Hi there! Nice to meet you!
I’m Cynthia, aka The Marvelous Mrs Colling, or just 'Cyn'.
I'm a 30-something archaeologist from Belgium and I’m the main author of this blog.
The reason I started said blog is because I’m crazy enough to travel the world while struggling with a few (major) health issues.
My marvelous travel partner is Sebastian, a 30-something (slightly younger) ex-purchasing agent from Austria who quit his job to travel the world with me.
We met on a drunk New Year’s Eve in Dublin in 2018 and spent our first year driving back and forth (about 600 km) between Austria and Luxembourg, where I used to live.
In 2020 we decided to put our lives on hold for at least a year to explore our beautiful world together.
- Cyn -
Belgian archaeologist working in Luxembourg.
I am fluent in six languages and love learning new ones.
I am a passionate musician (brass music, singing), dancer and I love to draw/paint.
I am the hardheaded and short-tempered dreamer in this couple.
Maybe because I'm left-handed, hence very emotional?
- Sebi -
Austrian purchasing agent who quit his job to embark on an adventure.
I grew up with ice-hockey, love spending time on the ice, as a player and trainer.
I am good with numbers and I love check-lists.
I'm the calm and rational one and I think we complete each other perfectly. Cyn says I'm 'hopelessly optimistic'.
The story behind this blog
How we came to do.. what we do
There's an old saying that goes:
If you can dream it, you can do it!
… just kidding! This is supposed to have been Walt Disney’s life motto (although this is a misconception but I won't go into it - just google it).
Still, I totally agree with the saying (not only because I’m a huge Disney-fan..) and it took me a while to figure that out.
Hence, starting a travel blog past 30. To tell you the truth: I had been dreaming of travelling the world for some time. Although I have been lucky enough to see some incredible destinations already, it was never quite what I wanted.
I missed the feeling of getting around freely without time pressing on my shoulders - having a regular job means little freedom in terms of holidays of course.
Archaeologist at work
Rethinking the future
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m an archaeologist, currently working in Luxembourg. Although I’m very passionate about archaeology, my personal life got pretty messed up when my then-husband deciding to end things. He had his reasons which I won't elaborate.
And although it took me a while to accept his decision, I now see that it was indeed for the best.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m very grateful for what we had and experienced together, but his working situation was one of the main reasons we never got to just pack our bags and head out into the world for a longer period of time.
We got divorced (I’ll spare you the details) and I had to reconsider my entire life. Up to that sad moment, I had everything centred around our couple.
All my big ideas for the future, like buying a house (which we did), getting married (which we did), having children (which we were planning to) suddenly seemed so trivial.
We ended up selling the house and I moved to Luxembourg. This meant that I could finally stop spending 3 hours a day in my car just to get to work and back home (which I did for 4 years).
Next, I started to re-set my timeline for the future and tried out new activities: a new orchestra, taking Flamenco classes, etc.
Travelling solo
Something I always wanted to do was taking a proper solo-trip. So far I had only travelled with my husband and I missed something.
So I planned my next trip while we were still divoring: four weeks through Argentina, Chile and Easter Island. It was my first long trip without too much planning totally by myself. And you know what? It was epic!
It got me longing for more.
Proud girl at the base of las Torres del Paine, Chile
When love hits you...
One small detail I didn’t consider, though, was meeting someone a couple of months before my Patagonia-trip.
But I did. On a drunk NYE. In Dublin.
Moreover, the guy I met was from Austria. Roughly 600 km from where I was living. The odds of staying together were quite slim at the beginning. But we managed to keep it going no matter what.
I didn’t want to reconsider my travel plans but luckily I didn’t have to. Sebi actually wanted to travel too. It just hadn't occurred to him before meeting me – I kind of contaminated him with the travel-bug.
The idea of a year-long world trip first came up while Sebi and I were on a short trip in my favourite city, Barcelona (I actually lived there for a while during my studies).
We were having delicious tapas in the Boquería and about to order another Estrella when we both figured, we could just put everything on hold and do an epic trip around the world. Heck, why not?
The idea got even more real when we spent a week together in Malta and Gozo, realising we were totally compatible in terms of travel-style.
Winter escape to Neuschwanstein, Germany
Planning our world-trip
So that's how it all started.
I took a sabbatical, Sebi quit his job and we started to set up our trip, reading like crazy about how others dit it, all kinds of blogs about traveling on a budget (well yeah, that’s something to consider, obviously) and fixing some milestone-goals that we absolutely wanted to reach.
That preparation phase is also when I started this blog. Knowing my way with words and speaking 6 languages made it an obvious choice for me to document our adventure.
Sebi on the other hand is good with numbers so he set up the whole financial plan to get us around. He even taught me how to really save money prior to even starting the trip.
I have always been a bad saver (shopping-addict who can’t stop buying silly gifts for loved ones over here). But it worked. Who knew it would be that easy to set aside a little extra cash?
And then there was a pandemic...
The joys of isolation
Three weeks before our planned starting date (April 1st 2020), Corona hit the world.
We had to cancel everything we had already booked and decided to wait things out - honestly thinking this whole crisis would last only a few weeks. There was no possibility to back out, I had a replacement at work who already started, my car was signed off and I didn't have an apartment anymore.
