There’s something that I noticed almost as soon as I arrived in Barcelona. In fact it was during our very first breakfast. My wife and I had found a cute little cafe and had just ordered toast, egg, avocado, a cortado for her, and an Americano for me. As we sat in our corner, my attention was drawn to the patrons in the room. An elderly woman sat across from a young man, perhaps her grandson. Behind them, a young professional reading a book. At the front of the store, near the pastries, a woman chatted across the room with our waitress. 

It felt foreign to me, no pun intended, that nobody was on their phones, nobody had taken photos of their breakfast (although we did), and for the most part, it seemed like everyone was present and in the moment. This might not be a huge deal and you might think it’s just a generalization on my behalf- and maybe that is so.

You see though, I have something to admit. I’m what you might call a recovering Social Media”holic”. For a while there it got pretty bad. I’m talking about laying in bed till 2 in the morning, doom scrolling from one news article to the next, waiting on the next catastrophe as if it was somehow going to erase the shitshow that 2020 had been.

So, as I sat there in that cafe, I made an honest deal with myself. I promised myselfthat I would stay in the moment, that I wouldn’t stray from the experience to check in with what is happening arund the world- especially when so much was happening around us! 

So with that said, I hope you enjoy these shots from our trip. This is what life in Barcelona can be. This is Life Unplugged.