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Why the Long, Dark Winter is Worth it

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Around this time of the year, I'm usually so desperate for sunlight that I come up with ideas about how I can move abroad during the darkest months. I know people who go and spend a couple of months in South Africa during the winter. It seems like the perfect place for Norhtern Europeans with a location-independent job to spend December to February. There's no time difference so just it's just a matter of BYOD and you're good to go.

If only it was that simple.

I once spent almost a year in Guatemala, one of the most beautiful places on earth. The land of eternal spring, some say. It was great. T-shirt weather every day, hardly any rain and certainly no blizzards. But honestly, after six months I started to miss putting on a jumper before going outside. I missed the smells of the changing seasons and the changes in the ambient light. And I longed for the 11 pm sunsets of the Scandinavian summer nights. I dare say I even thought I missed the darkness of the long winters.
 

Keeping things fresh

I recently spoke to a friend from Dubai who's visiting Copenhagen soon. He's hoping for snow or rain when he gets here, not sunshine and blue skies like in Dubai. That's what 300+ sunny days a year do that to you.

Another friend lives in Bergen which averages more than 200 days of rain each year. That would finish me off.

Even though I find the winters too long and too dark, it's the time in between seasons - the changes - that I wouldn't want to be without. These changes are what keep me from complacency in my photography. They keep things fresh.

And oh, officially there's only two weeks left of winter!