One week and counting.....

One week from tonight will be the last evening smokers will be allowed to freely smoke in every bar and restaurant in Saxony. I can. not. wait. It's kind of interesting. In one day, Saxony will go from being about 20+ years behind the US in smoking laws to maybe 10 years ahead of some states/cities. As far as I know, about 20 years ago all restaurants in the US did away with "smoking" sections. I can barely even remember there being such a thing. I don't know how long ago it was they introduced smoking sections. But right now here in Dresden, for about 95% of restaurants, there are no smoking vs. non-smoking sections. It's all just smoke-em-if- ya-got-em, so to speak. You can be sitting down to a fancy dinner filled with delicate flavors and the couple next to you can light up and chain smoke the rest of the evening, so that everything just smells/tastes like smoke.
On the other hand, in many cities in the US, there's still no restrictions on smoking in bars. I guess because of that it wasn't completely shocking coming to Dresden, since I was at least used to the smoke in bars. But as of next Friday, in Saxony bars and restaurants will have to be primarily non-smoking. All of them I assume. Although apparently they will be allowed to have a smoking "section", as long as it can be separated from the rest of the bar by a closed door.
It would seem like it will never work, people will never accept it. But if it's worked in Ireland, Italy, Paris, NYC......I guess it can work anywhere.
Again I wonder what will become of my neighborhood bar Hebeda's. I think I might go this Friday to take some final photos of the smoky mood, and then go again next Friday to celebrate the lack of smoke.

Smoking Ban in Germany

I keep getting excited about this and then confused on how it applies. As far as I understand it has been left to individual states in Germany to enact their smoking bans. And on August 1st the first 3 kicked in. I think either then or on Sept. 1st federal buildings and trains/stations have banned smoking completely. And I've been hearing that some sort of ban has gone into effect Sept 1st for Saxony. But I can't find anything to back this up on the internet, in English or German. Does anybody REALLY know what's going on with the smoking ban in Saxony?
I heard that as of now restaurants that want to maintain a smoking portion will have to have is physically separated (i.e. by doors) from a non-smoking portion. And what about bars? And other buildings? People were lighting up yesterday inside the new Dresden conference center for the European Life Sciences Meeting. Boy, that was a "yes, we are still in Germany" moment.
Can anybody fill me in? And are the bars/restaurants in Neustadt gonna actually pay attention to this?


update: Okay, I found a few articles, it looks like Sept. 1st smoking is banned in trains, stations, etc. and federal buildings. And then for Saxony a ban kicks in in 2008 that will apply to more places i.e. restaurants, but will still include some exceptions.