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. 

 

While walking to dinner, we passed by a street musician playing a piano in the middle of the Meir street.  We wondered briefly about how he managed to bring an entire piano to the city center, but then saw a set of large wheels on the backside of the instrument.  We stopped and listened for a while and really enjoyed his classical style renditions of modern songs.

We also had a brief run in with a rogue butterfly.  This bug absolutely loved us.  It first landed in Monisha's hair, but then jumped off and landed on Nolan's hand.  Then if flew back onto Monisha's face! We actually had to run to get away from it.  It kept following us!

  

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.