[rant]
Now we have a baby in tow we obviously need to find places to eat that are non-smoking. This is hard.
OK, there are options available via a quick search at www.nofumadores.org, but if we try to think of favourite old restaurants that are smoke free, we can only think of four. Two are pretty expensive for a weekday lunch, one is completely over the other side of town, and the last is a wonderful Hare Krishna center where you sit on the floor and eat rather delicious Tali, but again, quite a metro ride away.
So come on Spain, SORT IT OUT!!! If the French, the English, Irish and Italians can all do without smoking in restaurants and bars, why can’t Spain? In brand/image terms, this smoking thing is going to make your country start looking pretty intelectually and sociologically backward pretty soon.
Yes I know you passed some half-arsed ‘less-smoking’ law a few years ago, but it only applies to places over 100m sq., of which there are about 3 in Spain, and everyone ignores the legislation anyway!
I also realise that at street level, hardly anyone really gives a damn. A friend told me the other day about going into a bar with 3 sets of parents, each with small children in prams/strollers, and ALL of the parents smoking! The smoke was so bad that my friends left the bar! We see parents breathing smoke over their kids every single day, so this is not an isolated, or surprising, case…
So come on Spain, work on your self-image AND your nation’s health a bit, and get with the damn program. Look at the French! No one smokes like the French (except the Spanish), yet they have done it – 100% non-smoking bars and restaurants now a pleasure to be in, a pleasure to enjoy that wonderful food in. Spain Spain Spain. How long til you sort this out?
[/rant]
Feel better now. Still can’t find anywhere smoke-free and local for lunch though. Grrrrrrrrr 😦
Notes from Spain by Ben Curtis 