Antwerp: Chocolate, Waffles, Beer, Jazz, and Flashmobs

For a very long time, I have very much wanted to go to Belgium. My first plan involved going to an incredible bed and breakfast called La Balade des Gnomes, which is in Durbuy, Belgium. The entire bed & breakfast is chock-a-block full of fairy-tale themed rooms. Everything from 1001 Arabian Nights, to a gnome/fairy-themed room, it is firmly fixed on the list of things I must do before I die.

Here is a link to their website - sorry, it's only in Dutch or Flemish, but you can still look at the pictures of the rooms. I just think it would be SO COOL to stay there. So, well, hopefully I can do that someday in the future.

For now, on my budget, I decided to visit Antwerp with my friend Clement. It was a good weekend. Not everything went perfectly, but seeing Antwerp was really awesome.

I went with a set list of things I had to do and/or try while I was there. On that list were visiting a chocolate shop (a NICE one, not a poo-poo normal one like I could find in Ohio), eating authentic Belgian waffles, and french fries (which were supposed to be different in Belgium - they weren't. We'll cut that story short and save you the details), and having a good Belgian beer. It is significant that all of these things have to do with food. Belgium, you're delicious.

Upon arriving at the Central Station in Antwerp

The Central Station as seen from the outside. Majestic, no?

When we first arrived in Antwerp on Saturday, Clement and I hauled our stuff to the hotel we were staying at, and then we went for a walk to a big market in the northwest of the city.

At this market, a friend had told us we could buy some of the best authentic Belgian waffles to be had in Antwerp, at a little stand called "Waffles from Grandma (in Flemish, of course)." I think it was called, "Waffeltjes van Boppa," or something.

There were no Grandmas when we got there. But there was a long line of hungry, eager people, and two young folks making and flipping waffles as fast as their skinny arms could go. And the waffles....They had double chocolate - chocolate waffles with chocolate chips, Speculoos waffles (waffles made with peanut-butter-like paste made from gingerbread cookies), plain waffles, waffles with raisins, waffles with cinnamon and apple, and waffles with chocolate chips. We got our waffles (a selection of all of the above) warm and toasty, and went walking around, eating them and looking at the market in general. I absolutely LOVE markets. All kinds. I could just walk around a market for hours, considering buying this or that, just to try it. The best markets are the kinds that feature a lot of baked goods, cheese, sausage, home-made crafts, artwork, and little street-food stands. If I could have a request for my ideal heaven - it would be a giant street market. Mixed with Harry Potter. So, like, Diagon Alley on steroids with a bit of Mediterranean and Arabic Market thrown in for good measure. Also Hogwarts. Also the ability to fly. THAT would be awesome.

Sausages. They were pretty good. They had cool flavors - a really spicy one, one made with thyme, one made with blue cheese, one made with walnuts, etc. I liked all of them. Well, the one with blue cheese was a bit off. I just don't understand why you would eat cheese that is moldy. Purposefully moldy. It baffles me.

We walked around for a bit, munching waffles, and then decided we wanted to find something more substantial for actual lunch. I spotted this busy-looking Turkish stand, which was making, as fast as they could, flatbread wraps, with olives, grilled peppers, stuffed grapeleaves, feta, and honey. They. Looked. FANTASTIC. So, naturally, I got in line. Clement and I both bought a wrap, and we also got a chicken pocket thing, made with basmati rice and cumin, and wrapped in filo dough. We also got two steaming glasses of Turkish tea, which was like sweet mint and clove tea. The tea was also delicious.

I don't know how to describe to you how good that wrap was. Imagine warm flatbread, recently off the grill, with creamy feta, spicy olives and grilled peppers, with a sudden tang of sweetness from the honey - I've looked into it, and I can re-create it from places that sell the right ingredients on my street. It's on my to-do list, perhaps for next weekend.

