Smoking in Europe
Trials and Tribulations of being a smoker
Continuing on with the trials and tribulations of being a smoker whilst traveling around certain parts of the world, I was most pleasantly surprised to discover how wonderful it was to travel on Eurail if you are a smoker. On my recent trip to Europe, I took the train from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt and then to Annecy in France. From Annecy, I then
trained across to Interlaken ending up in Grindelwald in Switzerland for a bit of skiing. During this whole journey, I had no problems in indulging in a quick smoke throughout the trip. It was great especially since you are allowed to smoke in designated areas on the train platforms in those countries. Smoking is
not allowed on the trains though – which is reasonable enough. Nonetheless, I did not have to endure not being able to smoke for more than 1 or 2 hours between train stops.
After a week of skiing in Switzerland, I took the train from Grindelwald down to Milan. From Milan, it was Florence and then Rome and finally down to Naples. Once again, during the whole time in Italy, it was great traveling around by train as a smoker. You are allowed to smoke on the platforms and certain parts of the train stations although I noticed the Italians are fairly relaxed about smoking anywhere around the train stations. To us, traveling from Germany down to Italy on a fairly relaxed schedule was great – we would purchase our train tickets to the next destination the day before. We usually bought our train tickets at the train station using one of those automatic ticket machines that are multi-lingual. These
machines are pretty easy to use after the first time or so. Once we got our train tickets, we would then go off to book our hotel accommodation using one of the Internet hotels booking websites. It was all pretty stress-less especially knowing that I would not need to worry about my smoking habit whilst traveling by trains.
Note though that throughout all of the cities I traveled to, smoking was not allowed in the Metro or Underground of these cities.
From Italy, I flew across to Athens from Rome – Greece is a smoker’s heaven – almost everyone in Athens smoked and they smoked everywhere! It certainly felt like that! It was hard not to walk around Athens and not be accosted with passive smoke from someone else all the time! Needless to say, traveling around Athens and Greece was indeed very comfortable for a smoker. Certainly, smoking was permitted in
restaurants and bars. Even in hotels with non-smoking rooms, you were allowed to smoke in the lift lobbies of the hotel floors. Note though that I did hear from someone that the Government is intending to be stricter about smoking from mid-2010 onwards. Can someone please confirm this?
I booked my accomodation via Booking.com
I booked my airfares via Your Trip, Your Way at Expedia.ca
Very informative post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!
This is such a great resource especially for smokers like myself. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!
I’ve finally found a solution for my smoking habit when I travel! I’ve switched across to electronic cigarettes. These e-cigs really do work – no more smells, no more tar, no more carcinogenic chemicals, no ashes, no butts. Now, I’m healthier and saved a whole heap of money! Best of all, traveling now is a lot easier – I don’t have to feel stressed out just thinking of being confined in a plane for hours on long flights. Also, I don’t have to spend time looking for hotels that have rooms with a balcony or at least easy access to the open-air! Hope you write a post on this new e-cigs phenomena for other travelers!
Guess what? I have now stopped smoking for almost a year! I am now into vapping e-cigs.
Es ist pperfect Zeit, um wenigen Pläne für die Dauer und es
Zeit, umm glücklich zu sein. Icch habe gelesenn lernen diese Veröffentlichen und wenn ich nur kann I
wollen mpfehlen Siee einige aufmerksamkeitsstarken Dinge oder Beratung.
Vielleicht Sie können schreiben vor Artikel Hinweis auf
inn diesem Artikel. I wollen lernen noch Fragben über it!
My brother recommended I might like this website.
He was once entirely right. This post truly made my day.
You can not believe simply how much time I had spent for this info!
Thanks!