What city did you visit expecting it to not be that hot but it actually sent you to an early grave?

38 comments

1. This probably isn’t standard, but I arrived in Cologne during the 2018 heatwave and it was 36 degrees.

2. Finland, 2010. We were on a bike trip, and every single day was over 30 degrees and blazing sun. I never got such a sunburn before or after. There weren’t even any mosquitoes. They all died from the heat, probably. One day was 38 degrees. The Finns were convinced that it’s the end of the world.

   Luckily they have enough lakes to jump into.

3. A big part of it is not the weather but the activity. In Europe, Americans walk 50x more than we normally do. Dehydration kills us. Exercise kills us. The beautiful sights (and lack of time versus expenses) keeps us going nearly 24/7.

4. Munich in June 2019. It was hotter than we expected. To make it more bearable we got back to the hotel for at least 3 hours, replaced the lunch with a couple of pretzels and tried to drink less beer.

5. I came to Geneva last September prepared for autumn… I got seriously sunburnt

6. Luxor, Valley of the Kings, +47°C. I was close to being the next dead pharao.

   Despite the hest it was amazing experience!

7. GB, specifically Bath 2020 (or 19, cannot remember)

   everyone always says England is rainy and cold all year long. Well, no. It was so *so* *hot*. Better than Vienna, where I’m from, but still awful.

8. Scotland in September…I was miserabel, red like a Tomato

9. Took a long road trip to literally escape from the sweltering Italian heat during the heatwave of 2003. I just went north. After a cool first night in the Alps, lake Constance was so low that all sorts of junk were emerging from the silt, including cars and WWII ordnance. So I went further north, and most of the Black Forest had been closed for fear of fires. Got to Freiburg, nothing. Heidelberg, little bit better. Crossed to France and Strasbourg was a furnace. People were literally passing out in the streets. It has been estimated that that year between France and Italy there were about 25000 deaths caused by heat, mostly the elderly

10. Helsinki. Turns out it’s not deep snow all year round.

11. I went on a trip to Lille in July 2019, when there was a ridiculously hot heatwave. I’d been to Lille once before, and it felt like British type weather: grey, dull, damp, and harmless. This time round though it was bright sunshine and over 40 degrees.

    It felt really weird walking around northern European architecture while in a climate which felt like the south of Greece. Also it is definitely not a city designed to cope with those kinds of temperatures! I spent a long time in a lovely art gallery almost entirely because it had good air con, unlike another museum down the road I’d tried earlier on which was basically a sauna with stuffed animals in it.

12. You are very conveniently from Romania. I visited Constanța recently. I almost died of heat there. Barely any shade in sight, even the sea wind was hot.

13. Belgrade was 36 almost whole week. I literally switches into nocturnal mode

14. I was in Manchester in July 22, and I arrived there during the “hottest days ever in British history”. The second day I was there, temperatures reached 38°c, I really felt like dying. Two or three days later though, temperatures fell to 17°c. I went from almost tearing my shirt in pieces to having to wear a jacket!

15. Last summer, in Calabria, usually we never went past 30°, but last year we reached 49°

16. First time I visited England in July 1999 it was scorching hot, I wasn’t prepared for that and all my clothes were wrong for the weather.

    Lisbon in summer 2021 was also deathly hot, I’m from Seville so I am used to hot weather but the humidity killed me.

17. Few years ago got sunburnt for the first time in my life…IN NORTHERN SCOTLAND.

18. Regensburg surprised me a lot in a good way. Also Phnom Penh.

19. Herceg Novi in Montenegro. Middle of July, almost 40 degrees, and humid as fuck. It was hard enough in Budva and Kotor, but Herceg is for some reason humid as fuck, so it was really difficult to breathe.

    Never again visiting southern Europe in summer.

20. Tokyo. I was planning to walk around the Imperial Palace and it got up to 35c. If you check the front area of it from Google Maps, there’s just big plain area, no trees for shadows or anything else. One of the few times when I really thought I’m gonna pass out hahaha.

21. Not the hottest, but in 2022 I did not expect Leipzig in Germany to have 34 degrees and almost storm, yet the winds were *warm*, that weirded me out the most, they didn’t chill at all. (to be fair, my german friends said that weather wasn’t the norm, but that it definitely has become warmer though)

22. There is a reason we call south of Italy “Africa” it’s not just the people but the weather too /j

23. Reggio Calabria, 40 degrees in a city with way too few trees.

24. Budapest in summer (humid, igh 30s) felt hotter than Egypt (dry, mid 40s).

25. Porto and Lisbon even if it may have been expected by some.

26. Last year’s Dublin pride I got a sunburn from standing around at alt pride for a few hours, Ireland gets really humid when it’s hot and it’s worse than a dry heat.

    That being said, my last summer in Belgium when it was 40 degrees out?? Lord I was glad to land in Belfast at a 18 degrees temperature after that. Like sticking your head in an oven.

27. Rome and pompei recently. The heat wave was insane.

28. I’m also from Romania – Timișoara and I think I’m dying right now BC of the 37 degrees 😭😭
    And this weekend 40 – it gives me so much anxiety 😭😭

29. I didn’t think my hometown here in Emilia-Romagna could go up to 39. It did, last year, so I fucked off to Tenerife and enjoyed 22-25 all day. This year’s summer started milder, thankfully, though it’s still 33 outside. Manageable, but still uncomfortable. Anything over 28 kills me. 

30. I got sunburnt to fuck in Tallinn.

    I also moved to Poland because I was told it was cold. 30° in Warsaw today…

31. Rome during the 2003 heatwave. It was almost unbearable.

32. Last time I went to Florence and Pisa, I felt like dying because the weather was so humid. At least Pisa benefits from some sea breeze, but Florence is like being in a bowl of hot air pollution. A very miserable experience.

33. Mostar, Bosnia. I was there during a heat wave in 2016 in a 1984 GMC recreational vehicle. No AC, carpets everywhere and just tiny triangle windows you could flip out on each side. It was horrible.

34. Prague July 2018. Was trying to escape the 115 degree heatwave in Los Angeles.
    Heat felt worse in Prague w the humidity .

35. London, 2018 was really hot. I don’t think I’ve ever drunk so many bottles of water in a day.

36. Toronto. We thought it would be spring-like. We were so grateful for the underground city, (Path pedestrian walkway) every time we had to walk in the street we dashed from shade to shade.

37. I’ve probably been to hotter places since (last month in Cyprus we got to 45°C or so, last year in Uzbekistan we probably averaged 40°C throughout our stay), but for sheer unpreparedness, I’ll nominate Cuba. My chest blistered and then my skin started peeling off a bit, leaving me with a dirndl style decolletage.

38. Manchester in England. The English always say we have the same weather. However, as a professional Irishman, England is far hotter than Ireland and much less wet. I never welcomed the cold rains of Connacht so much in my life 🤣