I've just returned from a veeeeeeeeeery difficult week�s vacation in Paris (I know, is that really possible?!? Don�t worry, I�ll explain�) and recall someone else was going there and worried about doing it as a non-smoker. I�m dying to know how it panned out, in fact, how anyone�s first vacation went. This was a new and entirely significant experience, hence, I share.
Bottom line � I�m happy to report that after a rocky start and an exhausting seven days, I'm still smoke free. But like a deity, I bow to Kalms right now, they saved my quit. No joke. Two a day from the get go would've made all the below a bit less edgy.
Anyhoo, DH and I have been to Paris now five times and every previous edition involved the fantastically indulgent sitting streetside at at least one cafe a day, people watching and absorbing the scenery while drinking 'deux grandes Heinekens s'il vous plait' and smoking...one after another after another. Not this time, but it took me a full two days to accept the fact that this is the new reality.
The big cosmic challenge played out thusly...
Multiple negative things happened in rapid succession on one day in particular (day 1 or 2, can't quite remember, I just know it really sucked and riled me up) and the weather all week wasn't exactly conducive to sitting in a cafe drinking a beer, so all change, please, something�s wrong with this picture.
So we did a lot of walking instead, trips to and fro on the Metro, to museums we hadn't been to, the zoo, a bit of everywhere. Should have been fabby dooby doo but although sunny it was too cold, our hotel was too far from the centre, things seemed to be 50% more expensive than the last time we visited 1-1/2 years ago, we kept getting caught up in Metro delays and we were generally just bummed out. (DH still smokes, btw, so not a dual quit thang).
But something was really MISSING this time. I attributed it to the ciggies, but it was just a combo of everything I guess. We were desperately after a restful vacation in a city we really love and didn't have it. In retrospect, methinks this was the dodgy vacation that everyone has, the �holiday from hell� to a certain point, and we had to go and have it as the first one after I quit smoking. Crap.
On top of the new reality: