Unplugged

Torr Head, Northern Ireland

Time for another confession (where better to reveal your secrets than the internet?): I have been developing a mild internet addiction over the past few months. I have always been a pretty frequent Facebooker. Then I got a smart phone. Then I started blogging more. Then I got on Twitter, which I think will eventually link you to every single article, video, and blog on the web if you spend enough time there. My TV broke last April and I haven't replaced it yet, so then there was all the streaming on Netflix. Then I had to go back and check my blog stats. Then I thought that maybe my blog should have it's own Facebook and Twitter pages... Bottom line, this laptop has a lot of miles on it.

When I went to Ireland, I had to put my phone in "airplane mode" to prevent international roaming charges (I am cheap above all). I brought the laptop, but many of the hotels only had WiFi in the lobby. On the tour our days were so busy that all I wanted to do once I got to my room was put on my pj's. I guess the fact that I was unwilling to sit in a hotel lobby in my pj's to update my status shows that I am not completely gone yet.

The weird part was that I really enjoyed being disconnected from the rest of the world for a while. I did check my e-mail and facebook a few times, mainly to make sure the pets were fine. Okay, that's a fib, I just needed to post a status update and see what everyone else was up to. But for the most part it was nice that I didn't have to check for texts and missed calls, respond to e-mails, and see how many hits I had on the blog that day. It gave me lots of time to stare out the bus window and enjoy the views of grass and sheep. What was interesting, and what I remember from the time when I didn't have a phone, and iPod, or a laptop, was that I could just quietly think and daydream in the time I would normally be checking my Twitter feed and texting my friends. What a simpler time the 1990's were!

Like the vacation itself, being disconnected was just a temporary thing- I was back on the laptop and checking my blackberry for missed texts as soon as I got to the Charlotte airport.  Now that I'm back in the real world, I am plugged in to everything just like before. But I can look back fondly on the week I spent without a phone and remember the quiet, idle moments I used to have before there was something to entertain me every minute of the day.

Okay, enough navel gazing, here are some more photos. If you want the rest, they are posted on Flickr

So long for now, KISS (keep it simple stupid), and try turning your phone off now and then!

 

St. Augustine's Church, Derry, Northern Ireland

Garden, Glenveigh National Park, County Donegal

Dunluce Castle

O'Connell Street and The Spire, Dublin

Church with red doors, Dublin