Lithuanian PM lights up, coughs up fine

Lithuania's Prime Minister, Gediminas Kirkilas, forgot to not smoke in a bar in the port town of Klaipėda, and earned the bar a 1,000LT (€290) fine. He claims that he "simply forgot" that smoking was banned in bars, restaurants, cafes, etc Lithuania. He has offered to pay the fine on behalf of the bar. (In Lithuania, venue owners, not patrons, are fined for breaches of the smoking ban.)

We hope he doesn't wake up one day and forgot to run the country.

Vilnius still smokin'

Pic: from flickr by matz-o-man

Smoking in bars, clubs, restaurants, cafés and miscellaneous dumps that claim to be any of those things has been outlawed in Vilnius since the start of the year. As many locals are quite dedicated to the dubious pleasure of fumigating their lungs (and those of anyone nearby) and as the marriage of beer and cigarettes is probably the most stable relationship in the country, many predicted that the smoking ban would lead to the death of the whole café and nightlife scene. Not so.

Nightlife in Old Town has been as lively as ever, and the only noticeable change is that little clouds of smoke with legs have appeared floating next to doorways. This makes it easy to spot the more happening venues. The few places I went to or stumbled past last weekend seemed to be doing quite well, especially considering the slumpish idling Januaryness that tends to affect us all at this time of year.

One smoker actually thought the ban was a good thing, claiming that it created the perfect excuse for a pub crawl. One could have a drink and a chat in one place, he suggested, and then, as you have to go outside to have a smoke anyway, you may as well go into another place. Vilnius is ideally proportioned for this. Most places are just one or two cigarettes away from each other.

There is a problem, however. If you smoke while wandering around the streets of Vilnius you will almost certainly be accosted. And not by some leaf-munching, gym-going, self-righteous healthy person. (That would be fine, as you could just cough a blob of wriggling grey phlegm onto them and they’d leave you alone.) You will be accosted by a barrage of bums trying to bum a smoke.

"Sig-a-reht-air… sig-a-reht-air…" they will wail, gesturing with two fingers toward their grubby mouth in case you have even less mental capacity than they have and don’t understand what they are saying.

If you’re walking around smoking and one of these grimwits asks you for a cigarette, I guess it’s best just to either give them a cigarette (and, heck, they’re cheap enough here – less than a pound for a pack of 20) or respond with a firm “no”.

Anyway, it’s nice to see that the nightlife is still quite healthy despite the smoking ban.