In the very first days Melis Görsoy had passed out in the heat.
– Somehow I hadn’t thought that the heat would affect so much, he says in a video call.
Melis Görsoy, 27, is currently in Alanya on vacation. Görsoy lives in Helsinki and works at Barona. His family roots are in Turkey and he has previously lived in Alanya.
He now returned there to spend a three-week vacation with his Turkish spouse, to visit relatives.
The bad feeling surprised me. Görsoy had walked outside in the heat for about 15 minutes, came to the restaurant and started to feel sick. It was over 40 degrees outside.
– I must have drunk a little water or I hadn’t had enough salt and the heat makes me so sick, he says.
He had to leave the restaurant and rested for the rest of the day with a migraine.
Alanya is known for its warm climate, but this year the heat has already been exceptional in June.
– During the day, between 12 and 4 p.m., we don’t really move outside at all.
Exceptional even for the locals
Görsoy thinks that the locals have gradually gotten used to the heat, but they also consider this year’s temperatures exceptional. Climate change is still not discussed as much as, for example, in Finland, says Görsoy.
He thinks the Turks think this is one of the hot summers.
Locals also stay indoors in air-conditioned rooms during the day. They spend time outside in the morning before ten or in the evening after five or six when the sun starts to set. At night, the streets are lively, and even the children are out until one o’clock in the morning.
Görsoy and his men had scheduled their vacation for June because they knew July and August would be even hotter. However, there is no difference now.
Many travelers don’t necessarily understand that now it is not in the mild heat of Finland, but dangerously hot.
– My well-being first. Your vacation will be ruined if you expose yourself to heat you are not used to.
Extremist in Spain
Living in Murcia, Spain Jarkko Repo says that the weather conditions have become extreme.
Now the extreme heat is exacerbating. Before that there were extreme rains and forest fires.
Repo and his spouse move around on bikes, but limit their movement to early mornings or evenings.
Last winter, forest fires raged in Murcia, the cause of which was suspected to be arson.
– But it could also have been bad luck. In dry and sunny weather, certain types of tall grass catch fire easily.
Last week, a seven-day storm hit the area.
– The storm brought with it a historic amount of water, which flooded the parking garage. About 80,000 liters of water were pumped out of there.
Repo says that he has noticed that this year the discussion about climate change has reached a climax.
– The Spanish want to understand why this is happening and what we can do about it.
The people of the area are also thinking about how to help those who do not have air conditioning.
Instead, tourists are surprised. Repo says that tourists move outside in the middle of the day in scanty clothes, often red from sunburned skin.
– Locals think tourists are a bit strange when they move outside in the insane heat, he says.
– It seems that people have gone out in the holiday mood only when the sun is shining. I don’t wonder at all what tragedies are happening in Greece and elsewhere at the moment when someone goes outside for a bit.
35 degrees doesn’t necessarily sound bad.
– But when the UV index is 10 or above, it’s just so much more harmful.
Repo states that departing tourists take up hospital beds and take up space from others.
– I would like to ask if it is necessary to bring those flights here at the moment. Is it not possible to influence that with any tool, so that tourists would go somewhere where traveling would be healthier and safer for them as well?
Electricity out in the Balkans
Heini Paasio39, is currently on vacation in Croatia.
– The heat wave of temperatures of 37–40 degrees has not affected our lives at all. Every year we vacation in the region for several weeks.
Summer heat and autumn heavy rains are therefore familiar.
Paasio says that on Midsummer’s Eve there were power cuts in Croatia as well. Blackouts hit the Balkans and affected Albania, Monte Negro, Bosnia and Croatia.
– I felt safe and confident the whole time, because we had drinks, food and the apartment stays cool thanks to its location and we live by the sea, so we get to cool off.
– But hospitals, traffic, including ambulances, and entrepreneurs were suffering. Judging by the quiet field, the flights were at least reduced, says Paasio.
In Bulgaria, we prepare for the heat
Ivan Berazhny is currently traveling in Bulgaria, from where he is heading to Turkey on a business trip. Berazhny is a business lecturer at Haaga-Helia and works as a visiting professor at a Turkish university.
Berazhny has noticed that southern European countries such as Turkey and Greece have developed practices to manage extreme heat. Although adaptation takes time, preparations have been made for the heat.
– I myself suffer more from the heat in Finland, because our architecture and cities are not designed for the heat.
For example, in Turkey, all shops are closed at noon, and people rest indoors.
According to Berazhny, climate change and the extreme weather it brings, such as forest fires and water shortages, are clearly visible in Southern Europe.
From his trip to Sicily, he remembers a period of heat, when watering was prohibited and the attitude towards tourists changed.
According to Berazhny, the locals felt that tourists use drinking water for showers and other resources more than necessary.
– Finnish tourists are perhaps a bit more responsible, but mass tourism brings with it a lot of young tourists who don’t necessarily think about water consumption in the same way, he states.
In Southern Europe, climate change is treated differently than, for example, in Finland, Berazhny estimates.
– People here are not so much connected to the problem of global warming. They think more one day at a time and try to survive everyday life, Berazhny describes.
This can be seen, for example, in the fact that installing air conditioners is common, even though it consumes a lot of energy.
Extreme phenomena around the world
Although the point of view of this story is Finns, of course it is not primarily travelers or Finns in the world who suffer from extremism.
People have died in the extraordinary heat of southern Europe. It has also been hot for the time of year in Asia.
Records have been broken in Greece, as well as in Turkey, where the situation is predicted to worsen.
The heat has also increased wildfires. Wildfires raging in Turkey have claimed lives.
In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, more than 1,000 pilgrims have already died from the heat, according to the news agencies AFP and Reuters, and there are also news of the sweltering heat from India, the United States and Mexico.