Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she writes about how to cope with the summer heat in Bucharest.

I think most expats in Romania are talking about the weather these days. Summer has begun a while ago, but temperatures are going higher and it gets really hot in Bucharest.

There are trucks are driving around trying to water the streets, but it doesn’t seems to help, and when you walk around in the streets you will at times feel the street is bending like it was made of some sort of soft material. It´s actually a strange feeling, and personally I can´t help but stamping on these asphalt spots like children will stamp in a rainwater puddle, because it´s fun.

Winter is Romania is really, really cold, and in the summer in gets sooo hot. So far it has been bearable in Bucharest, but the last days have been a sort of the sign: the heat level is going up.

If you plan to have meetings in the summer, when the humidity will make you sweat (imagine drops of sweat running down your face), you just have to adjust your mindset and realize the person you will meet will be looking just the same way as you. In the evening it sometimes rains cats and dogs, which is not without its charm, as amazing thunders cover the sky.

At home I try to open the windows and the balcony door to get a breeze, but there is just no breeze. So like a zombie I go to work in the mornings after a night of battling mosquitoes – a losing battle for me so far, even though I completely spray my place with anti-mosquito spray – and after trying in vain to sleep. Sleeping in this heat is not really possible, it is just too warm, so I end up reading instead just next to a big on stand air conditioner, while in the other hand I have my mosquito spray. The next step will probably be sleeping on the balcony under a mosquito net.

At work I turn on the air conditioning, but I haven’t really been able to figure out the buttons on the remote, so it’s not just a breeze anymore, it’s actually a temperature calling penguins and polar bears to live in our office.

Because of the heat, in the summertime things begins to move in slow motion in Romania, locals and tourist all walking around like zombies with a water bottle trying to find a shady place where they can calm down. People run either to go home or to work to get to the AC, where 'ahh! finally it feels colder.' But after a few minutes enjoying the cold breeze, you will suddenly find that you can't move your head, your arm is locked or your eyes are twitching since the draft has got you, and you have to make a choice: either enjoy the cool breeze while developing some kind of strange ticks, or sweat under the heat.

If you go for the cool breeze, next day you will most likely regret it. But sitting and trying to work on this weather while you brain is melting like ice-cream is not easy at all.

Actually ice-creams seems to be the perfect solution to cool down, unless you of course have a bathtub and are willing to fill it with ice cubes and to put a table there, which you can use for work – it seems like a great idea.

So enjoy the zen spirit of Bucharest battling the heat or just do what most Romanians does during summer: head for the seaside.

But then again, there are also great summer days and summer evenings, when the weather is not so extreme, so enjoy the great summer days in Bucharest, and continue the talk about the Romanian weather...

By Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe, columnist

(photo source: Photoxpress.com)

Eleonore is Danish, she holds a BA in Organization and Management and specializes in Corporate Communication & Strategic Development. She is also a Market Economist and a Multimedia Designer. She is currently working in Bucharest as the Executive Director of UAPR the Romanian Advertising Association. As a Danish Viking in Romania, with a great passion for ’covrigi’, she has a burning desire to find out more about Romania especially Bucharest, and enlighten the small differences in the culture between Denmark and Romania.. Her weekly columns will give you insights into an expats life in Bucharest written with humor and a big Danish smile.