Even one of my French friends said, he was quite shocked to find out the drinking practice Finnish people have. Aaaam, before I go into details, I first want to say to Finnish readers, please dont get offended. I'm just trying to share my observations.
Quite often drinking practice here is that, you go to bar not to drink, but to get drunk. The French friend was telling, he used to go to bar quite often as well back in France, but mostly to hang around with friends and drinking bear was a part of the gossip. But here, quite often, getting trashed is quite often the target. Again, no offense please.