My apologies for the very late post. Not this past weekend, but the weekend before (I told you this was overdue) I went to Belgium with three Australian friends. We boarded the train early Friday morning and headed to Antwerp. I did not have many expectations set for Antwerp, which was rude of me. Antwerp is a wonderful city. From the moment I stepped into the gorgeous train station until the moment I left, I constantly found myself saying "Well done, Antwerp, well done." From the train station, we caught the tram to our hostel. It was in a beautiful (slightly shabby - it's a hostel of course) old house. After we dropped our luggage off, we went into town with three goals: shopping, chocolate, and waffles. I am happy to say that we met each goal. Antwerp has a lovely shopping street filled with great stores, waffle stands, and some chocolate shops. For dinner, we broke out the travel guide to find a restaurant. After a fair bit of wandering, a few feelings of hopelessness, and frequent map-looking, we walked down a beautiful side road only to end up right in front of our destination. It was fate.
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| inside of our hostel room |
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| lobby of our hostel |
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| antwerp central station |
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| first REAL belgian waffle |
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| massive chocolate frog |
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| this beautiful building is on the shopping street. many of the buildings are so old and ornate |
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| some cathedral? like i said, we didn't do much learning this trip. but we did do LOTS of eating! |
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| the beautiful alleyway |
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| my traditional belgian meal! (Mashed potatoes with ham and lettuce stuff) |
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| this is how tiny restaurants on the beautiful alleyway advertised their menu for the night |
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| main square |
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| leaving antwerp |
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| kimmi's favorite church in brussels |
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| inside of the church |
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| the market we went to in brussels |
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| our group! |
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| the buildings are all just so old and beautiful |
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| view down a street |
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| hot chocolate! |
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| the sun came out! it was a miracle. this is in gran pleis |
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| the most underwhelming tourist attraction you will ever see |
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| fries! |
The next day, we woke up early and headed to Brussels. Again, our goals were much the same. Our group was not that keen for museums - we had limited time in each city and felt that spending 2+ hours inside a museum would be a waste. Also, museums cost money... In Brussels we met up with my friend Kimmi from camp. She is an au pair for a family there. Thankfully, she had the day off and played tour guide for us. Kimmi was such a great tour guide - we walked all over Brussels, went to the best chocolate shops, saw all the mandatory tourist sights, stood on top of a parking garage to get a great view of the city, bargained in french (well, kimmi bargained in french) at an outdoor market that the locals go to, ate waffles and fries, and did some more walking. I had a great time catching up with Kimmi in Brussels, but I still feel partial to Antwerp. I would like to go back to both of these cities in the future!
Also, if you ever find yourself in Brussels central station alone and you're trying to get home...avoid reading the signs on your own. No matter how close you think dutch and french are to english, you are wrong. you will get lost and have to take three wrong trains and interact with a conductor that speaks only french before you make it on the correct train....at least i never have a dull moment while traveling?
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