Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Spontanious Antwerp Day!

I woke up and checked my couchsurfing mail to find out that a girl from Oregon was going to Antwerp for the day. I had no plans in particular other than finding buttons, so I messaged her, showered, and left to meet up! I used the last of my soap in the shower too, so that also became a priority.

We met up in the city at the Use-It map store, and had a coffee. We passed by a Lush store so I managed to get soap (plus sparkly moisture bar - I couldn't help it!). We then took the train and made our way to Antwerp!!! I thought we could buy tickets on the train for some reason, but the woman said that normally it would cost extra. She didn't charge us extra thankfully, but when we tried to ask whether buying a return ticket with her would be cheaper than waiting.... I guess she didn't understand... she said yes but when we paid we realized that it was the same price as two one ways! Stupid. This comes into play later...

Antwerp was super pretty - even the train station was crazy...

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this picture is ruined by a sign!!! Grrr!!
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train station looking back...
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their gay pride festival thing had been a week ago, so there were still flags everywhere!!
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okay so this statue has someone throwing a hand... that is how the city was named... it was from a story... the name antwerpen means thrown hand or something very similar!
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this castle had a lovely view of the big canal
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We walked, bought buttons, walked more, ate, and went to a fair! It was the last weekend with the fair, and we went on this giant spin around ride! It was like "the revelation" back home, only with one end not two, and the one end also spun around itself as well as around in the big circle. Probably the most intense looking one there minus the bungee one (that one cost wayyyy too much). It was crazy, although I had a minor whiplash type headache after in the back of my head haha.

We then ate yummy crepes and ended up checking out this tiny bar. It wasn't that great so we went to this other one where other couchsurfers were potentially going to be, plus live music!

This place was PACKED and very hot inside. Torrey hung out outside while I braved the crazy crowd to find the toilet. The music was actually really good - on my way back from the excursion I was pretty much stuck on the stairs from all the people, and I got to enjoy the band until they stopped playing.

We started talking to some really nice locals, and they found out when the last train back was for us! The couchsurfers found us too and they wanted to go to a different bar with more selection for Belgian beer. It was two minutes down the road so we all hopped over there.

This bar was cute and small and full of locals as well, but with way more beer and we could talk! We eventually found seating upstairs and met even more people. There was a group of old Irish guys that were fascinated by the bits of tattoo they could see hehe.

As other people left, we slowly took over upstairs and our group grew to even include a dog!

A couple of the couchsurfers were leaving, and they offered to put us up, but others had also offered and I was not ready to leave so soon. Oh yeah we had missed our train by a while, so now our tickets back were useless. Ah well at least they were super cheap!

I stayed, Torrey left, and eventually Andres, Dennis, and I went and got beer at a Night shop so we could sit by the canal and chill for even cheaper. It was an adventure - they led me through parts of Antwerp I never would have found... including this enormous elevator and this CRAZY tunnel thing that led underwater to the other side of the canal!

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ah yes back at the pub I had mentioned how safe it must be in Antwerp because someone had left a 20 euro bill and a hat just sitting on a table, when the owner came over and said it was theirs... and proceeded to give me their hat! I had not even really expressed interest, but he insisted that I have this hat so now I have a black toque lol.
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hehe I had to... too bad its blurry
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pre-sunrise
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we had gone over a fence and sat on the canal edge watching the sun come up, which was beautiful. Again I didn't even really realize how late it was getting...
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Andres was able to walk to his house and eventually got tired, but Dennis was also waiting for the trains to re open so he stuck around. I showed him my knitting haha.
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I remembered time again and realized that it was already past 7:30 - the trains had been running for a while already! We went to the train station and that was when the tired hit me. The idea of going to sleep was very nice and I still had to wait for this stupid train...

It really wasn't long at all though - I was on the tram in no time. I felt so out of place with everyone going to work, while I was on my way home wearing a black toque probably smelling of beer falling asleep on the tram like a homeless person. It was actually surprisingly liberating.

I made it upstairs and fell asleep....

... again I woke up at 5pm!

This was another short day! I sewed the buttons onto the sweater, which was super exciting!! It was actually finished!! 100%! I took photos!
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you can see how burnt I am still!!!!!!
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I believe I ate Indian food, played on the computer, and went back to sleep after this satisfaction!

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