When We Lost Power in Bergen
Yes, Norway of all places!
A year ago we were in Bergen, Norway—by all accounts, a very developed place! And yet, the power cut out early afternoon. Zero, nada. Having spent time in some other places where we had to get familiar with breaker boxes (Malaysia and Albania), we figured that was the first place to start with troubleshooting. I messaged our AirBNB host to ask where it was and she guided me to the master switch to reset things. Usually, that does the trick. But this time, no dice. So she suggested that we flip each breaker off and on individually to see if that made a difference. There were a lot of them, but I humored her and did them all one by one. Still no power.
I had a hunch that the power cut was related to construction the neighbors were doing next door. So I went over to see if I could get someone’s attention. I asked the guy driving the big digger thing if they had power (they did) and if there’s any way our power outage could be related to their work. He didn’t think so and said that the power line didn’t run where they were doing work. Hmm…
Our host found an electrician to come out and have a look. I send C and the girls off to go have some fun and stayed behind. The electrician was a nice guy who checked everything I had already checked, plus some other stuff. Then he assessed things outside the house and out to the main power source in the neighborhood. Guess what he discovered? The power had been severed where the neighbors were doing work. I knew it!
He called the power company, who also came out. He was able to patch together a temporary fix but the power company was going to have to return a different day with crew and equipment to do a permanent fix. Thank goodness for backup Internet through phones and a house that was warm and safe.
The lesson: Always keep your devices (and a backup battery pack) charged! Ask where the breaker boxes are in your accommodation. And be flexible with your plans. The power can cut out anywhere in the world, even in developed countries, especially when neighbors are using earth-moving equipment right next to the grounded power line. 😜
Now that we’ve lived in Albania for 9.5 months, we are quite used to power outages. The most prolonged one was in February when the power box/meter to the villa melted and caused half the power to go out. It took several days to sort that out. Turns out, the box wasn’t powerful enough to pull in the electrical load for the villa, so it had to be upgraded to a bigger one. Eek! Normally, power outages here aren’t quite that localized, LOL, nor as prolonged. Often, they last just a few minutes. We’ve mostly learned to shrug our shoulders and know that life will go on and things will eventually get sorted.
What interesting power outage stories do you have from traveling or living around the world?