The Newlyweds go to Italy!

This is another attempt at getting caught up with blogging before we go on anymore trips and I end up even farther behind! 

I really don't know where to possibly begin with our Italian honeymoon... I'd been dreaming of it since we got engaged (Ok...truth: I've been dreaming about an Italian honeymoon since I was old enough to know what a honeymoon was...) and it so far exceeded anything I could have imagined! I suppose the only place to start is the beginning, so here we go!

Early Saturday morning, the 17th of September (ha, all of the sudden this sounds ominous, ignore that), we started our slightly complicated trek to Cinque Terre. This began with taking a train to the South station of Brussels where we got on a coach bus for the 45 min trip to the Charleroi airport. From there, we flew into the city of Genova in northern Italy. At the airport we had to pick up another coach bus to take us to the train station so we could take another train to Manarola. PHEW! But the train to Manarola followed the coast line of the Ligurian Sea, so we were provided with a gorgeous view for the entire 90 minutes. The last leg of the train ride, we were joined by some feisty older Italians coming home from a day at the beach. They didn’t speak much English, but gathered from our ridiculous amount of luggage (they had a good laugh about that) that we were on our honeymoon. Suddenly, they would NOT rest until we kissed. But it took them all joining in a chorus of kissing noises for us to understand what they wanted from us. Once deciphered, we were more than happy to oblige, since PDA is the Gantzer-way. The result, of course, was the entire train car (the whole car was packed with them) erupting in cheers. Finally we reached the stop for Manarola, and I even got a kiss on the cheek from one of the extra-feisty older Italian men in the aisle. This was even more well-received by the crowd than the first kiss. Overall, a fantastic introduction to true Italian culture!

As soon as we stepped off the train we were bombarded with an incredible eye-full of the coast of Manarola. Suddenly, the circus that was the slew of transportation methods it took to get us there, seemed more than worth it! We easily found our little hotel and the owner came up from the harbor where he was swimming just to greet us and let us in (still in his swim trunks, mind you). He also didn’t speak very much English, but enough to tell us the best places to go and things to do during our stay. He was very sweet, and spoke so passionately about the different villages of Cinque Terre, we could feel ourselves falling in love with the place already.

We spent the next four days hiking between all five of the villages of Cinque Terre; each one so unique and beautiful in their own simple way. Here is where I'll refer you to our our Facebook album of Cinque Terre, because there's nothing you can really say about the landscape we got to hike through, you just have to see it.

What we fell in love with the most (besides beauty surrounding us at every second) was the simple and humble way of life in these villages. Each morning we would wake up to the sound of the village clock tower striking 7, and head to one of only two breakfast cafes, where we would usually see the same waitresses working every day, our hotel owner (still in his swim trunks), and other kind, familiar faces. We'd end every evening in the only bar in the village, where we saw the same musicians having an improv jam session every night, sometimes wearing the exact same thing as the night before, so we'd wonder if they ever left. All day long we'd see women hanging laundry off of their balcony. Sunday was particularly windy, and we seemed to be the only people who were concerned by the various articles of clothing flying by at dinner... It's just a completely different way of life there. There's an immense kindness towards everyone they meet, and a humble, honest, and quiet way of living that was a welcome change from life in downtown Brussels!

On our last night in Manarola, we decided to have a sunset picnic on this little spot on the cliff side that had the most perfect view. We didn't want to miss a second of it, so we literally ran down the hill to the deli to buy all of our supplies and ran up the trail to our picnic spot. After all the rushing, it was such a peaceful evening that I know will be one of the memories that sticks with us the most. The next morning we were up bright and early to catch a sunrise walk on the Via dell'Amore so we could "lock our love" to the bridge, making this our second love lock in Europe! Hopefully, someday, we'll get to come back and look for them!
From there, we packed everything up, took one last look at the beautiful Ligurian seacoast, and hopped on a train to Rome! *This signals the allowance of a water/bathroom break for you readers before I delve into our Roman adventures* hehe

Rome! Alright, in all honesty, getting off the train at Rome's central station was a bit of a shock. After four relaxing days in Cinque Terre, we weren't quite ready for the hustle and bustle of Rome and a bajillion tourists! Put that all together with the slight sleep-deprivation from the morning's sunrise walk, and our first day in Rome was a little rough! But once we got into the "tourist" swing of things again, (and bought a map, best 3 euros we ever spent) it was smooth sailing. We spent most of Wednesday walking around the Trastevere region and checking out all of the beautiful churches in that area. Later in the evening, it was hard to pick a place to eat since there were so many choices (in Manarola, there were 4) but as soon as I saw this tiny little restaurant called "Nana's" it made the decision pretty easy (Esposito shout-out). The Trevi fountain was absolutely gorgeous at night, but still packed with people even at 10 in the evening! It was a weird feeling standing in front of this beautiful fountain, that we've seen in countless movies, and really grasp the fact that we were, in fact, here! In Rome! I know it sounds weird, but it was a very surreal moment, especially for someone like me who had never been out of the US until June!

