I recently returned from a vacation in Ireland, which is probably
one of my first real vacations since entering the professional workforce. Sure,
I have been to the beach and taken a few domestic trips here and there to visit
friends and family, but this one was different. I was planning it all from
start to finish (with the help of a small group of friends, of course) AND it
was in a foreign country. We had a game plan: Itineraries, run-of-show packets
with tickets for pre-scheduled activities, printed maps/directions for every
leg of our trip, etc. The one thing we didn’t anticipate: Internet bandwidth.
The last time I was in Europe, the iPhone didn’t exist and
cell phones were a means for calling on-the-go, rarely texting. I knew I wouldn’t
be able to text or call my friends like normal, but I had always heard that
WiFi was readily available in Ireland for periodic check-ins. This is true
EXCEPT when 50,000
college football fans come to town (Yep – that’s right, we went to Ireland
to watch American football).
We all seemed to travel back a decade to “survive” without
our mobile devices. That meant:
Our trip mapped out |
Reading a map…and navigating. All of us are pretty reliant on GPS systems these days. But luckily, we had printed maps and were always sure to plot the trip before we hit the road, marking key exits and turning points. As a driver, it’s stressful enough having to drive on the left side of the road from the right side of the vehicle. The last thing you want to think about is where to exit in the next roundabout.
Peace Wall in Belfast, Northern Ireland |
What would you miss if you were without a smartphone for a
week?
Cliffs of Moher |
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