On Vacation Without A Data Plan
When we first got to Europe, I was delighted that my phone didn’t have service or data. I had brought a small street map book of Paris that I’d found in my father’s belongings, but quickly gave up on using it; it was much easier to follow my friends from place to place, especially since they had the magic of the internet at their fingertips.
Then, I got in touch with an old friend who had moved to Paris recently. As it turns out, she was living on the outskirts of the city, about an hour-long journey on public transport. I was psyched to see this friend I hadn’t seen in about 15 years, but when I considered traveling to my friend’s town by myself, I felt paralyzed. Navigating the strange streets and vast metro system (with its many summer closures) seemed impossible without the assistance of a smartphone.
In the end, my partner and I found a way to work around his work schedule and go together. While I was glad that he was able to meet my old friend, I was more grateful that his phone was able to guide us on the hour-long journey to the outskirts and then back again. Because of his smartphone, we were able to be dynamic — change our route when one train wasn’t working, call an Uber to go part of the way when the heat of the day was pure hell, take a different route back to Paris, stay connected with our friends who were hiding from the heat at Galerie Lafayette, and meet them for…
