Guy Down The Street

Traveling through the Frankfurt airport very recently, my entire notion of German cleanliness was busted. (Ok, so I was biased before, and now I stand corrected – indeed freed! – from my prejudices.)

The airport had dirty floors, full trashcans, crowded paths (that is, all signs of hustling human activity). So, what did I not like here? Well, let me explain.

The airport, being an airport of a free nation, cares for the various groups of people, especially one set that frequently goes underrepresented – the smokers! So, the airport has dedicated smokers zones to help those people live as well. So far, so good. Here is sort of how the smokers lounges are laid out:

As you walk alongside these smokers areas, you are literally walking in them. Are we to believe, that like the law abiding smokers in a law abiding German airport, the air also refuses to go outside of the “smoking areas”? Accuse me of assuming, but I don’t think so!

So, your experience in the airport necessarily gets a bit clouded by the rings of fire. Quite remarkable, that the airport thought it was necessary to give the smokers a break, but did not think it was necessary to shield the other people by using aloe-mist, providing disposable oxygen masks for walking by (or by using more boring methods of better planning, or closed smoking enclosures).

Posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 1:07 pm in travel   |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback URL