Posts Tagged ADHD

Who needs weeks or even days in another country when you have ADHD and pumped full of Red Bull. I can do it all in 30 hours or less. Don’t believe me, well keep reading and I’ll show you how to do it.

My flight left Boston at about 7:00 PM local time Monday June 28th. I landed in Paris Tuesday the 29th at about 7:30 AM local time, by the time I went through customs and met my ride it was 8:00 AM local time. My flight was leaving Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 PM so this gave me just about 30 hours in Paris. Not much time right??? Wrong! That’s plenty of time to do everything a city has to offer if your not a pussy and go balls out.

8:00 AM:
Met my ride at the terminal gate and drove from Airport to hotel. The traffic was brutal! It was like any other major city during the morning commute. Slow and crazy. Now imagine sitting in your normal traffic commute but there are hundreds of motorcycles and scooters splitting lanes like crazy people. The only difference is that in Paris (as well as when I have been to the UK) people look out for them and give them the right of way. Pretty sick if you ask me. Wish we didn’t drive like such assholes here because that would be awesome. Oh well. On the way to the hotel I got to see some normal shit. The stadium they built for the World Cup in the late 90s (I think it was then when they hosted it) it’s kind of beat these day and is showing it’s age some. Some shanty towns on the side of the highway, some tech buildings and normal shit you see on the highway getting closer to a major city. Mostly I was a bit tired and just wanted to get to the hotel. Once we got in to Paris it was pretty sweet. So many things to look at. Shopping that makes Rodeo Drive look like the ghetto. Flagship stores for all the trendy, designer crap that I would never wear. Still cool to see. All the drones waiting out in line in front of the Louis Vuitton at 9:30 am made me think of all the Apple Fanboys waiting out in line to get their new iPhone. Wonder if there is anything I can afford in LV? Probably not.

As we got closer to the hotel shit got a lot cooler. Some crazy sights for sure. Amazingly constructed buildings dating back to who the hell knows when. Old as shit. The driver (this German kid who has been with the band for a few weeks now) was rambling information about the sites and saying their French names for em but between that, his German accent and my lack of sleep I had no idea what the fuck he was saying.

10:00 AM:
We slowly make a corner about 100 yards from the hotel and check out what I see.

That’s right. A Tom Brady New England Patriots jersey in the Window! How fuckin’ awesome is that shit. Cool as hell…. Go PATS!!!

Next I check in to the Hyatt Paris. Sweet hotel, but at this point all I’m thinking about is getting an hour or so of sleep.

So I make my way quietly in to the room as not to wake my family, crawl in to bed (splitting a room with my bother Roman) who wakes up right as I lay down. We talk for a few minutes and both crash out till about 3pm.

Fuck!! 3:00 PM:
Well there was a few hours wasted, how the fuck am I suppose to see everything when I wasted the whole afternoon sleeping. We get up and shower and get ready to go out. I slam down a French Coca-Cola Lite to get my caffeine fix.

That didn’t work so I make a quick hotel room coffee and a Red Bull. Now ready to go. We decide to walk over to the Tumi store because I wanted to get a new bag for short travel. I have overnight bags, and HUGE bags and a HUGE duffel bag but nothing for like a few days and since Tumi rocks I wanted to check out the store. On the way (only a few blocks away we see some cool shit).

We snag a sweet Tumi bag and drop it off back at the hotel…. Shopping in Paris, check!

Next we decide to hit a French cafe on a corner in Paris because, well because that’s what you always see in the movies. Now they have two types of cafes in Paris. A brasserie and a cafe. Fuck if I know, but I guess the difference is the brasserie serves “proper food” while the cafe has more like snacks. Whatever, we hit a famous brasserie called Cafe de la Paix.

I got a SWEET toasted ham and cheese sandwich, Roman got some beef carpaccio and Ben got a vegi sandwich.

AMAZING!! The food was killer. I have no idea what type of cheese was in my sandwich but it was like butter!

Washed down the whole thing with some French beer.

Then to top off the meal I had the best creme brulee I’ve ever had!

Words can’t describe the creme brulee. Was nothing like what you get here in the states. It’s one of my favorite things to get so I’ve had it all over and this was hands down the BEST I’ve ever tasted.

Sitting on the corner with a full belly and smoking (because that’s what you’re suppose to do in France). We hung out for a bit and watched the people walk around.

After that we walked around to find a French chocolate shop. Once we all got some French chocolates for our girlfriends we notice it was almost 7:00pm and we need to get back to the hotel to change because we were off to see Crazy Horse. Sitting in a cafe, eating food, smoking cigarettes, watching people and mocking them as a local French person: check, check check and check! Bucket list is getting smaller. Oh yeah and hooking up signifigant other with some sweets direct from Paris, check!

8:00 PM:

Now if you don’t know what Crazy Horse is it’s a Moulin Rouge / Burlesque type of show. It’s one of the more famous spots in Paris. Lots of topless dancing, but not like sleazy strip club shit, more like sexy arty shit.

This was amazing. It went from 8:30 till about 10:00 pm with a little 10 minute intermission. If you ever find yourself in Paris you have to check this out. And no, not just for the boobies either. The dancing and lights were amazing! Hella cool. It was amazing. Great music, great lighting, amazing preforming and overall just a great experience. Burlesque show in Paris, check!

