8 Things That Happen When You Travel Unplugged
Ever do a digital detox? How about an involuntary one? Learn from one of the early mishaps from my own sabbatical about problem solving while you travel. I found out the hard way that 8 things happen when you have to travel unplugged.
How It Happened
It was the first of many, many bus rides across the Mediterranean coast. My bus from Barcelona pulled into Montpellier in the south of France around 7pm as planned. What I hadn’t planned on was running my phone battery down to a measly 2 percent.
My seatmate had kept our on-board power outlet in constant use for the duration of the trip. I had just enough juice left to text my mom that I was safely in France. Then I noticed where the now long-gone bus had dropped us off. Not at a terminal or station of any kind, but in front of the parking deck for an outdoor shopping center. And of course, it was clear on the other side of town from my Couchsurfing host’s apartment. So what do you do when you’re in a foreign city at sunset and suddenly find yourself “unplugged?”
One: You panic.
I knew there was no way my battery would hold out long enough for me to get to my host’s apartment. I also had no clue how to get there. They hadn’t given me any directions and obviously with no phone, I couldn’t call and ask. I had written the address down to hand to a taxi driver, but there wasn’t a cab in sight.
I had never traveled by myself without a phone before. I often consciously put my phone and camera away while sightseeing so I can experience a place just for myself, but I always have it on me in case of emergency. I rely on the knowledge that Google is on my side in case I get lost. This situation? This lugging my backpack around the outskirts of a new city at sunset? This was not good.
Two: You bless your packing list
In the nick of time, I remembered something very important about myself: I’m a packing freak. And there was a little last-minute addition to my sabbatical packing list that was literally made for this situation–the external battery. My Anker battery is about the size of a tube of lipstick and it claims to add a full extra charge to most smartphones. I just needed to find a place I could comfortably sit tight for a few minutes, plug it in, and look up directions to my host’s apartment.
Three: You break your arbitrary rules
The only place nearby I could go was a McDonald’s.
In my early 20s, I absolutely bought into the myth that being a good traveler meant only eating “authentic” food. I had sworn to myself I wouldn’t ever eat at a McDonald’s on my sabbatical.
This was the moment where I realized that “rule” that you can’t eat American food in other countries? It’s a completely arbitrary decision you make for yourself. And in my case, it was a stupid decision. So I swallowed my pride along with a couple French fries and settled into a booth while my external battery did its thing.
Then, the unthinkable happened. My charger cable broke.
Okay, self. You’re stranded. This is not a drill. It’s time to (wo)man up and figure out how to get around this tram system. No Uber. No Google. No phoning a friend. I don’t know how long I stood in front of that damned tram station map before finding the street name I needed. But eventually I did. I figured if I’m at the last stop of Line 1, I can just get on any tram that swings through and get off at the central station. Then I look for the Line 2 headed in the same direction, get off at this stop, take a right and a left and look for the building. And I was right. There might not be anything more gratifying than figuring out directions in a foreign city sans Google. I’d recommend trying it under less stressful circumstances.
Five: You become more willing to accept help.
I found the apartment building with blessedly little difficulty. But if there’s one thing a bright blue 40L backpack does, it makes you stand out. Two guys heading into the same building asked if I needed help. I speak enough French that we could communicate. (Or so I thought.) I said I was visiting their neighbors and gave the host’s name. They looked at me like I had three heads. I figured that meant I had the wrong building, so I took another swing up the street, but I was actually right all along.
I took a moment to reflect that under different circumstances, I might not have interacted with those men. I realized early in my sabbatical just how overly cautious I am of men. I noticed that I was more willing to enter a shop or sit down at a cafe if the staff was mostly women. In this instance, accepting help from men wasn’t useful, but it also wasn’t unsafe.
Six: You pay more attention to your surroundings.
I finally made it to my host’s apartment and settled in for the night. The next morning, my top priority was replacing my charger cable.
No longer in transit, I felt comfortable getting out my tablet. It shared a charger cable with my phone, but had just enough battery for me to look up the location of a cell phone provider in the center of town.
The next day, as I got off the tram and made my way up the street to the Place de la Comedie, I realized something else about how I use technology while traveling. It manages my expectations of a new destination.
I have a Pinterest board for every country I want to visit. Each one is filled with ideas of how much to spend, where to eat, what to do. Without my phone, I couldn’t look up details on Montpellier before venturing into town. As a result, the vast pedestrian-only square of Comedie, its iconic Les Trois Graces sculpture, the leafy promenade of Esplanade Charles de Gaulle – all these famous sights of Montpellier made a much greater impression on me than they might have done otherwise.
Seven: You meet people you never would have crossed paths with otherwise.
After a few wrong turns, I found the store I was look for, but I was in for a lengthy wait. I stood near the checkout counter and for about 30 minutes both I and an older French woman tried to catch someone’s eye. As the minutes ticked away, we started exchanging glances with one another and eventually she came over and struck up a conversation. My French wasn’t good enough for me to understand everything she said, but I got the sentiment. She was going to have to pay through the nose for parking because nobody in the joint would help her. C’est ridicule, non?
I truthfully don’t know why people like to disparage the French so much. Anyone who thinks they’re an unfriendly people has never been outside Paris and even within Paris… people are usually only rude when tourists are rude first. In Montpellier, especially, I noticed a very low approach threshold.
For another example, after the woman I’d been chatting with got what she needed and left, I was directed to a different line. The woman in front of me had a child with her, a girl of perhaps 8 or 9. The lady behind me had a little dog on a leash. He was very cute and very docile, but still the little girl was terrified of him. She was so scared, she was literally whimpering into the folds of her mother’s skirt. In no time at all, practically everyone in the store was showing her how friendly the dog was. She worked up the courage to give him a little pat on the head, while people were just chatting and killing the time they had to wait. It’s something I very rarely saw at home in the U.S.
Waiting in line at a cell phone provider isn’t a fun thing to do on sabbatical (or at home). But I feel like I got to be a part of local life for an hour and I saw how ready people are to connect.
Eight: You become way more confident about your travel skills.
Charger secured, my anxiety subsided. But this little adventure in traveling unplugged definitely strengthened my travel skills. I got to see how strong and resourceful I can be. It doesn’t really matter what gets lost or broken. I can navigate. I can communicate. I can make things happen for myself.
You’ll make many mistakes on your own sabbatical. It’s part of the story and little misadventures like this are where the character development comes from.
