On foot or hitchhiking: the odyssey of getting home without trains during a blackout

For many, returning home yesterday, Monday, was a real ordeal. At various exits in Barcelona, groups of people huddled together and, as cars passed, raised their arms with signs indicating their destination: Cerdanyola, Vilassar de Mar, Mataró, Granollers, Cardedeu..

. The luckiest were rescued. Without trains and unable to communicate with family or friends, there weren't many alternatives.

Car. Leaving Barcelona wasn't easy because everything was jammed. Many traffic lights weren't working, and we struggled a bit with gas: we passed five gas stations, and the lights on the pumps were all off.

For example, we couldn't buy tickets for public transport. No backup. Many people walked to Fabra i Puig station yesterday, Monday, to catch an intercity bus and return home.

Today I also have to go to Barcelona, let's see how I can do it," he explains. This Tuesday, he found the Sabadell Renfe station closed and will wait to get on a bus. A group of teachers from a secondary school in Hosta walked to Fabra i Puig in the hope of being able to get on a bus that would take them back to Cerdanyola and Montcada i Reixac.

There was some frustration and some who were queuing for a bus wondered where the reinforcements were. Montbui. Another, with irony, explained that as a Renfe user he was used to all kinds of hardships.

Sagrera, where a friend of his lives, and stayed having a drink "When I saw that the atmosphere and the traffic were calmer, I went to Fabra i Puig to look for the bus and, without problems or queues, I caught it and at ten in the afternoon I was already home," he explained. Gràcia neighborhood This Tuesday, it was not easy to get to Barcelona either. intercity buses were packed.

take the car..