Austria

zippygirl

Can you believe that Austria is the ONLY country in the EU that still allows smoking indoors?!?! That means that people can STILL smoke in restaurants and cafes!
And to think, Italian, of ALL people, were the first to ban smoking in all indoor establishments!?!?!? WOW

Abrasax

I've been smoking indoors in Spain, as recently as two months ago.
Is it banned there now, as well?

And you can still smoke in a lot of the bars here in Amsterdam. People just blithely ignored the ban, so much so, that the authorities turn a blind eye where the bar owner allows it.

The Hill Billy

You can still smoke in bars in Germany. A lot of bars use a loophole in the law to set up a "Raucherclub" (smoking club) for their customers where you sign a waiver, become a member & spark up as much as you like.

BeerNut

Romania, Poland and Slovakia all have quite lax laws too.

A bit more research required there, OP.

the_syco

Abrasax wrote: »

And you can still smoke in a lot of the bars here in Amsterdam. People just blithely ignored the ban, so much so, that the authorities turn a blind eye where the bar owner allows it.

Oh? I know that it's legal to smoke weed, but not tobacco there, but meh; an interesting fact.

ArmaniJeanss

I think the difference between Ireland/UKs smoking bans, and the smoking bans of various other countries in Europe is the way they are enforced.

Its a proper ban in Ireland and the UK, with huge fines for the customer/bar and is thus enforced harshly by the bars. So no-one smokes.

Whereas a lot of mainland Europe just has a theoretical ban, enforcement is lax, and breaking the law is seen as just a minor thing.

Recent examples from holidays in the last year.

* In Copenhagen a few months ago myself and a few locals were drunkenly smoking sly cigarettes in a corner booth of a bar and when the staff caught us they just politely asked us not to smoke anymore, but no big deal.
* In Amsterdam we were asked just to open a window and lean out.
* In Poland loads of bars had no smoking signs everywhere but still leave the ashtrays on the table and everyone smokes.

Delancey

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

* In Poland loads of bars had no smoking signs everywhere but still leave the ashtrays on the table and everyone smokes.

Warsaw here I come.....

Kareir

Was in spain a week ago, ashtrays inside all the bars.

_Kar

Gaudizeit

It's a strange feeling going into a bar these days where they allow smoking. The last place I experienced this was in Darwin. I actually prefer going to a smoking room or heading outside.

Delancey

Gaudizeit wrote: »

It's a strange feeling going into a bar these days where they allow smoking. The last place I experienced this was in Darwin. I actually prefer going to a smoking room or heading outside.

Is the ' Mullett ' still the preferred hair style in Darwin ?

Dave147

I was in Slovakia two weeks ago and there are no signs anywhere insinuating theres any sort of ban, pity really. I wasn't in Bratislava though, I was in Liptovsky Mikulas which is about 200 hundred miles North East, maybe it's different in the capital but I doubt it.

ThunderApple

I just love non-smoking bars and clubs. Okay, sweaty people and beer stinks too but at least it causes no allergy in my case. I've been to Austria and I've seen those smoking bars. I thought I could walk on the air, oops, I'm sorry, on that so called air, because noone can breath in there. And each time people saw me not doing well because of the smoke they started to laugh and said I was a weakling. The only way to avoid the smoke was staying in my hotel but that's stupid. The worst thing about it was that there were almost no non-smoking bars or restaurants (except McDonald's).

OldGoat

ThunderApple, have a read of the charter of this forum. You seem to have missed the point. We are not here to bemoan smoking.

ThunderApple

Sorry, didn't find a non-smokers' thread here *blush*

The Hill Billy

Why have a 'non-smokers' thread in the Smoking forum?

There's a Giving Up Smoking forum under the Soc category. Maybe that would be more suitable for you.

Take care,

HB

bladebrew

i was in zakynthos (greek island) on holidays a few weeks ago and apparently there is a smoking ban there but they completely ignore it, the ony place that seems to enforce the ban is the airport,

i was there 2 years back and was able to drink beer from the duty free and smoke while waiting for the flight home:)

this year just no smoking signs everywhere:(