Rude Geneva

I spent last week in Barcelona, and when I got back to Geneva, it seemed more gloomy and dull than ever, in spite of the sun shine. There is really not much to this place if you don't happen to have a lot of money. And if you have problems standing smoky environments your choice of hang-out places is even more limited.
Geneva is suffering from a lack of stimuli, as well as from a lack of hospitality on all levels. To this I count the failure to reintroduce the smoking ban, the unwillingness of café- and bar owners to introduce smoking restrictions and last but not least the lack of respect from smokers when they clearly see that someone around them is suffering from the second hand smoke they are imposing upon them. I can't think of any other place I've been to where the well being of others is considered with such arrogance.

I can take last night as an example. I haven't been out in Geneva in quite a while, mainly because I can't stand the smoke. But last night I got fed up with staying at home and agreed to go to l'Ecurie - a little 'alternative' bar which usually has bands on in the room next door. It's cheep, the atmosphere is quite good, the age range widely varied and they usually play quite good music (although last night's band was a more loud than talented heavy metal band who rather unfortunately chose to start their gig by doing a badly performed cover of a Sex pistols song). The only down side is that as the night goes on, the place turns into a smoke chamber. Like with Le Cabinet, Coleur et Saveur or any slightly nice bar or caf'é in Geneva. It wasn't too bad in the beginning, but as the hours passed, it progressively got worse.



I was sitting next to the door however, which because of the bad weather was closed. So every now and then I opened it, and then it would stay open for a few minutes until someone went in or out and closed the door after them. It went on like this for quite some time, but when a group of heavily smoking people sat down at the table next to us things got really bad. One of the girls, who was sitting closest to our table, was chain smoking from the moment she sat down until the moment I left (well, she probably continued after that as well). When I opened the door, she went to close it. And this is how it went on. She could clearly see that I was suffering from her heavy smoking, especially since I got it all in my face. But instead of trying to be a bit understanding and considerate, this seemed to trigger her to smoke even more. Like she wanted to prove to me that she had the right to smoke and I should stay at home if I couldn't stand it. This is a kind of rude and selfish attitude I have gotten quite used to here in Geneva, none the less I find it extremely offensive and hard to grasp. There seems to be a general lack of respect for others in this city (or is it a Swiss thing?).
This became even more obvious to me in Barcelona, where I was shocked by how nice everyone was and how people didn't even mind if I asked if I could speak English to them! Even the bars in Barcelona where smoking is allowed didn't seem to be that filled with smoke, because people didn't smoke as heavily, and most of those places had a smoke free corner anyway. And I don't think this nice attitude is unique to Barcelona; in fact It didn't strike me last time I was there, which was when I still lived in Stockholm. Instead, I think it's got more to do with the fact that Geneva is an utterly stroppy and rude place and most other places in Europe would seem friendly and nice in contrast to what I'm used to here.
Seriously Geneva: a change of attitude would be in order!