2025 in Seasons ️🌷

I've only really started to appreciate the existence of seasons, after I returned from a trip around the world. In many places I've visited, seasons aren't as nuanced as they are in the temperate zone of Central Europe or they just don't exist at all. In Southeast Asia, you really only have rainy and dry season. In other places like Colombia's Medellín, you have eternal spring.

So here goes a year in review by using the four seasons as signposts.

Winter

After skipping most of 2024's winter, it hit even harder than usual in 2025 as we were mostly exposed to summer the year prior travelling in Southeast Asia and South America. It took only a few weeks before my post-travel depression mixed with a winter depression. Life outside my window disappeared into a thick layer of fog and my feet were cold for three long, dull months. It got so bad around my birthday in mid-January, that I wrote these words that perfectly summarize my state of mind then:

During the day, there's a thick, grey cloud covering the entirety of the city. It's persistent and dense. At the end of the day, darkness approaches and wraps itself over the city. If winter's mood is really nasty, you get one layer of darkness over the layer of clouds. What the actual fuck, winter. Can you please just piss off?

I hated the past winter. It didn't help my mood that my educational leave ended and I had to restart a job that I already dreaded before I went on leave. My girlfriend Sophia and I relieved the pain by eating out 4-5 times a week, which is fine if you're in South America, but proofed to be rather expensive if you're in Austria (especially in times of inflation).

My depression manifested itself as a writing block that lasted three gruelling months and only the arrival of spring could remedy.

Winter was my least favourite season of the year. My winter dream would be a bath tub. Oh, how I would bathe every single night.

Spring

Luckily, the first several weeks back at work didn't demand too much from me. I embraced the opportunity of working remotely by staying in my hometown, Graz. As I stayed there a whole month, it allowed me to spend quality time with friends and family and rediscover the city I had left behind a decade ago. Graz has the perfect size, allowing you to go everywhere by bike, while it still offers a lot in terms of places to go or nature around it. Too soon, I decided that I was feeling better, when deep down, I still felt depressed.

Back in Vienna, I continued working remotely and rediscovered the home office:

I've never particularly liked the home office. Of course, it's nice to get up a little late, take my sweet time in the morning and maybe even do some exercise right before work. But I usually get cabin-fever after just a single day at home. Not these days. Suddenly, I really enjoy the home office. Things are too officy at the office anyway. More home office, please.

Then, unexpectedly, my TV broke down, which finally made me realise that I had been living in a comfort zone that I had created for myself, aiming to protect myself from the real world out there. It revolved around 90s sitcoms such as Friends, King of Queens and retro video games such as Pikmin and Metroid Prime. The home office also did its part to shield myself from confronting this new thing in my life called "work".

As everything started to bloom, temperatures started to rise and the sun reappeared, I noticed how slowly, I became my old self again.

Spring would have been my favourite season, if I hadn't still been caught up in post-travel depression. My spring dream would be an extension of spring from a shoulder season to eternal spring.

Summer

We just couldn't sit still. So we left Vienna once more–but this time, to travel in Sophia's home country, Germany. Only months before, I was convinced that I needed to be faraway to feel the bliss of travel again. But travelling to Germany alone, whose culture I know very well, inspired me and had me return to the best version of myself. Oh, how I've had missed travelling.

Germany was so good to us. Dresden with it picturesque green landscape, its beer gardens, its small ferries over the Elbe, its Eierschecke and of course, Sophia's lovely grandma. Berlin with its hip cafés, its Spätis, its nature, its history and of course, Sophia's lovely mum.

Back home, Viennese summer was equally nice. I love this season, when the mornings feel brisk and Danube's water still has a refreshing effect before the midday heat sets in (I love morning swims). When the days are long and you can spend the evenings in your favourite bar with outdoor seating.

We spent our summer holidays in the border region between Albania and Montenegro, hiking the Peaks of the Balkans trek (honorary mention: Kosovo–officially also part of the trek but we didn't make it there). I've seen some breath-taking views, met some very friendly people and altogether if felt like an adventure in the great outdoors (Shout-out to our hiking buddies Chris and Ewa).

At the peak of summer, I made a decision.

This year, summer was my favourite season. I guess travelling, nature and spending time all by myself really helped. My summer dream would be a balcony.

Autumn

While autumn wasn't yet around in Central Europe, it had already made its way to England, when I travelled there at the end of August. I visited my old friend Anthony, solo travelled a bit in London and Brighton and attended a stag do in Newcastle. I discovered an affection for Guinness (and stout in general) and enjoyed the wholesomeness of spending my time in pubs.

Back in Austria, the Guinness tasted like piss, but at least I could spend the last warm days of summer going for swims in the Danube. Then, the decision I had made weeks prior re-emerged in my mind. Suddenly, it was September and I knew it was finally time to quit my job and go on a trip again. Quitting my job was strenuous but I knew right away that it was the right decision.

In the meantime, I got the official driving licence for driving scooters in Austria, hiked up Lower Austria's highest mountain, Schneeberg, had a lot of bicycle trouble and attended two weddings in Styria (why is everyone getting married or pregnant?).

It started to show that I had been neglecting my exercise routine throughout most of 2025, as I developed a constant pain in my lower back, which is when I had no more excuse but to finally get a move on!

The outlook of what came next helped me to pull through.

I found a new appreciation for autumn thanks to the culinary delights of the season: pumpkin and cabbage. The lower temperatures also helped and the fact that this autumn in particular was wonderfully sunny. My autumn dream would be less foggy days.

Winter, again

Just like in 2024, we decided to skipped yet another winter. Right around the time that we first had temperatures below the freezing point, we left. We left for warmer temperatures. We left to drink chai and visit mosques at the edge of Europe. We left to be in the jungles of South Asia. We left to visit Buddhist pagodas, Hindu temples and sandy beaches. We left to be in the nature, see monkeys, elephants, peacocks, turtles and bats. We left and we're still gone, doing what one's supposed to do while between jobs.

Being out there, figuring out what this world is about, while at the same time living a little in between the madness of it all.

Winter No. 2 didn't feel like winter really but rather a comeback of summer. My second winter dream would be to skip winter every once in a while if my first winter dream of a bath tub doesn't fulfil itself.

In summary

I never noticed before how much seasons affect my well-being. How cruel winter can be but without it, how could I really appreciate spring? How nice the outside world gets in summer and how wholesome it feels to eat pumpkin soup in autumn.

Seasons are a pretty sweet concept.