A few useful tips for drinking vodka:
How to drink vodka like a Pole
There are 2 typically Polish chasers when it comes to vodka. One is pickles, which was mentioned before. The other one is...herring(in all forms & shapes):
Na zdrowie!
Γεια μας! ( "Yia mas". It means "to our health", but in a friendly form).
The link is very educating. So, i would have to practice drinking for a month or two before i go to Poland (or end up sick every night) ? Hmm...sounds like Crete.
I 've read about herring with vodka in Sergej Lukyanenko's "Nightwatch". *geeky*
About drinking with company: one of the most precious lines in both witcher games is -of course- Zoltan's. "Drinking alone is like shitting with company".
Well, it is not that common anymore, but sometimes when guests would visit the house, we would serve
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsipouro, accompanied by some feta cheese, normal yellow cheese (can't say what type they all look the same to me), and maybe some meatballs. And bread.
Hey, come on, how you forget olives?
Olives is the traditional way to serve tsipouro/raki and ouzo. Actually, it's the best way to avoid stomach pain, too. At taverns it's served with fried fish, such as sardine, which is very good. Cheese is the worst way to drink this stuff (but yes, it's very common).
And, if you come to Epirus, serving tsipouro at home is THE LAW. I mean it, you can't have guests if you don't have tsipouro.
Sorry to turn the discussions back some pages, but i like talking about customs.
Γεια μας!