Smoking and Bathrooms

These are the two things I hate most about Austria.  Upon entering the country, you’ll notice that not only does everyone here seem to smoke, but Austria seems to be the only western European country not to have instigated a smoking ban.  Their new law, which still doesn’t take effect for a couple years, is to have smoking and non-smoking sections.  They are years behind the USA and the rest of western Europe.  Our trip to Munich proved to be very enjoyable since they have forbidden smoking in all indoor buildings including restaurants and bars.  Here in Austria, one can smoke just about anywhere it seems.

I suppose it’s hard to pass a smoking ban when the majority of the population lights up every 5 minutes including the 16 year olds who take the train with me to school in the morning.  You can buy cigarettes in more locations than you can anything else.  Vending machines are located on every street corner in case you smoke your last one on the previous block.

The other thing which drives me nuts is the bathrooms.  Finding a public bathroom is a challenge and upon doing so, be prepared to hand over some money in order to use it.  Whether it’s a turnstile or a bowl with a scary woman watching over you, bathrooms are never free.  You just finished an expensive dinner at a restaurant and expect that as a customer the bathroom must be free.  Oh no, paying $50 for your meal certainly doesn’t entitle you to use the bathroom for free.  You think you can just walk by and not tip.  Beware, these women will force it out of you, physically or through intense fear. 

This phenomenon makes absolutely no sense to me.  In a country with socialized health care, an excellent public transportation system and many other great things, they don’t seem to understand that using the bathroom is a natural thing that people should be entitled to, at least if they are a paying customer.  It also doesn’t make any sense to me that paying a bathroom attendant minimum wage to watch over the bathroom 24/7 is more economical than simply not charging people to use the bathroom.  I can’t imagine the 10 cents tips add up enough money to pay their wage.  Then comes the other method, the turnstile.  This one shocks me just as much.   Public transportation in every city here is done on the honor system.  No turnstiles, nothing.  There are just random checks every couple months and even those have to be announced in the paper and online.  The only regular checks occur on the national trains.  For some reason though, they feel it makes sense to install turnstiles at bathrooms forcing victims to hand over 50 cents before entering.  I can’t imagine how many bathroom users are required to pay for the cost and maintenance of these turnstiles.  On top of that, a bathroom attendant is often present.

So, with that, I’m going to use the free bathroom in my smoke free apartment.  However, even our apartment absorbs some of the smoke smell from the Wettbüro below.