Antwerp // Anvers !!

Yesterday we went to Antwerp (Anvers en français) and it was really nice !  We heard it was the place to go for shopping and judging from the number of shopping bags in hand at the end of our little trip, I would say that it’s true.  I was a little disappointed because the one the thing that I really wanted to see, the fashion museum, was closed! But, I suppose it’s okay, that just means that I’ll have to go back!  And maybe the next time I can actually buy something because Raquel, Allise and Eileen bought a lot but I didn’t end up buying anything, except for a tumbler from starbucks.  I know, it’s lame that I went to starbucks in Belgium but there are only two of them in this tiny little country and you wouldn’t believe how incredibly hard it is to find tumblers.  Speaking of tumblers, it’s another thing that I think is quite “American”, nobody brings anything to drink in class here, except the Canadian girls and one boy who just came back from studying in the USA.  Maybe they just don’t need help staying awake in class here…Anyway, it will be funny when the three of us bring our starbucks tumblers that say “Belgium” to class this week, we really are tourists!

// Hier on est allée à Anvers et c’était vraiment sympa.  On a entendu que c’est un lieu excellent pour le shopping et avec le nombre des sacs en main à la fin de notre petit voyage, je dirais que c’est vrai.  Je suis un peu déçue parce que la seule chose que je voulais voir, le musée de mode, était fermée.  Mais ça va, ça veut dire que je dois y aller encore !  Peut-être la prochaine fois je peux acheter quelque chose  parce que Raquel, Allise et Eileen ont acheté beaucoup, mais moi, je n’ai rien acheté sauf un…tumbler (sorry no translation in french !) de starbucks !  Je sais, c’est stupide que je suis allée à starbucks en Belgique mais il n’y a que deux dans ce petit pays et c’est extrêmement difficile à trouver les tumblers.  C’est une autre chose que je pense est américaine, personne n’emmène rien à boire en classe ici, sauf les filles canadiennes et un garçon qui vient d’étudier aux Etats-Unis.  Peut-etre ils n’ont pas besoin d’aide de rester éveillé en classe… Ça va être drôle quand nous trois emmènerons nos tumblers de starbucks qui disent « Belgium » en classe cette semaine, on est vraiment des touristes !       

Allise, me, and Raquel at Antwerp station

self-explanatory

what a pretty little place...minus the McDonald's flags

oh merde, look what we have here!

the inside of a shopping center, almost looks like Galeries LaFayette

a posh little champagne bar

lunch is served

pinwheels made of flags from different countries

Raquel et moi, outside the champagne bar

Tweedle-dee et Tweedle-dum

spying on a man making chocolates

my favourite thing about Belgium!

their Notre Dame?

Grote Markt

Sitting at Grote Markt

Chocolate bar

Chocolate fondue: dark, brown, milk, white miam miam!

Do you want to know more about Belgium?

Bruges/Brugge!

Before I start, let me give you a one minute of history of Bruges... (it's actually five minutes of history on the back of the map I got today but I'm only posting the interesting dates)

1277 Arrival of the first trade fleet from Genova (Italy), making the harbour of Bruges the most important link with the Mediterranean Sea.

1302 Big fight with France.

1600 and 1700 and 1800: Bruges falls asleep.

1892 Bruges wakes up.  The popular book, 'Bruges la Morte' describes the city as a dark, poor and ugly place. Locals are not too happy with this, but tourists see some romance in it, and start visiting Bruges more and more.

2009 The movie 'In Bruges' wins an award for best scenario.  Quote: "If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me.  But I didn't, so it doesn't."  So just like in 1892, somebody calls Bruges a shithole, which only attracts more tourists.

This weekend we went to Bruges/Brugge (depends whether you use French or Flemmish), the place where everybody says you have to visit when you’re in Belgium.  It was very quaint and cute just like I thought it would be, but I actually think I like Gent better, because there were a lot less tourists.  We went with Express, a group for Erasmus students organized by ULB (université libre de Bruxelles), so there were around 80 students altogether.  It was super cheap, we paid 8 euro for the train and a tour of a brewery (with a beer).  //  Ce week-end on est allée à Bruges/Brugge (ça dépend de français/flamande),  l’endroit où tout le monde dit qu’il faut absolument visiter quand on est en Belgique.  C’était pittoresque comme je pensais, mais en fait je pense que je préfère Gent où il y a beaucoup moins de touristes.  On y est allée avec l’Express, un groupe pour les étudiants d’Erasmus qui est organisé par ULB (université libre de Bruxelles), donc il y avait environ 80 étudiants.  C’était très bon marché, on a payé seulement 8 € pour le train et un tour d’une brasserie (et bien sûr une bière à la fin).    

This was the Henri Maes brewery // Voici la brasserie Henri Maes

 Each beer has its own unique glass // Chaque bière a son propre verre

Bruges Zot (blonde)

Leur grand place?

Allise et moi

Karolina et Sofia

Venice of the North? // Venise du Nord

Karolina et moi

An upside down cannon stuck in the ground?

It's almost Valentine's Day!

Hôtel de Ville

 a market that I want to go back to

le lac d'amour

des bonbons!

I amsterdam

Went to Amsterdam this past weekend and since they don't speak French there and I'm falling behind with this, I'm only going to write in English!  Sorry, didn't pick up any Dutch, maybe next time.  Amsterdam was amazing, the city is beautiful with all of the canals that run through it and I really liked the architecture of the buildings.  We walked everywhere this past weekend, all over the city and I feel like I know that place better than I do Brussels.

 dusk in the city

supposedly this place ^^ was known as the "party area" by the guy at our hostel

One of the biggest street markets

at the flower market

I amsterdam

recognize this? I think it's in that Amstel beer commercial

Speaking of beer, one of the highlights of the trip, or at least where I took the most pictures was at the Heineken factory.  It was better than I expected but probably because I heard that it really wasn't worth going to.  We walked halfway across town to get there so we figured we'd go and to my surprise, I really enjoyed it.  The factory is huge and you get to walk through the process of how the beer is made from beginning to end.  Also included in the price is three glasses of beer, one smaller one for beer tasting, and two large ones at the end.  The two big ones at the end are strategically placed right outside of the gift shop so that you get happy and spend lots of money buying stupid souvenirs that you will probably regret buying later.  The way they regulate the number of beers you can have is two little buttons on a rubber band that they give you at the entrance, so if the people you're with don't really enjoy beer, you can have more than just two.

outside the heineken factory

photo opp inside!

at the beer tasting where I learned that apparently the only good way to drink beer is by taking enormous gulps

E komo mai!

We ate lots of good food, as you'll see below but as a future reference if you plan to go there, the food was probably the most expensive part of this trip.  I suppose Amsterdam is so touristy that it's just a big Waikiki, where all the food you can get is over priced, even for a slice of pizza or a sandwich, but it still tasted good.

here's a picture of my spicy chicken sandwich

at one of the open markets, this guy is making "poffertjes" which are little dutch pancakes

the finished product!

more of those little dutch pancakes, this time with chocolat!

Raquel with her black mamba (black cherry) ice cream!

Can't wait to go back in April with Nick and Neilson!