Antwerp // Anvers !! 2.0

5 minutes of history: Antwerp//Anvers

1447: A decree warns the public for fake diamonds, which proves that Antwerp is already big in the diamond industry

1503: The connection of Bruges to the sea has turned into sand.  The Antwerp harbour is happy to take over business.  Portuguese spices, English cloth and German metal now come in through Antwerp and make them rich, happy and proud.

1576: The Netherlands close the entrance to the Scheldt river; since Antwerp is a competitor for their cities.  Exit richness, happiness or pride.

1843: The zoo is opened.  It's meant only for the rich, but at least it's one of the first zoo's in Europe.

1885: A student of the Antwerp Academy, Vincent Van Gogh, is told to go looking for a real job.  Vincent washes away his disappointment with some glasses of absinthe and moves to Paris.

2009: Big hype.  A baby elephant is born in Animal Affair (the zoo).  She's named Kai Mook, which the zookeepers think is Thai for 'pearl'.  It turns out that Kai Mook actually means 'chicken.'

This weekend I went to Antwerp again to shop with my favorite swede, Sofia! // Ce week-end je suis allée à Anvers encore pour faire du shopping avec ma suédoise préférée, Sofia ! :)

 We're such tourists taking pictures at Antwerp central station

After lunch we went to a champagne bar that I wanted to go to the last time.  It was really fancy and pretty pricy as expected. // Apres le déjeuner, on est allé au bar à champagne, où je voulais aller la dernière fois !  C’était très fancy, et assez cher comme je m'y attendais.     

Then we walked around for a little bit, the weather was nice but it was pretty cold for the middle of May! // Puis on s’est baladé, il faisait beau mais il faisait assez froid pour la mi-mai !   

Antwerp Grote Markt

people soaking up the sun by the lovely dirty brown water

a fortress of some sort

Instead of paying 19 euros to go to the zoo, we decided to only see the giraffes.  On our map we saw that there were windows to see the giraffes for free, just behind central station.  Apparently, central station is gargantuan, aaand it wasn't as easy to find these windows as we thought.  // Au lieu de payer 19 euros pour aller au zoo, on a décidé de ne voir que les girafes.  Sur notre carte, on a vu qu’il y avait les vitrines pour voir les girafes gratuitement juste derrière la gare centrale.  Et en effet la gare centrale est énorme, et ce n’était pas aussi facile de trouver les vitrines qu'on ne le pensait.     

some interesting buildings behind central station

We finally found the windows! and...there were too many trees so it was almost impossible to see anything! // Enfin on a trouvé les vitrines ! et…il y avait trop d’arbres donc c’était presque impossible de les voir!