After eating our delicious flatbread wraps, we went walking once again, this time to the end of the market, through the shopping district, and towards the large cathedral and the river that are some of the more structurally striking parts of Antwerp. We stumbled upon a chocolate shop (yes, a legitimately nice one, conveniently located in Napoleon's old kitchen) on our way, where we saw the following hilarious display:

Yeah, okay, it's in Dutch. But this is indeed a "Poop sack" of chocolate poo. WITH a roll of cheerfully colored toilet paper. Now, really. What could be better than THAT?

There was also, in the back room, a chocolate-making kitchen. Yum.

My face, watching chocolate be made. The delicious, delicious glory of chocolate.

The front chocolate shop. I ended up buying a little sampler (three chocolates), which included a chili chocolate, a praline chocolate with white chocolate glaze, and a peanut chocolate. They were very, very good.

My little box of chocolates!

We had a coffee in the courtyard of the chocolate shop, and resumed our wandering.

There was this cool statue underneath the cathedral in the main square of Antwerp - the man who built the cathedral was apparently well known as a famous builder (as I understand it).

The large, intricately carved front doors to the Antwerp Cathedral.

Kelli and Umbrella.

In a square with a beautiful statue and fountain - outside the municipal building.

A view of the cathedral from the "Green Square"

When we got down by the river there was A) A Tai-chi convention going on (I kid you not), and B) A Castle.

I don't know how well you can see it, but right above the main gateway, there is this little square plaque - it's from the 1200's, and is a woman-figure, supposedly symbolizing fertility. According to a nice leetle plaque by the entrance, women would stand under the archway, looking up at the plaque, asking for babies. You can rest assured, I did not linger underneath this thing.

Then we sort of stumbled on this very quiet, peaceful courtyard (not inside the castle but rather down the road from the castle).

It featured this, which I take to be the side of a church that must have burned down - there are burned timbers inside and around the wall. It reminded me of the place in Ever After, that the prince goes to think, where he meets Danielle after she's been whipped by her horrible step-mother, and she's wearing that pretty red dress, and she can't tell him who she is...I love that movie. I'm going to go watch it right now.

Movie has been watched. What a fantastic film. After our walking tour, we looked for a dinner spot. I was hankering for a burger. So we went to an Irish pub, but it was closed. In the end we decided on Italian. We even got a student discount. This is my creamy salmon pasta. Oi. So good.

We went back to the hotel for a brief respite, and then decided we wanted to go back out and see if we could find some live jazz music. Apparently Antwerp is a hotbed for jazz. Who knew? We did eventually find some live jazz, but it was really terrible, I'm afraid to say. It was a jazz band made up of what looked like high school students (they were certainly beard-less), playing sort of "Look-at-me-I-am-so-awesome-I-play-jazz-and-I'm-only-16" kind of jazz. In other words, we didn't stay too terribly long. We had a few drinks (some delicious dark Belgian abbey ales and a disgusting raspberry-flavored beer that I immediately regretted ordering) and then we went on our way back to the hotel.

On Sunday, we woke up, had a tasty breakfast, and decided to go walking towards the central station, to rent bikes. It was at the Central Station (capitalized? Not capitalized? A mixture?) that I discovered something truly profound. 

It's me! Or half of me. I have been cut in half and can be found in the middle bottom of this photo.

Inside the main entrance of the central Station (see what I did there?) - it's quite grand, yes??

Grand stairs.

Grand facade at top of stairs.

Grand Kelli-on-stairs.

Now, if any of these pictures are sort of tickling at the back of your brain, and you can't quite figure out why, I have something wonderful to share with you, and I literally almost peed my pants when I realized where I was standing.

Here is the wonderful thing. It is a Youtube video:

Now, A) Isn't that AWESOME? and B) Isn't it so cool that I got to go where this was organized?! Ahh, nerd-heaven. After my freak-out moment, we finally went and got bikes, for ease of cruising and distance-covering.

Nize umbrella.

