I Turned Into A Proper Binge Drinker When I Moved Abroad

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Hi everyone. Today I just wanted to talk about how moving abroad or Oslo in my case just turned my binge drinking into overdrive.

[00:00:11]And I think it's quite a common thing to happen.

[00:00:15]I recently just started um being the habitual creature I am, I started watching a lot of Thailand videos.

[00:00:23]And what [clears throat] I mean is just folk that are moving to Thailand.

[00:00:26]Uh maybe they've retired or maybe they're doing a YouTube channel or something similar to that.

[00:00:32]And they end up moving to Thailand and end up just getting in the worst side drinking cycle ever. And it's so easily done. And I see it with folk moving to Spain and Portugal and all those places.

[00:00:48]And I think I pretty much did the same even though Scandinavia's not really got a drinking culture. I don't think there's no pub culture there.

[00:00:58]And but I think it's quite understandable.

[00:01:02]And I got the opportunity after I graduated um back in 2005, I was working in the oil and I really wanted to get to Norway and just me being me as I just put myself out there. I asked every man and their dog pretty much if there was any opportunities there. And I ended up working on a a project which I was meant to be over in Oslo for the two-week two-weeks, I think it was.

[00:01:28]And I ended up being nine months. And after the nine months, my boss who I was working with pretty much just said, "You fancy moving over?

[00:01:37]You fancy uh yeah, just leaving the office in Aberdeen and coming to work with me?"

[00:01:44]And I ended up staying there for a good seven, eight years pretty much and had the time of my life.

[00:01:49]But when you move to a different country, I think everyone knows the scoop, you know, you don't really know anyone.

[00:01:57]Top no mates pretty much. You're just rediscovering a new city and it's a bit of a lonely experience in the beginning of course and the first 6 months can be quite tough especially back then. I can't really I don't think there was there was no FaceTime or anything like that. I think there was Facebook. Um but even when I moved into my flat over there um you know, there was the no Wi-Fi for the first couple of weeks and stuff like that. So what you tend to do is like always you gravitate towards what you know, you know, and what I knew was going to pubs and bars and meeting folk that way.

[00:02:41]And even the thought to be honest of you know, I'm bearing in mind I'm like 23 24 25 so I've got that boozer's mindset of course the drinker's mindset and the thought of going to like a club or something like that or a community group just wasn't even on my mind, you know, I wasn't even something I would even consider.

[00:03:02]And I I just I I lived right in the city center on Bogstadveien it was called and it was bang in the center of the party area typical me. I remember my work gave me an allowance.

[00:03:17]Um it was about 1,000 pounds a month for the first 12 months to to cover costs of an apartment. But Oslo is mega expensive like mega expensive. So I ended [snorts] up just paying a couple of hundred quid myself I think and getting a really small one bedroom apartment. But it was really small but did the job and it was bang right in the center and I thought this is amazing, you know, I was whatever 24 25 years old at the time.

[00:03:44]Kind of happy days.

[00:03:47]But I would just go out myself at night.

[00:03:49]And it was really common with expats over there and I'm sure it's like that round the world where you know, you don't really want to stay in. And I think that's the quite common as well, even if you weren't a drinker.

[00:04:03]You know, you're you end up uh just wanting to see the city. You know, I honestly felt like I was 18 again, you know, moving to a new city, a beautiful city at that, and you know, what an incredible opportunity it was.

[00:04:17]It was just I just remember being so excited.

[00:04:20]But then every night um you know, you go out and explore and so I was I was actually quite good at behaving on school nights, you know, when I'd work the next day, especially cuz it was a new opportunity and I was always worried about going to work smelling of drink. So that's why I never really drunk on a school night.

[00:04:41]Um it's just something I didn't really want to do. And that was back then you were in the office 9:00 to 5:00. It wasn't that there was nothing uh like working from home or anything like that.

[00:04:51]And you know, Thursday night, Friday, Saturday just end up going out yourself, you know, to bars and stuff. And when you're doing that and you're going to payday beers and stuff like that, you're just gravitating towards the people that booze, you know, you just want to hang around with your own tribe, the boozer tribe in my case.

