Chocolates, Waffles, and Beer
We headed to Utrecht central station on Wednesday
morning. On the bus we talked about how
familiar we feel with the bus system in The Netherlands. It already feels so natural swipe our card
and hop on a bus, and Monisha barely needs to be reminded to swipe her card on
the way out ;). It was a bit tricky
finding our way to the FlixBus station, but we managed to get there with plenty
of time. FlixBus is a sweet way to travel
throughout Europe that David and Thomas told us about. Our ticket from Utrecht, Holland to Antwerp,
Belgium only cost us 7.50€ per person. On the
bus there is free WiFi, a microwave, and a sink!
We arrived in Antwerp in the early evening and walked around
near the Central Station. The station
itself is one of the sites to see in Antwerp.
The building is built like a huge cathedral with a large gold-plated
dome. Nearby, we found a nice little
park and sat to snack on an apple. It’s kind
of strange to think that now we’re in Belgium!
After our snack it was time to head to our host’s
house. We soon realized that our
knowledge of public transportation in Holland didn’t perfectly transfer to
public transportation in Belgium. We tried
to catch a bus, but the bus didn’t stop where we thought it did (we later
learned this was due to construction), so instead we got on a tram with no idea
how to pay. The tram took us to a bus
station where we caught a bus and tried to pay with cash. However, the driver told us that the cash machine
was broken and that we should just sit down. Ah well, free ride! After a long ride and a twenty minute walk we
made it to our host’s house. This is the
first time Nolan has used Couchsurfing so he didn’t really know what to
expect.
Our lodging near Antwerp ended up being on an organic
Woofing farm! The family living there
had an extra room in the barn that they let us sleep in. They have several animals on the farm
including a dog named Mio that looks a lot like Flux. They also have a donkey, a few goats, around 14
chickens and a couple cows. They
graciously invited us to have dinner with them that first evening. We were served pasta with marinara sauce;
everything in the sauce was from their farm!
Carrots, tomatoes, onions, herbs, peppers? Over dinner we asked for good recommendations
for Antwerp.
When we headed out on Thursday we had plenty of things to
do. Our first stop in the city was the Meir street. This is the main shopping center of Antwerp,
but it’s also just a great place to walk.
The broad street is lined on both sides with old and ornate
buildings. Most of the shops were much
fancier than we would shop at, but we still enjoyed window shopping and exploring
the area.
On the Meir street was also where we first tried one of the must-get
Belgian delicacies: a waffle. In
Antwerp, the main kind of waffle is called a Liège waffle and it is so much
better than the waffles we have in The States.
We were told that they are best enjoyed plain (although they usually offer
you extra toppings for an extra fee).
After our first bite, we totally understood why they don’t need any
toppings. The sweet, dense center is
chewy and full of flavor. This is a
delicious waffle experience.
Post-waffle, we wandered through the historical center of
the city. We spent most of our time just
admiring all of the crazy architecture and old buildings. We saw the Cathedral
of our Lady, the city hall, the Grote Markt (main square), the Stadsfeestzaal
shopping center, and our favorite: the MAS museum. You have to pay to see all
of the exhibits in the museum, but you can see all of the items in storage and
go up to the very top for free. From the
top we got a great view of the whole city, and finally oriented ourselves. It
was quite satisfying to actually know where we had been and where we were going
without Google Maps (to some extent) after that. The windows of the museum are
crazy; they’re all wavy and look like cylinders from many angles.
Someone offering samples of Italian flatbread sandwiches
called piadinas successfully enticed us into their restaurant for lunch.
For dinner we went to a traditional Belgian restaurant to
try some traditional dishes. We ordered
beef stew braised in beef (stoofvlees), and Belgian beef tartare with fries and
mustard-mayo. We tried to order witloof
uit de oven, but unfortunately ended up with a witloof (endive) salad instead. So far on this blog pretty much every meal we’ve
described has been incredible, but this one was honestly just okay. The food was certainly good, but for the
price, and in comparison to the other culinary experiences we’ve been enjoying
it was sub-par. The yummiest things were
the fries with sauce and (in Nolan’s opinion) the Belgian beer (a Trappist
Trippel).
After dinner we bought a bottle of wine from the only store
still open and took the bus back to the farm.
We were planning on splitting the bottle and having a night to ourselves
(after a lovely skype call with Bryce in Chile :) ), but when we arrived our
hosts asked if we wanted to watch a movie (Goodfellas) with them. We decided that sounded nice as well, so we
joined the whole family on the couches in their living room. So far, Belgium has been a warm and welcoming
place.
We’re cutting this post off because we have to head to bed,
but YES we got some Belgian chocolate ;).
Also, we’ve moved on to Brussels now and are staying just a 20min metro
ride from the center of the city with another nice Couchsurfing host.
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