Naturally, about five minutes after we hopped on the bikes, we found a new, different market in the same place where the one we went to on Saturday was. But this one was bigger, and had a whoooole bunch more stands and stalls. Including this one, which was selling about 10,000 types of birds - in boxes, cages, and bins. I've never seen so many birds in such a small area before. It was kind of sad.

We walked on, out of the market. It started raining, which was really extra lame. In the downpour, however, we found this Buddhist Stupa-like statue, randomly:

 And then I decided I needed some tasty hot things to drink, so we went to this cool looking pub/cafe, and sat in this balcony/overhang area, watching all the people being happy below:

 And I got this amazing, delicious, incredible Chai Latte. Now, a chai latte is most definitely not something I allow myself to have on a regular basis. But I was on vacation, and on the rainy afternoon that it was...It was perfect. The perfect drink. It was hot, and spicy, and creamy. Mmm. And then, when I was halfway done, I was inspired to document this wonderful drink for everyone, so I took this terrible dark picture of it. Looks appetizing now, right?!

When we left the cafe, the rain had stopped, and the sun had come out, which I take as a sign from God that we were supposed to get a delicious Chai Latte. Right? Right.

Then, if you can believe it, we found yet another Sunday market. This one was full of antiques. So I browsed, and bought Rachel's aunt some post-cards with writing on them, from the early 1900's (she collects written, stamped, antique post-cards, which I actually think is a nifty hobby). I'll be sending those along to Rachel as soon as I remember to bring them with me to the post office.

We wandered up the, apparently, only street that has shops open on Sunday, and had a good time mingling with the crowds and looking into some of the more unusual shops. I bought myself a totally awesome birthday present that will make an appearance at Jonathan's graduation. Hooray!

Sunday night we went and saw the Avengers, which, while a bit loose on plot, was exciting in that it combined numerous favorite superheroes into one film. And it was funny - laugh out loud funny in several instances, with all the Belgians giving me weird sidelong looks, like, "Who in the blazes is this crazy chick who keeps laughing like a dying horse?"

Monday Clement and I split up - him to go look at historical things, and me to go, I admit it, shopping, at Forever XXI. Look. They don't HAVE Forever XXI in the Netherlands. And I LOVE Forever XXI. So I bought myself a belt and a pair of earrings, and wandered around a wee bit more, before heading back to Utrecht. On my way out, in a sheer fit of "I'm leaving the land of chocolate!!" I bought a GIANT rice-krispie treat, except it didn't have marshmallows holding it together, it had dark Belgian chocolate. It was...amazing. I should make some when I come back to the states and give them away as like, house-warming gifts or something. They were like small bricks of chocolate and rice krispie. In other words, it was like eating a piece of heaven.

One of the last things I saw before leaving was this adorable family, playing music and singing as street performers. It reminded me of the Lupas-von-Trapps, so I decided to snap some pics.

Anyone want to inform what in the blazes this thing is? Anyone?

When I got back to Utrecht, Queen's Day, the day celebrating the Queen and her Queenliness, was in full-swing on my street, so I nabbed some excellent Moroccan street food, got an adorable black sweater for a steal, and a pair of awesome black pumps for 5 euro, which is insane. I was thrilled.

Note: Queen's Day is like one giant garage sale. Everyone in the country goes orange-crazy (The ruling royal family is of The House of Oranje (Orange)), there's a crap-ton of drinking, and everyone is allowed to sell anything, just for one day, practically anywhere. In Utrecht, this manifests as a massive overnight market, that goes from Sunday night till early Monday morning - and, on Monday, tons of other, smaller markets that pop up just about everywhere. Basically: It's a little paradise for Kelli. And would be for Kelli's mom and Kelli's sister, too, I imagine. I missed the overnight market, but I was glad to get back for some of the day market activities.

And that is all for the story of Antwerp, methinks. Till next time, readers! I'm not quite sure what the next post will be about - I imagine a compilation of my birthday, going to Keukenhof, the giant tulip garden, etc. Many beautiful pictures to come! Cheers!