Thursday was another beautiful, sunny day (a pleasant change from Belgium's consta-autumnal climate), so we spent the day seeing a few more churches (of course), and touring the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and the Roman Forum. Had another one of those surreal moments standing in front of the Colosseum. The line to get in was just about around the entire block, but my husband, being the incredibly intelligent and wise man that he is (ok, so I may be biased) had gotten our tickets online, so we got right in! It's such a massive structure that holds so much history and it really made me wish I has taken some kind of Roman History 101 in college... Then we made our way up Palatine Hill and through the Roman Forum. Looking back, I wish we'd had some kind of tour guide because I don't think I knew enough to truly appreciate what was in front of me. But we did have Wikipedia (yes, I know all of you in academia are fainting right now, but it was all we had) to at least give us the gist of what we were looking at. Later in the afternoon we made our trek to the Piazza del Poppolo, stopping on the way to check out the Pantheon and, of course, grab some gelato. Jason had carefully researched all of the best places to get gelato in Rome (surprise surprise). We're not messing around with this travel stuff, people, we know where it's at.

I had never heard of the Spanish steps, but they were absolutely gorgeous! It also helped that the sun was setting by the time we got there, and you got an amazing view of the city from the top of the steps PLUS a beautiful sunset. As you can imagine, we were pretty exhausted after our jam-packed day, but we knew tomorrow would be more of the same. No rest for the dedicated tourist!

What to say about spending a day in The Vatican... beyond incredible. On all of our travels here in Europe, we like to take time in each place for prayer and meditation, and to give thanks to God for giving us this amazing opportunity. Well, Friday was like that except spending the entire day doing it! I think we just walked around all day, mouths agape, in awe of God's glory and goodness. St. Peter's Basilica was so astonishing, we barely knew where to look, and felt like we couldn't possibly see it all. We were fortunate enough to get to celebrate Holy Mass in one of the side-altars of the basilica, all in Italian of course, but incredibly beautiful, nonetheless. My awesome husband, being that smart guy that he is again, printed off the daily readings in English, so we'd at least be able to understand those!
When St. Peter's started to get crowded, we decided to head to the Vatican Museum, and we spent a large portion of the afternoon there. We made our way through halls upon halls of history (which, again, made us wish we knew more about Roman history) and eventually made our way into the Sistine Chapel. And whoa. Man. Talk about so much to look at. Even if we were allowed to take pictures (which, of course, we weren't) I wouldn't have known what to capture, because every inch of the place is just covered in amazing artistry. So we sat in the chapel, mouths still agape, for a good half hour just taking it all in.
Once it got to be late afternoon, we figured St. Peter's would be less busy, so we headed back to the basilica to look around some more. It was still pretty packed, but much more peaceful at that time of day than in the morning. When we finally left St. Peter's there was a beautiful sunset that cast a lovely glow onto the entire piazza in front of the basilica and it was the perfect end to an amazing day.

Saturday morning we had just enough time for one last visit to the Trevi Fountain (to throw our coin in!) before heading to Rome's insane airport (and I thought Chicago was bad...) After all the craziness, we eventually made it back to Brussels, just in time to order some take-out and crash on the couch for the rest of the evening. Overall, it was a more perfect honeymoon than we could have ever imagined, and we still feel so blessed that God was able to make one of our much-anticipated dreams come true.

As always, keep an eye on our Facebook pages for photo albums of our adventures. Check out our  Rome and Cinque Terre albums if you haven't yet (the blog makes a lot more sense if you do), and stay tuned for new photo albums and blog posts about Ireland, Bratislava, and Vienna!

Love,
The Newlyweds

The Besty in Belgium

Alright, alright, here is my first attempt at catching up on some of the blogging I’ve missed in the past month!

Ashley was here during the last week and weekend in August, and her visit was so welcome and wonderful! It was great having someone to explore the city with during the day while Jason was at work, but mostly, it was just great to see my best friend again :) 

While she was here we visited Brugge, a large city north of Brussels, Lille, a small town in northern France, and Amsterdam again, because it was somewhere she’s always wanted to go.  It was quite a packed week of traveling and exploring. The pictures tell most of the story, so be sure to check out our facebook albums of Brugge, Lille, Amsterdam, and Brussels!

First things first: Brugge! I’ve actually been there twice since I last posted; once with Ashley and once with Jason a few weeks later. It’s such a beautiful town with gorgeous buildings, more horse and buggies than cars, and lace shops everywhere! As soon as we realized there was a Belfry we knew we had to climb it (good exercise, great view!), and I ended up climbing it on both visits to the city! Both times we got the pleasant surprise of the bells striking on the hour when we were about a foot away from them! Only a slight shock…

Probably the most amazing part of Brugge was the Basilica of the Holy Blood. A church that houses what is said to be the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ on a cloth and preserved in a jeweled phial. They have this beautiful altar built and a Priest that stands by the phial the entire day while visitors may approach the altar and place their hands on it. I really have no words for how amazing it was to approach the Blood of our Lord with my husband and place our hands upon it together. One of those moments I won’t soon forget.

