I’m in Germany now and I was walking around the CeBIT fair grounds yesterday. I was getting hungry but being a bit jet-lagged from my flight from the US and wanting to see as much as I could before the tiredness would catch up with me I postponed going to one of the many restaurants on the fair grounds. I walked into one but it was full of cigarette smoke. I went to an information desk and asked whether they have any smoke-free restaurant on the fair grounds. The young crew discussed between themselves in German and then one of them replied that there is none – smoking is permitted everywhere. To my visible surprise they added that Germany is a smoking-friendly country. But I digress…

So, back to restaurants – finally, around 4:30 pm I decided I have to eat something smoke or n smoke and walked into one of the the. To my surprise they were not serving any hot meals. It was in a less crowded part of the grounds so I thought it might be that they decided it was not worth it here. I walked another two halls – which took me just half an hour as they were mostly not interesting for me – and walked into another one. Same situation. So, I grabbed a apple pie and some orange juice and walking to the cashier and ask here why they don’t have any hot meals already.

“We have to get it all cleaned for tomorrow as we close within an hour.” was her reply – the whole fair was closing at 6 pm. To my, again, very visible surprise she added “Think of us, poor people, we also want to get home at a reasonable hour” she added. As I pocketed my change and took my tray I said “Thank you – or maybe I should say – thank you, poor people”. “Yes, you should” was her reply.