[00:05:13]And I think, you know, looking back the first 2 years was fun.

[00:05:19]You know, I the real lucky to meet the people that I did. But saying that, I put in a lot of effort. I did. You know, I would I would never say no to anything, uh even if someone was meeting for drinks or a pub quiz like across the city. I would still get a taxi there.

[00:05:36]You know, I would get jump on the bus, jump on the tram, even if it was for an hour and so just to meet people. And 6 months in, I had a really group close group of mates and I I'd actually moved in a flat with a Norwegian and a a Swede as well. So, I'd like I was really close with them after a while and cuz I didn't really like living on my own.

[00:06:00]Uh and you know, bear myself in my 20s at the time. Couldn't do that now being 42, but at the time it was great and then I had like workmates and also just had folk that I knew through people that didn't work at my work. And like I say, just through effort and stuff I'm that's I had like three different kind of sets of group I could go out groups I could go out with.

[00:06:21]But, the first 2 years was fun and then once you get settled it's the bars the bars become same old, you know, and but I think by the time I was about 27, 28, that's when I could it was starting to like really feel it. You know, you start feeling it on the Monday morning even though you've maybe only went out the Saturday night or if you've been out Friday, but didn't even really have a late one in the Saturday. You're like yawning all day and it just stopped really becoming fun.

[00:06:51]And it was a weird a weird situation to find yourself in because you've for your whole life you've been able to just get up and do your thing and at night time, right, crack open a beer and that was it, but times change and we get a bit older.

[00:07:08]And it's weird because I don't know if when I look back, I don't know the advantages of looking back and thinking should I have quit at this time because, you know, there were good times, of course.

[00:07:20]I never bashed back then. You know, I met some great people, had great days out at festivals in summer and um parties and stuff and the people I met, you know, I don't I would not I wouldn't have met them if I wasn't boozing because, as you know, booze is the common denominator. You know, it's like fancy a pint to watch the the football or the rugby or you want to come back over to mine for a for a drink and that's just the kind of way it was.

[00:07:48]And the amount of money I spent must have been absolutely obscene as well, you know.

[00:07:52]Oslo's like 10 pound a pint country.

[00:07:56]And it's just crazy.

[00:07:58]And yeah, I can see the challenges tenfold if you're moving to somewhere like Thailand, you know, or you're I've actually got quite a few folk in the comments that that messaged from Thailand. Um and it would just be so tough over there. Like that British expat culture, community, it's just so much revolves around booze.

[00:08:27]I think, you know, there is going there are going to be sober folk out there, but you know, it's just so much easier, it feels, when you're in that mindset to just go out and have a beer.

[00:08:38]And I've got mate mates that live in Dubai as well. They said that the one of the guys actually doesn't drink that I know, but they both just say everything revolves around the the drinking expat community, the the bottomless drinking brunches, and just it's so hard to meet somebody and especially on the dating stuff, you know, when you go to the different countries and it's just ingrained in what how we meet people. You meet at a bar and you have one or two drinks or you go and play pool and you have one or two drinks or you go to the cinema and you have a few drinks afterwards. So, it's so tough.

[00:09:13]But I think lessons learned, you know, maybe I didn't need to go out to every single thing and get absolutely smashed. Maybe I could have just went to the pub quiz, took a car.

[00:09:29]At the time I said I couldn't afford a car, but I think if I had just stayed in two nights a week instead of going out clubbing etc. I could have afforded one and drove to the pub quizzes and just drove round to my mates to watch the football.

[00:09:46]But it is what it is. But well hopefully you like this video.

[00:09:52]Like I say, I can appreciate the challenges if you're living in countries like Spain and um and Thailand and Thailand and if you're in Dubai as well.

[00:10:04]Um it's really tough, but you know, there's another way of doing it. You don't need to go out and get smashed.

[00:10:10]There will be sober communities there.

[00:10:11]There's plenty to do and see which I'm hopefully showing you in these videos when you're that don't revolve around drinking and it's I honestly think it's 10 times more fun.

[00:10:21]But please like, type, subscribe and all that good stuff and I'll see you in the next one. Take care.