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A little less than a year ago, I relocated to the Netherlands from sunny South Africa. Having spent most of my life in a climate blessed with fair weather, I have since discovered just how much of an impact the sun has on people. Coming from a country where even the harshest winter months are sprinkled with days of sunshine in between, the sun was something — dare I say — I had taken for granted.
It was only upon arriving in this small orange pocket of Europe that I realised just how much of an effect that warm amber ball has on human beings, their lifestyle and, above all, their mood. Born and bred in Cape Town, famously dubbed the Cape of Storms by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias, Capetonians are no strangers to torrential downpours, grey skies, and gale-force winds. I mean, Cape Town’s rugby team is called the Stormers for a reason. We know bad weather.
That said, I now realise that the way Capetonians — and, more broadly, South Africans — deal with bad weather is similar to how one deals with an unwanted houseguest. You grin and bear their presence because you know that, eventually, they will be on their way.
The Dutch, however, are not as lucky.
Here, grey skies stretch from days to weeks to months without so much as a peekaboo from the sun. About a month after arriving, my roommate excitedly announced one evening that the following day promised blue skies and warm temperatures. I didn’t give it much thought.
The next morning, I woke up to him lekker besig with the laundry. Somehow, he had managed to remove every curtain in our apartment, gleefully stuffing them into the washing machine before I had even had my first cup of coffee.
“We have to take advantage of this weather, you know.”
A few minutes later, his friends called to invite him to a lunch party. They had reserved a terrace table “to take advantage of the weather, you know,” he explained.
That was the day I discovered that my roommate was not the only one whose every other sentence was tied to the weather. I was ditched by a friend with whom I had evening plans to catch a movie. Her boyfriend decided to surprise her with a road trip to Volendam — “because of the weather.” I know.
Another friend took a day off work. His reason? An unashamedly simple answer: “To soak in the sun.”
Even the old man in my building — the one with a permanent scowl etched across his face — greeted me for the first time. As he was making his way into the building while I was leaving, we exchanged pleasantries. I couldn’t help but wonder whether the moment was pure coincidence or whether his good mood had been sparked by the weather.
It was then that I realised the winter gloom South Africans experience is little more than a watered-down irritation compared to the doom and gloom — on steroids — endured by our Dutch counterparts.
I became aware of how much I had previously been ignorant about. Like most people, I knew that less sun exposure leads to lower vitamin D levels. What I had never heard of were conditions like Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). According to the Mayo Clinic, SAD is a type of depression that follows a seasonal pattern and lasts throughout winter.
I can imagine just about any local reading this and thinking, What idiot doesn’t know about the effects of too little sun? I suppose I am that privileged idiot.
One day of bad weather is typically followed by ten glorious ones where I’m from.
My questions became more philosophical. South Africans are widely considered a hospitable and warm (excuse the pun) bunch. Is that because we are sun-kissed on any given day? Would we still be as warm if that same grey carpet in the sky lingered over Sea Point’s promenade or our beloved hiking trails for months on end?
This, in turn, made me think about the Dutch and their reputation for being direct. What if they’re literally just too cold to smile or greet a stranger the way saffas so easily do?
What I do know is that I now have a far greater appreciation for our glorious weather whenever I fly home for a visit. Maybe not to the extent of furiously scrubbing curtains at sunrise — but certainly enough to stop and properly appreciate a Cape Town sunrise.
Summer Jacobs holds an Honours degree in English and has a rich background in journalism, where she spent years interviewing fascinating individuals and sharing their stories. An avid traveler, she recently relocated from South Africa to Den Haag, bringing her passion for storytelling and global experiences to a new chapter in life.
