Travelling with Technology
Travelling with cell phones and a laptop has changed what it means to travel alone. On my recent trip, I had contact with family and friends at my finger tips and I was grateful for it. Without that easy ability to communicate I’m sure I would have felt isolated and perhaps a little homesick. On the down side, travelling with technology added a whole new dimension to packing. Chargers, cords, converters and headphones take up space, not to mention the weight my laptop added to my backpack.
I have zero sense of direction. When I worked as an investment advisor I used to joke that I only knew three directions, up, down, and sideways. Funny maybe, but when you are travelling alone, lacking a sense of direction is a serious impediment. I was never lost, not really, but it undermined my confidence a few times. I’d head off in one direction, certain it was the right way, only to realize blocks later that I’m way off track.
Recently, sorting through memorabilia, I found the city maps I had used on a trip to Spain in 1982. That was how one navigated back in the day. Using a map, I can orient myself and find my way around. Without a map I am easily lost.
Enter technology. I no longer need to worry about my feeble sense of direction. The GPS on my phone took the stress out of finding specific places, but if I didn’t have an address or place name to enter, I was back to relying on my non-existent internal compass. If I wanted to find my way back to something I had seen along the way … I was lost. Those GPS apps would benefit from a simple ‘retrace’ setting.
I like seeing the whole of a city spread out before me on a good old fashioned map. Next time I travel I will use a combination of city maps and GPS. Zooming in and out on a tiny phone screen is neither satisfying nor enlightening.
I might lack a sense of direction, but I always notice the music around me. In restaurants, stores, cafés, wherever I was, if there was music playing, I captured it using the Shazam app. I now have a playlist of my travels. It varies from Euro Pop to French folk songs, to James Brown, Afro-Beat, Hip-Hop, Reggae, punk and beyond. One song came from a car in Marseilles, the driver had the windows down and the music blaring. Got it. Another came from a neighbour in one of my Airbnbs. I was trying to sleep but the music was so loud if I had known the words I could have sung along.
Technology. I may harbour a love-hate relationship with it, but really, I hate to be without it.
Keep your joy.
Anne Milne is an every Sunday blogger, unless it’s a holiday weekend. Or summertime. Facebook or sign up for delivery to your email.
I still have my paper maps from living in Rome. I would mark sites and put notes/addresses around the perimeter of the map — point being I still have them in a shoe box in storage. Planning future trips, I’ve thought about what I’d bring: a camera, and rely on computer cafes. Assume they still have those. Guess I’d better check. Buy a cheap burner phone once I arrived in Europe or swap SIM cards on my own phone so I can contact hostels, etc. Or say to hell with it, bring nothing and wing it old school.
I think winging it old school would make things more difficult. A blend is what I’ll aim for next time. A tablet instead of a laptop perhaps. I bought a temporary SIM card and it worked perfectly. I would also upgrade my phone — some apps that would have been useful to me can’t be downloaded onto my older iPhone. Sheesh. I found AI to be useful for summarizing the best public transportation routes from point A to point B. Perplexity is my favourite for that purpose.
But you can’t beat a paper map for grounding yourself to where you are. In my opinion.
Thanks for this.
A.