travelling without a smartphone across europe

did no one ask me on my 45 total days of travel across Europe, without a smartphone...?
"little young girl in a black long coat... take-away your smartphone and what are you?"
My Reply:
1. avid traveller
2. photographer
3. explorer
4. food-sampler
5. budget-shopper
6. memory-map-recaller
7. most of all, a PRE-PLANNER
8. ... and a carefree spirit, as all of my possessions put together amounted to less than 7K INR (100 Euros)!

i braved a sea-storm at the Cote-d-Azur in France, Cannes to be precise, at the time of Hurricane Sandy (26 October, '12). Apart from minor worries about my life-safety, a few important documents(that got soaked, but reclaimed dry!) and scanty personal belongings in a back-pack, i really had nothing else to take care of! My basic phone had all contacts stored, and in its 5 years of long usage i was rather proud of its durability and reliability.
i did feel at times that it would be much easier to replace my phone+camera+little diary with a single device, but well, a cheap smart phone wouldn't necessarily have a great camera, and the one with a good cam wouldn't come at cost that would keep the worries off a "little young girl" travelling all alone!
without a smartphone, i could really experience the places instead of constantly feeling "wired" and uploading and sharing on social media all the time. i was really at peace and ease with myself. my smartphone would not put up with the trials and tribulations in life, such as staying drenched for 4 hours with only a handful of humans in sight. in fact, i actually enjoyed the experience because my basic phone still worked. my camera bag was zipped tight. because i had a decent connection with good roaming coverage, i could talk to the people i wanted to.
one could argue that the extent of (over-)usage is always a choice when we travel with a smart phone. but in my 3 years of dependence on "smart" gadgets, i realized its not so easy. without them, i could let my spirit free (and actually become truly "mobile") and feel the joy of discovery by choosing to be not over-informed, be under-connected. so the bottom line is, i could travel way better without a smart phone!. i had enough confidence on my own smartness to not rely on my phone's "smartness" all the time.