I get a monthly ADAC magazine. ADAC is the German auto-club that sells you autobahn service, insurance, and offers out car advice. I won't say that they don't have an agenda or that they are that truthful....but most Germans respect them.
In this month's magazine.....there's an interesting statistical display. You see....ADAC runs a airline ambulance service. They've got a couple of jets and they get notified by someone who is on vacation.....that they need to return to Germany because of injury, sickness, etc. Supposedly, your insurance package with them....covers the bulk of the air ambulance jet costs. I have doubts about this, but people seem to utilize this often.
So the numbers come up. From France last year.....they flew 1649 people back to Germany. It's a fair number.....I admit. From Greece, it was 1771 folks flown back.
Then you come to Turkey at the end of the scale....6781 people flown back to Germany.
Why so many? Unknown. They told basically.....half-a-story.
What's different about Turkey and Greece? Having been to both, there's not a lot of differences that you'd automatically see.
Yeah, car travel is a lot more dangerous in Turkey.....with guys operating unsafe vehicles (bad springs, no brakes, etc).
Yeah, you do notice food poisoning occurring at a hefty rate within a resort hotel in Turkey.....although it's not usually the food from the Hotel but food from some local vendor.
Yeah, people are stupid enough to go out on day one in Turkey with no sunscreen and get burned fairly hard.
Yeah, people do rent scooters in Turkey.....who've never rented one in their life, and drive off some road or have the scooter fall onto their leg as they attempt to park it.
It would be interesting to have ADAC lay out a dozen episodes from the six-thousand-odd folks who got banged up. I looked at the picture of one of their jets.....big enough to tote a dozen wounded or injured folks. Must be a full-time job for the pilot and crew.
Does this statistic really say anything? Well.....yeah.....if you had a choice between Turkey and Greece for three weeks of vacation, and wanted a safe trip......then the statistical average says you'd best avoid Turkey.
Years ago....my wife did a fair amount of talking (Germans do that occasionally), and convinced (I was still fairly reluctant) to make a two-week trip to Turkey. Summer episode.....sunshine.....four-star resort on the beaches....etc.
We were about eight days into the trip when they served some kinda fish one night at the buffet area. I skipped the fish.....my wife didn't. Around midnight.....she got up with severe cramps. It's safe to say between midnight and 6AM, she visited the toilet a dozen times. She saw a local doctor the next morning and got some five-star drugs. By mid-afternoon.....she was slightly better but it took around forty-eight hours before she ate anything.
Maybe Germans don't fear travel the way that Americans would. Americans won't run off to Yeman, but Germans would. Germans will easily sign up for some Peru mountain tour, but then come back to report that they got robbed by bandits while on some bus.
I'm guessing 500,000 folks will review the ADAC article and ninety-nine percent will just not see much to talk about. But six-thousand-odd people ending up on a air ambulance deal? Yeah, there's something there.
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