A weekend on the slopes - Part II

Andorra, a small country in the Pyrenees between France and Spain, is a peculiar kindofa place.

Accustomed as we are nowadays to the anti-smoking propaganda all around us, anti-smoking laws, huge taxes on cigarettes, no tobacco ads etc etc, it comes as a shock to visit Andorra and all of a sudden be bombarded with pro-smoking campaigns wherever you look.

Huge billboards line the roads with ads for Marlborough, like you used to see in the old days. Most bars, shops and restaurants are sponsored by some kind of tobacco firm and you can buy cigarettes pretty much anywhere and although the cigarettes are ridiculously cheap, they still offer free gifts on pretty much every carton of fags to tempt you to buy them. Even I was tempted, a free frisbee could come in pretty darn handy.

It comes as no surprise then, that you can smoke wherever you damn well like.

It came as a surprise to me. Since 1st January 2006, Barcelona has introduced anti-smoking laws and so lots of my favourite haunts are now smoke free, which to be honest, I quite like. Andorra is like going back in time, to a time when smoking was good for your health, ok so it was never good for your health,but to a time where smokers weren't reviled by society and smoking was a perfectly normal thing to do. Go itno any bar, restaurant and café or shop and come out stinking like an ashtray. Nice.

I wondered during my short visit, what the costs of smokers to Andorra's health service must be, as it seems that everyone in Andorra smokes...

Oh and don't think you can go there and stock up.. oh no.. these crazy discounted cigarettes (and booze) aren't for everyone. As Andorra isn't in the EU, you gotta pass through customs on your way out and more often than not they stop your car and search it. Just grrreat, especially if you forget your passport, like some people. Ho hum.

And another thing, Andorranos (people from Andorra) are complete and utter maniacs on the road. Yes, I have seen how they drive in Paris, Rome and Madrid and even Santo Domingo with its lack of road signals, but trust me, this is NOTHING compared to what Andorran lunatics get up to. Overtaking on treacheous busy mountain curves, yep they'll have some of that. Overtaking 5 cars in a row on said road, no problem. These people are seriously dangerous and have no regard for their own lives or anyone elses... Bear in mind that during winter months the mountain roads are often icy and slippy, it doesn't actually bear thinking about. Fucking kamikaze nutters. I think the journey up there may have scared me more than the actual skiing.

Bet you all wanna go and visit Andorra now :P

Talking of skiing, day 2 on the pistes was somewhat better, I didn't fall over, and I didn't crash into any small children. I also had no control of my skis so I think this lack of accidents was more down to luck than skill.

All in all after my brushes with lung cancer, traffic accidents and the dangerous world of skiing it's lucky I'm alive =)

Maybe next year I should ask Nintendo to invent a new skiing game for the WII and then I can just stay at home...