Onward to our weekend we spent in Lille, France while Ashley was here. We didn’t know a whole lot about the city before we went, but we thought a small French town would be a nice switch from the more touristy destinations we’d visited so far. As funny as it sounds, one of my favorite parts of the city was our hotel room! It was the cheapest hotel we’ve stayed at, but with the most personality! This was also the first time Jason and I experienced a French mass! The Eglise Saint-Etienne was a wonderful little church and the Priest greeted us so warmly when we came in. He also sang parts of his homily, so even though we didn’t understand much, we were still pretty captivated. Later that evening, en route to Lille’s Citadel, we happened upon a bright and booming carnival. Seemed very similar to the carnivals that come and go in America, only with Crepe stands everywhere instead of funnel cakes!  We had dinner at a funky restaurant “L’Omnia,” which, apparently, used to be a 19^th century brothel? The décor was so classy and traditional with chandeliers everywhere, but also super modern, so the place had great atmosphere, which is usually what we look for the most in a restaurant while we’re travelling! For dinner, Jason and Ashley got stuck with some ferociously stinky cheese as an appetizer (wimps, I thought it was good, you just had to plug your nose…), but the rest of the dinner was fantastic and reasonably priced! But as we were walking out, all you could smell was that cheese everywhere, ha! Ahhh, the French…

Sunday was kind of a funny day, because, like most European cities we’ve been to, almost everything closes on Sundays. So we spent some time at a few of the Sunday morning markets (one of them so big it would put the Madison Farmer’s Market to shame!) and spent some time in the huge Lille Cathedral. As soon as we left the church, however, it started to downpour! So we quickly ducked into the nearest (open) café, Morel et Fils, had some delicious gourmet hot chocolate and played cards for the rest of the afternoon until we caught our train back home!

Overall, it was so wonderful to see a friendly face, and it has us even more excited for all of the potential visitors we have coming in the next few months! I can’t believe our four month anniversary just passed this week, the wedding still seems like it was just yesterday! And our flight back home to the states is still scheduled for December 11^th, so in just two short months from now we’ll already be back home! Crazy! But we can’t wait to see all of you again :)

In love,

The Newlyweds

(Stay tuned for another post coming soon about Italy, I am DETERMINED to get caught up!)  

Busy, busy, busy!

Hello family and friends!! I have to apologize for my lack of blogging in the month of September! It was certainly a crazy month filled with so much blogging material it came to be overwhelming! When we got here, I could barely fill the hours in the day with enough things to do, now I'm right back to not having enough of them!

To start, after Ashley left at the end of August I registered through an au pair website. It was recommended to me by a friend who is currently working as a live-in au pair in Brussels, so I knew it was legit! I made a profile on the site and within 24-hours I was already being contacted by families in the area! I was amazed! The message that caught my eye was from another American expat family living in Brussels who needed  a part time nanny for their 2 toddlers. That Saturday, Jason and I went to meet them for an interview and I started work on Monday! The kids are Jiles, 3yrs, and Aia, 1.5yrs. Jiles is the most energetic 3y/o I've ever met (and that's saying something) who loves to dance and sing to the Wiggles, so it's easy to steer all of his energy in the right direction! Aia is a spitfire who has hair so fine that is sticks straight up (adorable), and wants nothing more than to do everything her big brother does. So I've been working about 4-5 hours a day since the beginning of September, which isn't a lot, but it's been a big change since I stopped working in June!

Some other new developments are that * drum roll please* Debbie Fast has discovered her courageous spirit (better late than never!) and is flying over to visit us in the middle of November. We can't wait to show her around this exciting city as well as spend a long weekend in Paris!

Also, Jason and I have been busy trying to get everything in order for when we come home in just a few short months. Mainly, making sure we have a place to live! We've been apartment hunting since March, so it's just been a waiting game to see what would come available when we needed it! Right now we're leaning towards two different apartments, one in St. Francis and the other in Wauwatosa. We've got some good options, now we just need to think and pray about what's right for us!

We're also expecting a visitor this weekend! The younger sister of a certain wedding coordinator extraordinaire (cough Maggie Melchior cough), is studying in Paris this semester and wants to explore Brussels a bit! We're really excited to to have Katie stay with us and to show her what we've discovered in Brussels so far!

So THAT, friends and family, is my terrible excuse for lack of blogging! Since I've blogged last we've been to, Brugge (twice), Amsterdam, Lille, Cinque Terre, and Rome! So I have a lot more blogging to do, I suppose! Our four-month anniversary is fast approaching which also means only two more months left for us in Brussels! We can't believe how fast the time is going, but we also can't wait to be back with our friends and family! And just in time for the Holidays :) It's amazing to see the ways God is shaping our lives and our marriage by blessing us with this time here. And this is only the beginning!

Be sure to check facebook for ALL of our albums, especially the most recent of Cinque Terre and Rome! The pictures really tell a better story than I ever could, so they'll suffice until I can find more time to blog.

Until then, and with so much love,
The Newlyweds