A Brit holidaying in Barcelona has admitted he has learned from his mistake after his holiday was hugely impacted by the widespread power outages being experienced in Spain and Portugal.
Blackouts in the two European countries left millions without power, with travel, banking and telecommunications significantly disrupted as authorities scrambled to determine the cause. Whilst any foul play including a cyber attack has been ruled out, the expereince has proven no less frustrating for those Brits who had looked forward to spending money in the sunshine.
“If you rely on one thing for survival, you’re vulnerable,” confessed Sam in a TikTok video during the aftermath. “I learned that the hard way today.” The situation left him contemplating: “It can’t just be me that always pays on their phone only now. If the power went out tomorrow for a few days, how ready would you actually be?”
Sam was referring to the fact he had travelled to Spain with no cash – intending to rely on his debit card for his source of Euro currency. However, he was left to rue that decision as the power cut prevented him from using ATMs and making electronic payments in shops and bars.
“We have no cash, can’t get food, can’t get water,” Sam cursed in his clip. “I can’t get money from the ATM because it relies on power and it’s really made me think it’s the last time I am leaving the house without any cash.”
Sam continued: “How often do you just rely on your card now? I don’t even bring my wallet out sometimes anymore – I just pay on my phone. I am stuck today, it’s crazy.”
Writing in response, one TikTok user declared: “Now everyone should realise we can’t cope without cash.” A second person explained: “This is way I always carry cash with me because at least you it’s something tangible and you can manage it.”
A third added: “Cash is king, everyone should have cash on them. This is a taste of things to come, stay in control.” Whilst a fourth TikTok user admitted: “It can tell us how much we depend on electricity and technology, there is no plan B.”
In Portugal, meanwhile, Samantha Queen was left equally as frustrated after making the same holiday blunder. Alongside her partner, Freddie, on the beach, she revealed: “We have come to Portugal for a few days and all was going well but then the electric went out. There’s no power.”
She detailed their problem: “We have no cash as we were just using our cards and now we can’t pay for things in shops as there’s no power. So the shops are shutting or they are cash only. We managed to get a packet of Lay’s [crisps] so that’s dinner for tonight.
“We also have a couple of bottles of water back at our hotel – but that’s it.”
Spain has ruled out “unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena” as the cause of the blackout, meanwhile, which had previously been claimed and reported by authorities in Portugal.
The country’s State Meteorological Agency said in a statement on X: “During the day of April 28, no unusual meteorological or atmospheric phenomena were detected in Spain, nor were there any sudden temperature changes in our network of weather stations.”
Portugese power bosses blamed the widepread power outages on “anomalous oscillations” in very high-voltage lines. The effect is known as “induced atmospheric variation” and it could take up to a week for the network to fully normalise again.
Portugal’s grid operator, REN (Rede Eletrica Nacional) has claimed interruptions to its own power supply were the result of a “fault in the Spanish electricity grid”.
