Travelling and smoking

Smoking is, for many, a necessity. For some, it is just a pleasure, every now and then Andrei for instance likes to smoke a pipe now and then (to maybe three per year.) Yes, not a heavy smoker, bt, for fun, when in a vacation or at home sometimes, he smokes a pipe (and, yes, I am recalling Georges Simenon’s books with famous commissar Maigret and the fact that he smoked pipes:)). But for Andrei it is really easy to travel and smoke. He has a small package with his pipe, cleaning tools and tobacco. However, when it comes to cigars, you always have to pay attention when traveling: to the number of cigarettes’ packages you can carry, in what luggage do you have to include them, and, once reaching your destination, you have to find different spots from where you can purchase your cigars.

I was recently talking to a friend who travels a lot and smokes heavily and she told me she switched to electronic cigarettes. I asked her why, and she told me that she did this for health reasons at first. She did some research and read many encouraging news regarding the impact of this type of cigarettes on the human body versus the “traditional” ones. An article in The Guardian stated that approximately 50,000 lives could be saved in the UK. She also read some positive articles showing other people experience after switching to this type of cigarettes, and found out that they do change your life, but in a good way and you get to do the thing any smoker loves: smoking, puffing, using the same gestures.

e-cigarettes, photo by NeydtStock /Shutterstock

Plus, she told me, the nicotine free e cigarettes are easy to find almost everywhere. Sure, in some cities or places you can be the „odd” one if you smoke them (as many are still not used to see them so much,) but the fact that they are healthier, as it seems and that they are easy to pack and you can easily find the both the e-cigarettes and their accessories, convinced her to at least try them.

Now she’s used to e-cigs and she’s happy to be “tobacco free”. She told me that she has the impression that her smell and taste improved, and she definitely likes the fact that the smell of a traditional cigar is gone (from her hair, clothes, body.) She also noticed that she was able to reduce how much she smokes – and that the overall cost is smaller compared to traditional cigarettes.

Talking to her got me to think about how many things we have to take in consideration while traveling depending on our habits. I admit I usually have to “worry” about leaving some spare space for souvenirs, to have enough batteries for my camera and a small bag for my jewelries. But, depending on the habits people have, various items have to be included in the final luggage.