Today, I went to Antwerp (Anvers in French) with Talia, Mikayla, Christian, and Mikayla's friend Rachel from the States who has come to Belgium to visit. Antwerp is one of the biggest cities in Belgium and is located in the Flemish part of the country. Luckily for us, just about everyone there speaks English. I speak zero Flemish. Last night I slept over Talia's house, so this morning we got up nice and early and got ready to go. By the time we left the house, I was wearing Talia's shirt, necklace and earrings. Just throwing that out there. We left to catch the train around 8 30am, where we met up with Mikayla and Rachel. Christian met up with us in Brussels and finally we were all together to go to Antwerp. Of course, us being us, we got on the slowest train that stops at every station in between Brussels and Antwerp. But in the end, we still got there by 10 40am and had plenty of time. By the way, the Antwerp train station is rated as the third most beautiful train station in the world. And it's true, it's beautiful.
We spent the day walking around Antwerp, visiting the grande place, shopping and finding food, which was a fiasco. Christian wanted to go to a noodle bar, Talia wanted pizza, and the rest of us were just following around with rumbling tummies, wondering what the heck was going on. Well we walked all the way to the noodle bar, which was a good fifteen minutes, before realizing that they didn't open til noon and it was only 11 15. Well we were hungry. So we walked around some more, went into a few shops an eventually went back to the noodle bar. In the end, only Christian and I got noodles (I got mine with teriyaki sauce and shrimp). The other girls found a fries place and got those crazy sandwiches that have hamburger and fries on them. We rocked out to Lady Gaga (as usual) while we ate and then we were back off again to do some hard core shopping.
Antwerp is probably the most fashion forward city I've seen in Belgium. All the stores are big and bright and way more colorful then anything I've seen in the French part of the country. And it was so relieving to know that the rainbow has not disappeared into the pot of gold at the end of it. There is even an Urban Outfitters there! The other big point of interest? The Disney store!!!! Anyone who knows me knows that I am completely obsessed with anything and everything Disney. So this Disney store was a BIG deal. I walked in and I felt like I had shrunk back to being a four year old. I love that store! And I did buy a t-shirt that says I <3 Antwerpen with a Mickey head in the heart. It was my only purchase of the day (besides some hippie bands at H&M but those don't really count) and I'm very happy with it.
The only downside to the day was that it rained. All day. Which is really just my luck. Anytime I stay in Hannut, it's beautiful out and the sun is shining and you don't even need a coat. Then I travel and it rains and is cold and gross. Thank you, Belgium.
We ended up leaving an hour earlier than we had originally planned because let's face it, it's hard to motivate yourself when it's so yucky out. So we opted to grab a 3 45 train instead of a 4 45. But of course, we had to go back to the station a little bit early because, drum roll please, are you ready? THERE'S A STARBUCKS IN THE ANTWERP TRAIN STATION!!!!!!! This was a big deal. I haven't had a Starbucks caramel frappuccino since I left the States! Other than in the Brussels airport, it is the only Starbucks in the country. I walked in and I could just smell the Starbucks-ness of it. It was incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed my five euro coffee with an ungodly amount of calories in all that whipped cream. Mmmmmmm...
Well we caught our train back and I was back in Waremme with Talia around 5 45. I went back to her house with her to grab my stuff and my host mom picked me up there. I then proceeded to go back home and do nothing until we ate dinner and then I went to dance in my new Antwerpen shirt. And now I'm here, writing this post!
P.S. I have been told by a certain someone, ahem, *cough*Ben*cough* that I don't post enough pictures. So I hope you all enjoyed the pictures that I posted this time!
Until tomorrow? Bonne nuit tout le monde !
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