Today, September 30th 2017 I’m traveling back from Oslo to Zurich. This morning while packing my suitcase I finally got over my writer’s block – if you can call it like that since I’m not a writer, or as I learned in Oslo – not yet. 

While in the shower (go creativity in aloneness) I remembered what Gloria Burgess, a very inspiring woman told us yesterday at the WIN Conference – “you have a voice, you can do this, you just have to start”. And while I was standing in that room talking about something else, it made me think of all the things I have lately wanted to do but I haven’t. For lack of discipline or determination, but also because I had lost my ‘groove’ or my ‘mojo’ or whatever you call that spark. For this blog I had lost my voice for the next chapter and the rest to come. 

One of the reasons, I believe, was that this blog was meant to be a shared blog, not just my own – my husband was in charge of the photos for our Instagram account, I was in charge of the blog. He held his end of the bargain, I made it to 3 chapters. And like my brother says – I never made it out of Colombia! Actually I started the chapter about Peru, but never ended it. And trust me, there is a lot to write about Peru (more to come on that). 

In my first attempt to be a travel blogger, I wanted my writing, my posts, the photos to be perfect. So I wrote the first chapter with energy and determination, all by myself, for myself, for us. Inspired, ready to take on the new challenge of being a travel blogger and later be able to share with friends and family or even strangers, our experiences during our trip around the world between November 2016 and March 2017. 

After writing the first draft of chapter 2,  I asked my husband for his feedback on my writing, the structure and the content. He is a wonderful writer and since University I have asked him to read through my academic papers, thesis, applications, etc. He has always been the one that helps sort all the mess in my monkey mind so that the result has structure and professors and hiring managers will understand what I wanted to say. It has always worked wonders! So when I asked him to read my second post, he, being the supportive and very honest person he is, gave me his feedback that the storyline wasn’t very clear. So I took his feedback and rewrote the second chapter until I was happy again with the result and I had a storyline. The chapter on Bogota with all its shiny gold and buzz was done after a couple of weeks. 

Being on the road, constantly changing places, packaging, unpacking is great inspiration for a travel blog, but writing a blog requires time, wifi, calmness,  motivation and determination when you’re so tired, you just want to sleep. I have a lot of respect for travel bloggers who are constantly updating their blog/Instagram/whathaveyou on the road and on time…it’s quite a challenge and sometimes you’re still processing what you just saw or experienced.

So back to the writing. Next was chapter 3 sharing about the rest of the places in Colombia we visited. But how do you summarize it all in one post? Such a magnificent and diverse country, the jungle, the desert – the amazing Caribe Colombiano! 

While on a little travel break in the Sacred Valley in Peru I started writing, scrapped it all, started again – the structure was missing, it was a bit too much, too little – and so in the pursuit of perfection or in the attempt of getting it right, I lost the joy in writing. In my mind, the posts had to have structure, have a ‘red thread’ within the story, be more informative and less journal-style. It felt like hard work and suddenly, I stopped. During the rest of the trip I kept on writing notes about our days, places, food, wines, feelings, and all things I didn’t want to forget in the beautiful red leather covered notebook I got from Tobi for my birthday. So the writing is there, the notes are there – and today after 6 months of being back from that wonderful trip, I start again. 

Not just to write about that trip and many more to come, but about the joy and change that this extended honeymoon/adventure brought to my life. It has been a catalyst, a journey of self discovery, of change, of openess and most of all, love. Not just love for Tobi, but love for myself, travel, for nature, the world, the people in it, food, my long forgotten passions, new passions and so much more. 

I hope you enjoy this journey with me as much as I love writing about it once more.