Valencia Trip – Part 5 (Monday to Wednesday)
Monday
Monday was honestly one of the craziest days of the trip so far. I woke up to Jimmy yelling that we had no electricity. At first I thought he was exaggerating, but then I noticed my phone had no signal either. Turns out the entire region was affected, no mobile reception, no metro service, nothing. We later found out that Spain, Portugal, and even parts of France were hit by a massive blackout.
We tried to make the best out of the situation. We played some card games and just chilled together. Thankfully, I had a few episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars downloaded, so we weren’t completely bored. Later, we walked to a small local store and found a line of people outside, clearly preparing for a long power outage. Inside, it was super eerie without any lights, it honestly felt like in The Purge. Luckily, by the evening, the power finally came back on and things slowly returned to normal.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, our supervisors Mr. Gierschner and Mr. Bavar came to visit us. I quickly cleaned up a bit in the morning before they arrived. We sat together and talked about our experiences in Valencia so far, the culture, the language classes, and everyday life here. After the talk, we all went to a restaurant to have some traditional paella. Ruben, Jimmy, Flo, and I decided to walk there, which took us almost an hour. After the paella, some cervezas, and of course Agua de Valencia, we all took separate Ubers back home. On the way back, we also stopped at the Consum near our place to do some grocery shopping.
Wednesday
Wednesday started off slowly, mostly because I accidentally slept through my alarm. After getting up, I had breakfast while chatting with my girlfriend, who was dress shopping for her high school prom in Berlin. Later in the afternoon, I went for a jog to clear my head. In the evening, or more like late at night, I called a friend back in Berlin to wish him a happy birthday and catch up a bit.