Saturday, January 29, 2011

Antwerpen




We went to Antwerp last weekend, just for an overnight trip. It was similar to Brugge, although less pretty, in my opinion. After the 3 hour bus ride, we were pretty tired so we only went to a bar--supposedly Antwerp has a lot of great night clubs, which was why we decided to stay overnight. I had heard of some club called Red and Blue, which is, according to Lonely Planet, one of the biggest and best clubs in this part of Europe. Turns out it's actually a gay club in the red light district (although most clubs in Antwerp are in that area). Anyhow, we went to a small pub called Pelican Bar. Unlike in Amsterdam, smoking is allowed in all of the bars, so it was difficult to breath, and we all came out reeking of cigarette smoke.

The next day, we went to see the palace, a nice square, and the cathedral. After shopping, I got a waffle dipped in chocolate from a street stand, which was amazing--the night before I had a "Brussels-style" waffle, which I didn't like because it was crispy and a little too greasy. I like soft waffles. Our map recommended a restaurant called...I don't remember now, but the description was Grandma's Kitchen, so I had gotten confused and thought it was called Grandma's Kitchen, and asked people where that restaurant was. It turned out that our map actually had it in the wrong location, but eventually we found it and ate some Belgian food. I probably should have ordered something Belgian, but I was really hungry and felt like eating barbecue, so I got ribs. However, my friends ordered some interesting dishes. One was a meatloaf with cherry sauce.

Of course, the chocolate in Belgium was amazing. there were so many chocolate stores, and all were very cheap. We each bought bags of Guylian seashells (fresh made ones) for 4.50 euro...and ate all the bags within two days.

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