With the heat wave announced in Zagreb from Wednesday until the end of the week, everyone walking around the city should prepare themselves. Use head protection and drink plenty of water if you really need to be outside from 11am until 5pm, but it would be best to avoid direct sunlight in those hours, especially elderly people, kids and pregnant women. Shade is your friend.
This goes double for tourists as many of them want to make the best use of their time on vacation, often neglecting warnings from local authorities. As the summer starts, the newspapers are filled with stories of tourists going on mountain hikes in their sandals and no water, taking high noon tours with no protection or water and getting fevers, taking selfies over cliffs they should not approach, going into caves with high heels or trying to reach an island in a rubber boat with no prior naval experience, ending up on open seas…
We want you to enjoy our country as much as you possibly can and go home with great memories, but we want you to be safe doing that. The situations we mentioned above are isolated cases, but those things happen year after year and it just takes a bit of common sense to avoid them.
The heat wave however, will be felt regardless of your precautions, so tomorrow the city of Zagreb will issue a special medical units for the summer – motorbike paramedics. Their purpose is to be first responders on the street and to take care of minor emergencies caused by the weather, while triaging for the ambulance in case of more dire situations.
The emergency number in Croatia is the same as in all of European Union – 112. Croatia has universal health care so you shouldn’t risk your health over the fear of eventual bills. But let’s try and avoid this all together and enjoy your holidays responsibly.
