Wallet, check!

Room key, check!

Burt’s Bees Chapstick (obsessed), check!

iPhone…iPhone…iPHONE?!?

Last week, my iPhone was stolen at The Alla. For those not familiar with Maastricht, The Alla is the club that opens after all the bars close for the night. It is always packed crowded, and plays hysterically outdated American pop music. I’ve heard of many stolen iPhone episodes at The Alla, but still stupidly kept my phone in my back pocket – it was really too easy a steal.

AT&T informed me that my phone ended up in Belgium and the thief used a generous amount of my international data:

I was so mad. I had emailed, called, Facebooked, texted my phone and I know the thief received all my pleas to return my phone. They deleted some of my emails, liked my own profile photo and never once responded to my desperate cries for my iPhone back.

When I think of my iPhone’s journey across country borders with strangers, I imagine a group of mean thieves laughing at all my embarrassing iPhone photos, reading my text messages to my mom, refreshing the front page of my NYT app. That phone has my everything stored on it, and now it is floating around somewhere in Belgium.

For the past year, my iPhone has been glued to my left-hand. It is adorned with a Chi Omega case, a Christmas gift from my mother. Losing that phone feels like I lost an important piece of myself.

Without my iPhone, how am I supposed to avoid eye contact with strangers?! Or not look lonely when waiting in line for coffee by myself?! What if I take a wrong turn, and don’t have a blue dot to guide me back to my familiar route?! These questions kept me up at night – the first night I’ve spent without a phone in years.

How silly.

My iPhone had become nothing short of an addiction, and I cannot be happier to finally be rid of the technology that takes up so much of my time and attention. Two days after losing the phone, I was moping in the kitchen with friends when a Spanish boy walks into the room and, I’m being 100% serious, asks:

“Does anyone want my old phone? I’m moving out and don’t need it.”

So here I am. With my new free Nokia phone with a cracked screen – it even has a sudoku game on it!

Life often works out.

Technology and Travel

There are some truly incredible technology resources that bring value to travel, but it is a trade-off. I spent an entire train ride to Amsterdam searching for fun things to see/do, and I found some great information! But, I didn’t take time to look out the window and enjoy the passing countryside. The hostel owner in Amsterdam was eager and ready to answer all my questions that I already had answers to from searching online.  Sitting downstairs in the hostel, I was looking at my iPhone to look important and busy – nobody talked to me.

With my new phone, I don’t sit places and read the news, I sit and look at people. I mean, right in the eyes. There are so many human connections waiting to happen. iPhones might connect us to the entire world on the internet, but it deprives us from connecting with the immediate world around us.

I don’t miss my iPhone or the convenience it brings. Maybe getting lost and simply existing in a new city is better than diligently following my blue dot from one destination to another. Asking locals for their recommendations instead of consulting the Trip Advisor app includes a smile and not just a refresh icon. I really don’t need to take a photo of my cappuccino and post it on Instagram…I just need to enjoy it.

Think different. 

Travel different.