Chocolat et Beer dan Antwerp

So I went to Antwerp today. And even though Antwerp speaks Flemish, I don't care so I wrote the title of this blog in shitty French anyways. So sue me. A Flemish person probably would.

I start off by showering in the orange painted stall a mile away from my room. I was constantly staring at the ceiling wondering when the spiders would descend. And I refused to use the shower curtain (there was also a door) because these shower curtains acutally attack you. (don't you hate when shower curtains do that?..Does anyone know why?)

I was then late to meet Christian Singapore boy and Pretty Polish girl, but whatever, I'm always late. I bought a chocolate filled bread thingi, which started my day off appropriately. I took the hour train to Antwerp. I have this train thing which I bought for 45$ which gives me 10 trips anywhere in Belgium, and somethings they don't even check your ticket, so you can get an extra trip.

The train station in Antwerp is basically a site in itself. Its HUGE with GIGANTIC ceilings and of course, statues.

A question has been bugging me forever... How on earth did ppl build these structures with this HUGE ceilings? Even though they took like 100 years to build, still how on earth did they build it that high? And while I'm on it...how did they build the Pyramids?

Anyways, we literally walked around Antwerp the entire day. My feet KILL.

The first thing we saw was DIAMONDS $$$. No Jewish ppl though. Inidans. According the the Bible, aka, "Lonely Planet: Belgium and Luxemborg", Indians are taking over the Diamond trade. Damn Asians taking over the world...

The Diamonds were stunning and they even sold small ones for as little as 150$, thats basically a pair of shoes here.

The next thing we saw was America. Seriously.

Beside 'Hotel Florida' was about four Mcdonalds and a Pizza Hut.

Then all of sudden, we found ourselves in the midst of a market. It was awesome. I LOVE markets. I like traveling just because of the markets. It wasn't the best market I have ever seen, but I didn't reall get a chance to look around. Basically, if it is a wknd, you can count on Belgium to have a market. I bought Tomatoes at a market a few days ago in Leuven and they are the BEST TOMATOES I HAVE EVER EATEN. Yum.

But I bought a Waffle in the Market! They don't smother it in syrup like we do with our ego waffles in North American. (Ego my Waffle, baby ;)..k that was gross I'll stop ) They just handed me this huge, cripy waffle for 1.70$ and dumped powered sugar everywhere (which got all over my pink Zara sweater) It was yummy. Crisp, but not hot. Hard to eat walking actually. I think I am going to get a small, rounded shape one next time.


We got lost, but eventually ended up at the "Grote Markt', which every city has with a gothic city hall that the entire town radiates from with confusing streets.

I must have past the Gothic Cathedral 6 times during th day. I was actually kinda sick of it.

We wandered around trying to find a cheap cafe and got some coffee. I tried to ask for esxpresso, but she gave me a full cup of coffee anyways. Maybe because I can't spell exspresso...

Then we went to the giant gothic cathedral ( I will post pictures.) Every 15 min or so it chimed like crazy. It was having a chime-spaz. Pretty Polish girl told me it was probably because it was telling ppl what time Mass was.

We went inside and there was an actual Church service going on, it being sunday. Greaaaat. The first thing I saw of course was a giant cross of Jesus, the most popular guy in Belgium. It was highly impressive of course, all these gothic buildings always are. Then we left because we couldn't enter the main hall until service was over.

So we walked and walked and walked around. We went to the waterfront and sat on a bench. Stared at the view. Which was actually really modern, boring, glass office buildings.

Then I saw a Castle. Lonely planet didn't mention this! (Okay it did, but not in detail) Apparently it got destroyed by the Vikings in the 9th century and was then rebuilt. I'm sure fire got it too, since fire seems to get every building here.

I could have entered it for free since I was under 19, but of course I was the youngest one (as always !:(:)) so whatevs. It was cool though, looked exactly like you imagine a small castle should, like Disney drew it. In front of it was the statue of this guy, that is supposed to be a Belgium version of a peeping tom. It was big and the Little people were looking up it's crotch. There will be a pic up of that soon too.


So we walked around and totally randomly turned into this street with this AMAZING church. This was defintely not menitoned in Lonely Planet and I think I might covert to rough guides after this error. There was this garden with a million statues and they were all these religious ppl in various positions, one was even holding a paper with Hebrew script on which I roughly translated as "Jesus,... King...". (7 years of 3 hours a day of Hebrew obviously paid off)

And then there were these stones...well I will just show a pic cuz it was awesome.

And then inside the FREE church (by donation!..I did donate although I'm not sure how pious of me it was to go inside all of these churched btwn Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) The walls were lined with paintings (Rubens is worshipped by Antwerp since he grew up there) and literally every where you looked there were more amazing wooden statues. It was incredible.

I can see why ppl were religious if this was were they got to go to every wknd. Everything was very grand. LIke you can imagine how wealthy the rich must have been. We don't have anything like that in Canada. Like, we have Black Pioneer Village and these ppl have ART. Everywhere!

I think the Canadian gov't should start investing in art now. It is pretty much the only thing that lasts.

I then sampled some chocolat. Well, one chocolate for .68. It was OKAY but not like orgasmic like I have been hearing about. I tried one later in the day that was better, but still..not like 'OMG I ONLY WANT TO EAT THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE'. Not like the way I felt when I tried Marzipan Ruggelah. Which I condsidered making Aliyah for.

So the church was basically the highlight of the day.

I also tried "Trappist"beer. Which is apparantly this like super amazing beer made by monks and is really special and blah blah blah. Okay it is cool...because..ppl say it is cool. But I don't understand how ppl go crazy over it. It is defnitely an aquired taste. I tried the beer that was 9.2% alchol and it definitely was. It make me all woozy. But it tastes bitter, like crappy Canadian beer. Beer in Belgium, by the way, I swear tastes totally diff then Cdn one's. Esp. Stella Artois, it is so smooth and enjoyable. But in Canada I don't like it. But here it is delish. But this Trappist beer I will have to drink more of until I like it obviously. If you like beer you should really google Trappist beer, it is super duper special.

I just think it is cool because I think monks are super cool. Did I tell you I am living in a monastary? Cool? Yea...I know.