10:00 PM:
Next we rushed off to catch the last of the Aerosmith show. Luckly we got there a few songs before the encore. We ran up to the side of the stage and watched about 4 songs. From what I could tell it was a kick ass night! They were really rocking the house.

The setlist for that show was:
01. Love In An Elevator
02. Back In The Saddle
03. Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)
04. Eat The Rich
05. Pink
06. Livin’ On The Edge
07. What It Takes
08. Jaded
09. Mama Kin
10. Cryin’
–Drum Solo–
11. Rag Doll
12. Stop Messin’ Around
13. I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing
14. Sweet Emotion
15. Baby Please Don’t Go
16. Draw The Line
Encore:
17. Dream On
18. Walk This Way
19. Toys In The Attic

We caught the show from the beginning of Sweet Emotion till Walk this Way. We had to make it back to the car because we were doing a runner. A runner is when we bolt from the venue before the house lights even come on. Seeing Aerosmith rock another country, check!

11ish (didn’t see what time we got out of there):

We drive around Paris and checked out the following:

Notre Dame de Paris

The Eiffel Tower

The Arc de Triomphe

The Louvre

All the sites to see in Paris (well the big 4 that are on every little shitty French souvenir)…. Check!

1:30 AM:
Back at the hotel and starving! Order a cheeseburger and fries (are they called French Fries over there? Fuck if I know. The menu was in French).

2:30 AM:
Check flight status and online check-in. Flight is fuckin packed and there are no seats available. I got a middle and pissed. Looks like Business Class is full too. Fuck it, time for some much needed sleep and I’ll worry about that when I get to the airport.

8:30 AM:
Bananas delivered to the room via room service? Roman and I look at each other and wonder what the fuck room service is doing delivering bananas to the room so early.

8:40 AM:
Joe peeks his head in the room asking if we got some bananas from room service. Surreal if ya ask me.

9:00 AM:
Showered and ready to go but have an hour and half before my ride is here. I go down the list of all the shit I have done and remembered that I still need to get a crepe before I leave France. I walk down the street to a little hole in the wall cafe and try to order a crepe. After a funny English vs. French conversation I get an amazing crepe and a Coca-Cola Lite and chow down.

Breakfast crepe on a sidewalk cafe in Paris, check!

10:30 AM:
Back at the hotel loading up in the car for the ride back to the airport. Traffic through Paris was brutal again, but once we hit the highway we blasted there.

11:30 AM:
Arrive at the airport and ready to check in. The line to check in was MASSIVE but the line for Business Class was only about 2 people deep. I said to myself, fuck this you got a great smile and can schmooze like the best of them, hit the Business Class line and work your magic. Now I know Business Class is hella full too because I checked last night. I go to the counter and put on a huge smile and say “I know I’m not in Business, but can I upgrade my ticket?”. Well of course she comes back with “Oh I’m sorry sir but Business is full and there are about 60 people waiting on standby for a Business upgrade at the moment”. Well I say “ok” and tell her I’ll go hit the other line then and “thanks for the help and have an awesome day… no wait have an awesome week” *smile*. She smiles and says “Don’t worry about it sir, I can help you out here” Inside I know I just rocked past that 45 minute to an hour line and checked in. I kindly ask her if there is anything other then my middle seat and tell her how helpful she has been. Long story short she rocks an exit row (CRAZY amount of leg room) and puts me in an isle seat. I tell her, forget having a good week, have a great month! *smile* She kindly thanks me for being nice and I make my way to security. No line and I blast through in about 5 mins.

12:15 PM:
Slowly walk around the airport and buy my son a souvenir (and in case you think there is more to offer then the sites I went to in Paris, you’re wrong. It’s the exact 4 sites, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arc and the Louvre, that are on the little snow globe I got for him). The got some snacks for the trip and check out the shops. Debate buying a duty-free Tissot T-Touch Watch but with the exchange rate it’s still not that good of a deal. I do try it on anyway and I have to say that shit is sweet!! Will be my next watch for sure.

Buy my son something from every place I go, check!

1:30 PM:
They start boarding my flight but I am still in a duty free shop. I am group 4 for boarding so I have plenty of time still. I notice the Cuban cigars and say fuck it, I’m going to risk it and buy some.

Become an international cigar smuggler, check!

1:50 PM:
I make my way through the door and board the flight.

2:00 PM:
They are shutting the doors and I realize that it was almost exactally 30 hours I have spend in Paris and though how fuckin’ cool of a trip that was.

So there you have it. Next time someone says “I just don’t have the time to travel” you slap them in the mouth and tell them they just don’t know what the fuck they are talking about. I was gone less then three days total. I left the house Monday afternoon at 3:30 PM and was back in my house Wednesday at 6:00 PM. I mean fuck I was really only not home for Tuesday. I mean if ya think about I was in Boston on Monday and then Wednesday and look at all the shit I did. So stop bitching about not having the time and “there is too much to do in such a short amount of time” and all the bullshit and book the damn flight.

Oh yeah by the way, the Cuban cigars made it through US Customs