'Chaotic' scenes in Girona train station leaves some preparing to spend night in events centre

Girona's Palau de Fires events centre has opened its doors this evening to people stuck in the city with nowhere else to sleep, as is the case of many people travelling around Catalonia for work on Monday, stuck where they are because of the widescale power outage.

Jordi Guinot is a computer scientist from Terrassa who had travelled to Sils to work on Monday when he found himself and the world without electricity. Now, unable to get home tonight, he's preparing to make his bed in the congress hall. 

Earlier in the day, he had travelled to the train station hoping to return to Barcelona, ​​but they were no longer running. At the station, he saw scenes of "chaos" and plenty of disinformation.

"The hours went by and I couldn't take any buses because they were already full, luckily they have set up this space," he told the Catalan News Agency.

He is keeping his fingers crossed that the train service will be restored tomorrow morning so he can return home. 

Girona has set up 200 beds in the Palau de Fires to accommodate those like Jordi, unable to return home.

"For now, I'm taking the opportunity to finish some work, and tomorrow morning I'll see if the trains are working and I can take one early," he said.

Austere, candle-lit dinners

Many neighborhoods and surrounding towns in Girona are without power this evening, leaving dinner options a lot more bare than usual, and families are preparing to spend the night in the dark. 

This is the case of Enric and Judit, who live in the Pla de Palau neighborhood of the city and who have taken advantage of the last hours of light to prepare dinner.

The couple have a small gas canister, the likes normally used on camping trips, that they have employed in their home to cook up a simple garlic omelette, which they're eating by candle-light.

"We wanted to have dinner early to enjoy some natural light," Enric explained.

The surprise came at dessert when the power was restored. "Now we can get information and spend the night in peace," Enric said.

In his case the return of the electricity was especially reassuring as he has to sleep with a CPAP machine that administers oxygen to prevent sleep apnea.