New Year's in Rome

Isn't it crazy how life takes you places you never saw coming? It reminds me of that C.S. Lewis quote about nothing changing day by day, but then when you look back, everything is different. 

After Rusty's first season in Greece, we spent some time traveling around Italy. At that time, I would have never thought that in three years, I would be back celebrating New Year's Eve with the Lavaja's. It makes me wonder where we will be a year from now. With this possibly being Rusty's last season playing volleyball oversees, we are about to open a whole new chapter of our lives. Does it stress me out that we don't really have any plans and we don't know where we're gonna live? Yes. Yes it does. But, I have come to realize how much I like change; it's what keeps life interesting. We are headed into uncharted waters and change is the propeller. So while it makes me nervous not knowing what our future has in store, I am also excited for the possibilities...and I try to remind myself to live in the present since we still have a few months here...so back to Italy. 

Italy is just such a great country. How can you not love a place full of gelato and pasta? We arrived in Rome at about 11:30pm on the 29th, were picked up by a taxi service, and dropped off at our hotel to prepare for the next day.

Daily highlights continued... 

Day 5: December 29th

When we landed in Rome, a black cat was waiting at the airport. Some people may think- black cat, not a good sign, but I consider it to be one of the highlights of our trip haha. I guess my mom's love of cats has rubbed off on me a little. I like to think it was waiting for its owners to arrive, as you can tell from the video...

Day 6: December 30th 

Colosseum

We walked from our hotel to the Colosseum. Rusty had us all download Rick Steves Audio Guide on our phones, so we grabbed our headphones and were ready to go. The Colosseum's history is difficult to even wrap my head around. It's hard to imagine that the exact walls we see, were built so long ago and not only that, but held the craziest events! 

Seeing Smart Cars parked horizontally is the greatest.

Spanish Steps

I don't know much about the Spanish Steps other than that they are in the Ocean's Twelve movie haha. But I did learn- during one of our walking tours, that the little boat fountain in front of the steps (which I had barely even noticed) was inspired by an actual flood that brought a boat into that area way back when. 

Trevi Fountain
We caught up to a free walking tour that had started at the Spanish Steps. We got there late (per the norm), but luckily we were able to find them at the next stop- the fountain. 

Monument of Vittorio Emanuele II
When I think of a monument, I think of a statue. Apparently Vittorio Emanuele II was pretty important because he got a huge building. It sits in Piazza Venezia- a central part of Rome. Not only is it referred to as the "wedding cake" because of its shape, but it offers one of the best views of Rome. There was a huge lit Christmas tree in the center of the square, which I was a huge fan of- Christmas decor makes everything better!

Roman Forum
Last time I was in Rome, I had totally overlooked the Roman Forum- we saw it, and then quickly moved on. It doesn't look like much, but that makes sense considering it's the remains of ancient Rome. Knowing some more history behind it, made it so much more interesting. Our tour group stood in front of the old senate house, which was thought to be where Julius Cesar was assassinated. 

Back at the Colosseum
We ended the tour back at the Colosseum, so we got to see it earlier in the day and at night, lit up. 

We couldn't end our night just yet, so we hit up a restaurant and then a gelato shop before heading back to our hotel. It was a great ending to a great day. 

Forget the cup...Rust went with a tub of gelato lol

Chocolate Heaven

The next morning we headed to Brussels for the day. Our flight to Rome left that night out of Brussels, so we figured we would do some chocolate shopping before. When I went to church in Brussels back in October with my sister and friend, the Bishop of the ward gave us the best advice ever- to visit the Neuhaus Chocolate Outlet, where you can sample as much free chocolate as you want! He said if you leave without feeling sick, you haven't done your job. I must admit, I was a bit skeptical. How could there really be a chocolate outlet that gives unlimited free samples? Sadly it was closed that day because it was Sunday, but I now knew where I would go next time I was in Brussels.

Well the Bishop wasn't kidding! We arrived to the Neuhaus Outlet not sure what to expect. I was hoping it wouldn't be a disappointment since I had told everyone we needed to go. We walked in and it looked like any other chocolate shop, except in front of almost every display, was a tray of samples. A row of about 30 open chocolate boxes lined one of the walls. It was a dream come true. I went around quickly trying everything to find my favorite, Big Russ was so excited he couldn't stop giggling, Susie was trying to find gifts to take home, and Rusty was just doin his thing, sticking by his favorites. 

If you are ever in Brussels, and like chocolate, this place is a must! It is about 30 minutes outside the city, but depending on how much you can eat, it'll save you at least 20 euro :) 

Family in France

Rusty had a home volleyball match on December 28th. When I saw the schedule at the beginning of the season, I was bummed there was a match just 3 days after Christmas...there would be no going home for us, and maybe not even much traveling. In Finland we had two weeks off and were able to go home, which now seems crazy, but this year's schedule actually ended up working out perfectly because Russ and Susie were finally able to watch Rusty play in a professional match! 

While French fans are no rivals to Greek fans (shirts off, body paint, lit flares in hand), Russ and Susie did get to experience the drums and chanting of the "Blue Eagles" and the post match "VIP party". The VIP party is basically just free snacks and drinks for the players, their family and friends, and supporters of the club. All the teams in France put one on after every home match. As long as they have desserts, which they usually do, I'm happy ;) 

It was so great to be able to show Russ and Susie around our temporary home. They even went into parent mode and hung three paintings we had been meaning to hang on our walls for months! My friend surprised me with them because I had mentioned I needed stuff for the walls. How nice is that?! We don't have a hammer, so they improvised by using a pot haha. Finally our walls aren't bare!

I spy Big Russ

Paris to Chantilly

Day 4: December 27th 

Hotel des Invalides & Shopping 

Rusty took the rental car, so we needed somewhere close enough to our hotel to walk to. Russ wanted to check out the Hotel des Invalides and Susie felt like shopping, so we sent Russ out on his own and strolled the streets. 

Chantilly, France

Rusty got back to Paris to pick us up around 4pm. We wanted to head out before traffic hit, so we decided to stop somewhere between Paris and Cambrai for dinner. I looked at a map on my phone and saw that Chantilly was about an hour away and was on our route. I had been wanting to go there to see a castle so the decision was easy, plus everyone was getting in the tired/hungry zombie phase...you know, when it's been a long day, you haven't eaten in forever, and making a decision on where to go and what to do next seems impossible, so I knew I had to act quick ;) Rusty entered it into the GPS and off we went.  

As we were driving in, the castle was the first thing we saw. It was stunning. Sadly it was closed, so we weren't able to go inside, but it was so pretty I was happy just being able to see the outside. 

The town was so quaint. There were paintings of horses on walls to celebrate the annual horse races that are held at the castle. I would love to come back and see them. We stopped in a cafe, which didn't end up having much food, so we all had soup as a snack and planned to eat dinner in Cambrai. But we ran into another problem since we didn't get back to Cambrai til about 11pm- both the food places we wanted to take Susie and Russ to were closed. We went into an open bar which also didn't end up having much of a menu, but, we noticed the people there had brought in food from other places. Right outside were a couple food trucks, so food trucks it was!

Eating food truck burgers and fries in a random bar may not have been the best meal ever, well except for the fries, those are actually really good. I guess we do call them french fries for a reason...although apparently it's a big debate whether northern France or Belgium created them...but enough of my fry tangent haha, our dinner in Cambrai was another unforgettable memory we can add to the list!

How cute is this window display?