolerated elsewhere in the country. The reason for this is that the student union of Lund fought to keep the law this way. So, while it's cold now and a few chilly one's with your favorite blokes in a corridor room might get a bit monotonous, spring will be here soon and then a cold one on one of the many green spaces in the city will be just the ticket. So drink up and Welcome to Lund.