The week I learned how to travel without a phone

This week began with a beautiful day. Madeline and I decided to soak up some sun on the beach. Unfortunately while we were relaxing, a group of guys approached us. They talked to us briefly and then left. Before I could realize what had happened, an older woman was yelling at me in french. She realized we didn't speak french and in english told me that one of the guys had walked off with my phone. I tried to run after him but he dipped into a crowded flee market before I had a change to catch him. Until this moment, Madeline and I were having a wonderful day. We explored the cobblestone streets and tried some delicious gelato. The rest of the day we spent in the police station filling out paperwork and answering questions. Exhausted, stressed and frustrated we headed back to the airbnb.

Our next destination was Barcelona, Spain. The last time I visited Barcelona it was with my family. I enjoyed my time here and was very excited to be going back. Madeline and I spent the first day walking around the beach. The next day, Emily met up with us. We spent the next few days running around Barcelona. We visited fountains, the Sagrada Familia, Castell de Montjuic, Park Güell, Park de la Ciutadella, and my favorite restuarant, La Pepita. I ate at La Pepita with my family and absolutely loved it. They specialize in serving tapas, which are small dishes shared between a group of people. For an appetizer, we ordered foi gois over eggs and roasted potatoes.  I took a big bite under the impression that foi gois was a type of mushroom. Little did I know, foi gois is actually duck liver.

Before heading back to Bonn, we stopped in Madrid to stay with one of my family friends. Traveling from Barcelona to Madrid became problematic when we took the wrong train and ended up on the outskirts of Barcelona. Once our panic subsided, we finally found a way to get to Madrid. Our first stop in Madrid was a dominos pizzeria. Our starvation trumped our guilt for eating "american" food. Luckily the rest of our adventures were much more cultural. The family friend we stayed with is an extremely talented actress. She got us tickets for her musical, "The Bodyguard". Normally I'm not a big fan of musicals, but this was the highlight of my whole spring break. We were seated in the very front row. Although the musical was in Spanish, the acting and music allowed us to follow the plot. It was the perfect way to end our spring break.

Initially, I was really upset about losing my phone. There were so many beautiful places that I wanted to remember through pictures. However, visiting all those places without a phone made me realize how dependent I was on it. I looked around while we were visiting popular tourist spots and everyone had their phones out. No one really stopped to appreciate the full beauty of these attractions. I am just as guilty of it as everyone else, but since then I have tried to make more of an effort to appreciate a moment instead of capture it.