Pretty much the craziest night of my life. NYE 2011 in Rome.

New Year's Eve in Rome is like a very sloppily crafted recipe, handed down from generation to generation only the cook is slightly in the bag and kind of just dumps things in the mixing bowl.

The night started off innocently enough. I was joined at my apartment by Valentina, her brother and girlfriend, Edgar and Brad for a fun night of silly conversations, pizza, cake and wine. Nobody was allowed to leave until they ate the cake that was brought over on Christmas Day. It sat on my shelf, all pretty and unopened just waiting for some unsuspecting visitors to eat it, so that I wouldn't inhale the entire thing by myself. It is a lovely Pandoro cake, an Italian tradition for this time of year. On the box it looked so pretty with icing sugar dusted around the edges so when I opened it I was a bit disappointed that there was no delightful dusting of sugar like in the picture. That is when Brad said "Catherine, the sugar is in the box". That's right, the icing sugar is done very Kraft Dinner-style, being in it's own separate package that you must self-apply.

Valentina shows us how it's done

Edgar watches with great intensity as Valentina begins to shake the bag

And voila, a perfectly sugared Pandoro cake

 


Wow, two pieces, thanks Valentina!

We gathered our things and headed for the Metro to take us into the historic centre. As the clock struck 11pm (midnight in South Africa) I got on the phone and called Gcinisizwe to wish him a Happy New Year!! He is in Nqiningana right now visiting his family, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from a Nqiningana New Year's celebration being that there is only a population of 60 families! The village was rocking, I could hear everyone singing and yelling and I know that there was dancing. Gcinisizwe's 84 year old grandfather was dancing up a storm I am told until 12:30am when his grandmother came to fetch him and take him home for bed. Ha ha, that man can really dance. Check out my Themba Tales blog for video and pictures of him dancing!

Meanwhile we were actually passing through the streets very military like, trying our hardest to not get hit by one of the many fire crackers being thrown off of people's patios. Finally we made it to the Metro station and joined the hundreds of other people filling up the trains to make it into the action-zone in time for the count down.

I still laugh at myself, I cannot seem to shake that "I will get in trouble if I am seen with alcohol in public" attitude so kindly given to me by the Canadian government. There I am with 2 bottles of champagne in my bag, careful to keep it well hidden when ALL around us people are drinking beers, wine and anything else consumable on a moving Metro.

We finally make it to our stop, Colosseo, right in the middle of all the action. Everyone was very jolly and I really got a kick out of everyone singing and dancing their way out of the metro.


Then add some Earth changing insights by yours truly....

Nope, cats don't like New Year's Eve.......

Now that was a well timed picture



I have to put this into context for you before the next part. You now how at home the government has strict controls over the purchase and use of fireworks? And you know how they have specially trained professionals on hand to deploy our fireworks so that it is a safe and wonderful evening? Yeah, that does not happen here. Instead very drunk local people take the lead and fire off their own fireworks in the street. Fun!  ......


Ok, so at this point it gets a little messy. We are now at 11:50pm and we decide to move away from Colesseo and head towards the concert that is further down this road, sounds easy right? Did anyone bring their bomb-squad protective gear?

"Is this where we are going to wait?", Edgar responds "This is not ideal".....Really? Really???? Because just before I turned the camera on I seriously thought I lost an eyebrow when a firework blew up right next to us, the shock wave was pretty crazy! Ha ha, such a insane night!

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is officially where I must caution you for the language you might hear ha ha. Keep in mind that although there was a moment or two when I felt "concerned", overall we were all having so much fun that we couldn't stop laughing. My favorite quotes from the below video are:

"It feels like Afghanistan here!!"

and "The riot police are here, that is not ideal"

But of course the best part of this video is when the fireworks start shooting into the crowd where we are standing and as we run back to get out of the line of fire I grab Edgar and use him for cover ha ha, nice Catherine, very nice. Sorry Edgar ha ha.

Again, I am really sorry for the bad words, I hope you can forgive me given the circumstances!

Our friendly neighbourhood riot police

Anarchy, I mean Rome....

I think those are the government fireworks



 

As the riot police walked by one of the men smiled at me and looked excited to be on camera. I wish you could have seen it, so cute!

I think that these were the "official" government fireworks, oh yeah, I forgot about those!

I'm pretty sure that the Canadian government would take your child away from you if they saw this. It was amazing to see all the babies, small dogs dressed in suits and children who were dragged here by the families. I don't know about you but this does not look like a good place for any of the above mentioned!



When we left the streets were COVERED in bottles, broken glass and garbage. Someone is going to have a heck of a job cleaning that out of the cobblestone in the morning!!

A blurry photo of me, Edgar, Valentina and a dude in a hat.

Mass exodus passed the Colosseum

Fabulous friends



Thanks to a friendly passer-by we finally captured a photo with the whole group.
Shortly afterwards we toasted the evening with a glass of champagne. Thank you to Brad
for carting the bottle all through Rome when he doesn't even drink! Way
to take one for the team Brad!



Me enjoying a view of the Colosseum

So, that was New Year's Eve in Rome, Italy. You know how I tell you that Italy looks like a developed country when you come as a tourist but really, at it's heart is a developing country, well maybe now you will understand what I mean.

2010 was hands down the best year of my life. On December 31st at 11pm I arrived in Cape Town and was reunited with the love of my life, Gcinisizwe Noyakaza. I finally met a dear friend of mine in person, Agnesia and the amazing Brock family.

I was able to follow my dream of traveling. I lived in South Africa for 7 months and was able to run my own humanitarian-aid organization. I was given a Xhosa name, Sandise, which means "the strength of the community". I traveled to the former Transkei region, home of Nelson Mandela and the birthplace of Gcinisizwe. I became Makoti and even took part in my brother-in-law's traditional ceremony to become a man in the Xhosa culture.

I then went to Lesotho and spent a few nights in the deep bush which was only accessible by horseback. I stayed with the local people in traditional houses. Stood at 3500m above sea level on my quest to find a waterfall in Lesotho at the same time as a major lightening storm passed overhead. Gcinisizwe and I flew to Zambia, his first flight ever, saw Victoria Falls and met the amazing people there. We then toured around Botswana and even went bush camping in the Okavango Delta. We traveled through Namibia and met everyone from the Herero people to the Himba people, and even made some amazing new friends from Zimbabwe and Northern Namibia while in Swakopmund.

I got married to an amazing and loving man who is coincidentally from the Xhosa tribe and grew up in Apartheid, something that I still find extraordinary.

And now I sit here in Rome doing a Masters in Human Development and Food Security, a program that works to fight chronic hunger around the world. 2011 you have some BIG shoes to fill!

Happy 2011 everyone!!!