Without my phone, my vacation took on a new life – without distraction

Without her phone, Caitlin Cassidy writes, ‘I read four books and lost all concept of what was going on in the news’. Photograph: Zbynek Pospisil/Getty Images/iStockphoto

When my phone was pickpocketed on the streets of Lisbon a week and a half into my European trip, I was only vaguely alarmed.

I would not consider myself a chronically online person. I don’t photograph every meal I eat – just the dishes with particularly chic lighting with trendy colour palettes: moody anchovies, natural wine, etc.