We managed to move all of my belongings to Sebi's parents in Austria.
After staying put for about two months, we decided to take Sebi's car and embarked on a two-months-road-trip through Europe. We started by exploring Sebi's home, Western Austria, made our way through Slovenia and Croatia, before finally getting to mainland Greece (Meteora!), Crete and Santorini.
Then we came back, to attend two weddings that got previously postponed.
Central America cautiously opening up
While at home, we heard the news that in October, Costa Rica was about to open its border for the first time in months.
As the situation was generally rather calm at that moment, we jumped at the opportunity: we had but a few days to pack our backpacks, get a PCR-test done and rush to the airport.
We didn't come back to Europe until half a year later.
We spent six months travelling through Costa Rica, Mexico, Belize, the Dominican Republic, down to Peru, sideways to French Polynesia and ended up in Jordan to finish the trip.
So why was this trip so special? Why blog about it? We are far from being the only ones doing it.
Well, the main reason behind this adventure was that to me there were a lot more uncertainties and difficulties involved than most people.
Just read on...
Follow your dreams ...
Health struggles and travels
While preparing for the trip, people kept telling me to 'leave without planning', to just 'live in the moment', and so on.
First of all: I’m a very curious person, meaning I read an awful lot and love to keep myself informed. Meaning also that there are sooo many places I already know I absolutely want to see, mainly because of their historical interest.
So yeah, I always do a little planning, especially regarding historical sites. Because - let’s face it - popular places are usually overcrowded and I wouldn’t want to finally be at the doorstep of one of these magnificent archaeological sites and find myself being kept from entering because I didn’t make any kind of pre-booking.
From this point of view: screw the 'no-planning-rule'. I obviously don't have a day-by-day planning but I definitely know when to go where. Regarding everything in between, well, we just wing it.
Secondly: as I said previously, I struggle with a few health issues that I’d like to lay out a bit.
Read also | Travelling despite a chronic disease
Diagnosis: Ulcerative Colitis
You may have wondered (or not) why I chose that specific blog-title. I drew inspiration from a popular series called The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, about a young woman in the 1960s, struggling to make it as a professional comedian, despite being very talented (if you haven't watched it yet: do it!).
She has to fight a lot of setbacks and seems to be rather unlucky most of the time. I felt kind of connected to her as I hit a bumps along the road myself. Only, in my case it was my body throwing stones in my way.
I struggled. A lot.
I was diagnosed at 24 with Ulcerative Colitis, the lesser known of the so-called 'inflammatory bowl diseases'. You might be more familiar with the sister known as Crohn’s Disease.
The bumpy road to... a treatment that works
It started with constant cramps, diarrhoea after every meal and a general feeling of exhaustion.
The initial diagnoses was 'irritable colon' and it took a long time and several doctors prescribing all kinds of (bad) medication before one of Europe’s leading hospitals, the UZ Leuven in Belgium, took me in and got me the treatments I needed.
After a few other set-backs because of treatments that didn’t work as well as they should, had to many side-effects or weren’t reimbursed by the insurance company anymore (hello, money-business!), I found a Ulcerative Colitis treatment that worked for me and got me into 'remission' which means that the symptoms are being kept at bay (knock, knock, knock on wood!).
I'm an expert at taking hospital selfies
Hospital stays
Unfortunately, the treatment that got me into remission required my presence at the hospital every 8 weeks as it's administrated by infusion.
Luckily, the doctors in Leuven were very understanding when I told them about my plans to travel around the world.
A bit surprised. And concerned. But understanding.
We ultimately found an alternative to prevent any relapses of the disease while on the road. So I still have to get treatments but in form of injections that I can administrate myself called 'Stelara'.
Yes, I travelled with injections that had to be kept cool during our trip. Quite the challenge.
Read also | How to keep medication cool when travelling
But that's not all of it.
With one autoimmune disease came another one - according to recent research, they are linked to each other - called 'lipedema'. This one required painful surgeries and a lot of physiotherapy. And it's also a lifelong struggle.
Moreover, some side effects I got from the different treatments, like asthma and psoriasis came to join the party at some point.
If you are interested in knowing more about my disease(s), the treatments, travelling with them and how to not let them beat you down, check out the posts linked at the bottom.
Challenges ahead. And accepted.
Travelling with health issues is challenging. Sometimes it really sucks. Sometimes a little less. A lot of the times it pulls you down.
The goal is to not let it take over your life. You have to live with it. But the emphasis lies on live.
My main drive to start this blog, writing about travelling with various health issues is two-fold: one the one hand, I want to show others who struggle - be it with their health or just travelling in general - that fear isn't something you can't control. Fear is good, fear is healthy. But it should never be overpowering.
On the other hand, writing about my adventures and all the setbacks I encounter is kind of therapeutic for me as well. Like the doctors at my hospital told me: talk about it. Share the struggle. Break tabus and make people understand what you go through.
Travelling like I do has its ups and downs. But the experiences I get to make totally overweigh the struggles.
Plus, I've got the best travel buddy one can possibly imagine. He's my hopelessly optimistic rock.
A winner is a dreamer who never gives up
Nelson Mandela
Don't forget to subscribe for the latest posts and tips on travelling with health issues!
