a little bit of home! & antwerp

October 20-21, 2012

I got to go home with my buddy, Evelyn!! It was an awesome experience to see how a Belgian household functions, and surprisingly.. it's a lot like how American households function! Crazy...

Not to mention that Evelyn's mom is a FANTASTIC cook. Seriously. Some of the best food that I've had since I've been here, without a doubt. After dinner, we just sat around and watched some movies & I got to play with Evelyn's dog, Tessa! It made me miss my cats a little bit. And really, after spending a few meals and some quality time with Evelyn's family, it made me feel really homesick! I loved that I was having a nice dinner with such a nice family, but it made me ache a little bit for my own family and my mom's cooking! I love & miss the family atmosphere, but it was almost hard to be confronted with it and have it not be my own family... does that make sense? Now it's not like I was crying all over the place or anything, it just really caught me off guard because I haven't felt homesick in so long!

Anyway... a HUGE thank you to Evelyn & her family for such a wonderful weekend!!!

Evelyn lives just outside of Antwerp, about a 30 or 40 minute train ride, and so on Sunday Evelyn, her sister Nathalie, and I journeyed into Antwerp and spent the day there! So I now give you, Antwerp in photographs!

Arrival to the Antwerp Central Station (Antwerpen Centraal), 

arguably one of the most beautiful train stations!

And what's going on in the main lobby area of the station? Square dancing. Of course. Evelyn & Nathalie had never seen square dancing before.. I was shocked! Is it an American thing? I mean, we had square dancing lessons in grade school at our "Colonial Days" event... maybe it's just an Indiana thing...

Next stop was this HUGE outdoor market! They seem to abound all over Belgium, and Europe in general.. super fun to walk through. 

CHOCOLATE.

Tasty little egg roll-type snack

We next went to the Rubenshuis, the former home & studio of esteemed artist, Peter Paul Rubens. It was constructed in the early 1600s and was absolutely gorgeous. 

The outdoor gardens were just lovely!

Evelyn & I

Now, how cool is this flower?!

Afterward, we stopped at a cafe for a quick bite to eat, and we each ordered.. what? The "taartenbuffet." You might be wondering what that means...

It's a cake buffet! Oh my goodness. I had the tiramisu cake.. heavenly.

Us & our tasty cake!

So this is a statue of a hand. Just hanging out in the middle of a nice shopping area. But! It's actually pretty relevant & cool in Antwerp's history! 

I give you now the Wikipedia blurb on how Antwerp got it's name:

"According to folklore, and as celebrated by the statue in front of the town hall (pictures of that later), the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon who lived near the river Scheldt. He exacted a toll from those crossing the river, and for those who refused, he severed one of their hands and threw it into the river Scheldt. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero, who cut off the giant's own hand and flung it into the river." 

Hence the name, Antwerpen. It's from the Dutch words for hand - hand, and to throw - wearpan. Handwearpan.. Antwerpen. Yeah! So the huge hand we're sitting on is supposed to be the Giant's hand from the story! Pretty neat, right?

As we were walking, we came around a corner and then all of a sudden, BOOM. This was the view I saw. I was so surprised! It's the Antwerp Cathedral of Our Lady, and it was quite a sight.. this picture doesn't do it justice for that first view that I saw. 

I thought this picture was cool cause it's kind of like a lot of what Belgium is... old, beautiful churches, lovely cafes with tons of outdoor seating, and all of the beer brands on the buildings. 

Belgium. 

Then we walked to the front of the Cathedral, and this is what we saw...

We have no idea what it was for, but that's pretty fun, right?

This guy was so intense. I loved it. 

The Antwerp City Hall! With the statue of the giant in front! He's the one who throws the hands, and got his hand chopped off.. remember?

At this point, Evelyn said that we were going to see a castle! And so we were walking down the street and I saw this building (above) in the distance, and I was like, "Oh! Is that the castle?" And Evelyn said, "No.. that's just a normal building."

And I thought it was just so funny.. Because to Evelyn and to most Europeans, buildings like this are the norm. Ancient, beautiful buildings like this abound at every turn. I think it was eye-opening for Evelyn & Nathalie to be traveling with me for the day, because I was being such a tourist... taking pictures of the most random things that I thought were spectacular. Yet they were things that Evelyn & Nathalie had grown up with.. so it's just no big deal to them. SO CRAZY.

Then we found the actual castle!

Looking out over the Scheldt River that runs through Antwerp. The city is actually one of the biggest ports in the world, and there were massive ships going up and down the river all while we were there!

FALL. 

Next stop... the MAS, a museum all about the history & culture of Antwerp! It's a fairly new museum, I think, with an impressive panoramic view of the city.

It was a bit foggy when we were up there.. but I still loved the view!

By the time we left the museum, the sun was FINALLY out, so we sat down along the edge of the water and just took a moment to relax and take it all in!

More fall...

Isn't it lovely to have a band playing in the courtyard? Yeah, then you'll notice the statue in the back. Yes, the one with the bike hanging over it's head. Classy.

Perfect little sidestreet, don't you think?

One final look at the gorgeous Cathedral, this time with sunshine & a blue sky! And a McDonalds... oops. 

We ended the day with frites (duh!) and then caught the train back to Evelyn's town for another fantastic home-cooked meal. I seriously feel like I ate like a king this past weekend. Evelyn's dad actually ended up driving us back to Leuven after dinner, which was so kind of him!

So that was my lovely, relaxing weekend! Hooray!