When my boyfriend Adam told me he was to be spending the next year at the University of Antwerp a number of things came to mind. One of my first thoughts was… where? Well, Antwerp is Belgium’s second biggest city and is about 40 minutes from Brussels. It is a scenic city set upon a port with a large student population. Antwerp is also the diamond capital of the world and even after informing Adam diamonds were 20% cheaper in Antwerp than in the UK, I still couldn’t twist his arm.
Through a website called Couchsurfing, I arranged to meet a local girl called Saskia ,a student at the University, and we arranged to meet up for a few of the days. Saskia took us to the Cathedral, which is the tallest building in Antwerp and is spectacular. We also went to the ‘Grote Markt’ to see the beautiful yet gruesome ‘Brabo staue’, which depicts a boy throwing the severed hand of a giant and is bizarrely accented by spurts of water. This is one theory as to how Antwerp or ‘Antwerpen’ (as the locals call it) got its name, roughly “Hand werpen”- Hand thrown.
Antwerp is filled with beautiful architecture, which made us wish all cities could look as picturesque as this. However, Antwerp is not just about pretty streets. It has been claimed that techno began here and as such, Antwerp is known as a party town, with an exciting and varied nightlife.
Looking around the Royal Museum of Fine Arts was a highlight for me, and we were lucky as we went on the last Wednesday of the month and entry to the museum was free. This included the headphone guide, which was really useful as most of the museum’s displays were, of course, not in English. There were also a number of other museums around the city, such as the ‘MoMu’ fashion museum. Antwerp has a strong fashion background and is the birth place of the artist Ruben and there is a museum dedicated to him.
Another interesting part of my trip included a walk down the Meir, a street bustling with large chain stores, such as C&A, which seemed to be rather out of place! We explored further and found a really cool retro store called ‘Sussies’, where I found myself a gorgeous red 70’s dress. As well as being shown around, we also went to a local cinema to see WALL*E. The theatre was huge and I couldn’t even see the back row because the auditorium was so gigantic! Luckily for me it was showing in English with only the subtitles in French and Dutch.
I was rather nervous about going to Antwerp as I don’t speak any Dutch, or even German, which is the “speak-very-slowly-and-loudly-and-they-might-understand-you” equivalent. However everyone, from a sweet lady on the train helping us make sure we knew where we were going, to people working on waffle stand, were really friendly and very happy to speak English, which I found a big relief!
We stayed at ‘Abhostel’, an excellent value for money hostel, run by a charming woman called Bridget. I shared a dorm room with an Italian couple and a Chinese student (apparently an English student was also there, but all we saw was a sleeping bump that was gone in the morning). The last night was fully booked up so we moved to the slightly more expensive ‘Postiljon Hotel’, which was situated right next to a great cathedral. The only problem we had was that we had forgotten to bring mosquito repellent, so needless to say we came home with a few souvenirs from our trip!
Food and drink is a treat in Antwerp and chocolate in particular is a big deal here. You can’t go far without finding a chocolate shop and the Belgian waffles are also delicious! If you like beer, Antwerp is the place to go as they love their beer, so basically avoid going if you are on a diet as you won’t be able to resist!
Rubens museum
MoMu Fashion Museum
Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Sussies
Abhostel
Postiljon Hotel
Erin McWilliams
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