Encourage

I've learned with this blog that the first photo becomes the header of the post. I have chosen the beautiful sunrise over the Mediterranean Sea outside of Barcelona.

I have no other pictures to share on Barcelona. I had such hopes for visiting a variety of places focusing on the architecture of Gaudi, many of which are designated UNESCO World Heritage sites. But no, not one was I able to visit.

They do say a picture is worth 1,000 words and the following picture will absolutely tell my story without any other text.

Hopefully no on chose I was a victim of crime or ill but, it was probably about the same. I purchased a new phone from Apple several weeks before the trip wanting a better camera so I wouldn't need to take a separate camera. That alone was pretty painful as my goal in life is an on/off button for everything. Can't things just work when you turn them on. (I hear you laughing Tracy)

I noticed a couple of days before the trip, the phone turned off but came right back on. I immediately assumed it was me hitting something, not knowing what I was doing. But as the trip progressed, the phone continued to freeze and turn off and seemed like each time it took longer and longer to respond to a hard restart or anything I knew to do.

A call to Apple ended up with - apply the upgrade and let us know. The details are too painful to relive. Inadvertently I discovered that if I dropped the phone onto a hard surface from about 10" above, that would 'encourage' it to start up, most of the time. I want to turn on the phone, let me drop it on the table. I never shared that with Apple lest I be accused of damaging the phone. I had to face that I was more reliant on this technology then I wanted to be. The ship does not supply maps at the ports of call and the information booths if open, don't always have maps either. They expect you to be phone savvy and the phone became the lifeline to know where you are, where you're going, call uber, look up things and of course keep in contact with my family. When it took 6 hours to get it to restart, and within 2 minutes it froze and shut down, I knew a replacement was most likely the only option, which Apple agreed with. After that however, I was on my own.

My first experience with the genius bar was interesting. I had no appointment but hearing my story and timeline, they helped me immediately. When the mainly red circles and some green circles on the diagnostic screen appeared, the international language screamed - I'm screwed. It just took a long time as they didn't know what exactly to do or offer me. I wasn't in town for 4 days to get it repaired; I wasn't going to be in a town with an Apple store for weeks to have a US replacement phone mailed ahead. I thought an Apple phone was an Apple phone - spoiler alert, not really. I needed a reliable phone, that day.

The best I can tell you is that for every problem that is encountered while traveling, a solution exists - it just depends upon how much money you need or chose, to throw at it. Unfortunately learning yet another new phone is something I will emotionally pay for, for a long time.

And then there is the story of how the new phone obsoletes my watch but I'm too exhausted to bore you with that one!!

Adios - Barcelona remains on my list of cities to visit.