Volume 2, Day 35
I haven’t ridden a Flixbus in a week. All of my intra-Netherlands transport was accomplished by their train system. But now to leave the country I am back on the budget bus. I want to see Belgium, but I don’t have any time to explore the country as I have to rush to visit people in Luxembourg and France. However, due to the distance between Rotterdam and Luxembourg and the way bus routes work, it made more sense to stop over one night in Antwerp. The idea is that I can loop back around in a couple weeks to take a proper tour of Belgium and subject my liver to its 100s of varieties of beer.
My Flixbus was headed to Paris and fully packed, so packed in fact, that the driver had my sit in the copilot seat. He offered my a free soft drink or snack from the bus’ on board shop, but I felt like it was a bonus to sit up front. The border between the Netherlands and Belgium was basically invisible and I couldn’t see signs that there had ever been passport control along the highway. I really want to punch any Brexiters I meet because it is incomprehensible to me that any one can be against the seamless integration of the European states. Of course, the existence or lack of a border between the Netherlands and Belgium is a fairly artificial construct as the two countries have been unified at various points in history and Antwerp looks just like another Dutch town.
Overall, I like Antwerp, but I wouldn’t recommend anyone visit there for at least a year. It seems the entire city is under construction. Several of the top (free) tourist sites (e.g. cathedrals, castles, etc) are wrapped up in scaffolding, while subway construction on the major thoroughfare turns the central intersection into an unnavigable strip mine. My hostel was right up on the street with the construction, that oh so helpfully begins at 6 am. More inconvenient is the extra five minutes of walking time to get around the construction in order to go anywhere.
Though I arrived at the hostel just before noon, they were able to check me in early and let me drop my stuff in the room. The room is a bit cramped, but the hostel has an enormous kitchen and common space for people to cook, eat, meet, and mingle. This is also the first hostel I’ve seen with a properly installed key card security system. I always find it ridiculous to have to swipe a card to use the elevator when open stairs are right next to it, but ASH has an electronic lock on the stairwell.
My main tourism target for the day was the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Located in a old house/printing shop, the building itself is a UNESCO world heritage site. The house belonged to a family of 16th century book printers and many of the portraits in the drawing room were by none other than Peter Paul Rubens, a native to Antwerp. I highly recommend the museum which lends out a very thick booklet with information on each of the 30-40 rooms in the complex. The museum houses dozens of books printed in the 16th century and some of the oldest existing printing presses.
Because I had skipped breakfast and lunch, my stomach was starting to growl by the time I finished the museum. Having passed some waffle shops, I got onto the free city WiFi to look up recommended waffles, and found that the top choice was the same shop that had caught my eye. With a cup of mediocre coffee and a gooey chocolate coated waffle to power me, I did my best to meander through the old town, strolling along typical cobblestone lanes with old buildings and streetside cafes and random public art works. I’m taking my sweet time rambling about Europe, but its all blurring together anyways. How is it for people who visit 5 countries in 7 days? Do they see sharper contrasts between the cities?
The Sint Pauluskerk was open to visit and its good to be back in more Catholic areas. At least the tortured statues are interesting to look at. I headed to the shipping quarter next, and not quite inadvertently passed through the red light district, which made Amsterdam look like Disneyland. I was not expecting to see so many half naked women or casually sauntering Johns at 3pm and I turned on my tunnel vision to get out of there as quickly as possible without getting harassed.
Just on the other side of those two seedy blocks (appropriately named “Old Man Street”) was an inner harbor for small sailing boats and the Museum aan de Stroom. The building was artfully done with the same curved glass I saw in the Hamburg symphony hall. Similarly, though I didn’t buy a ticket for the exhibitions, the top floor is open to the public for a panorama view of the city.
I headed back to the hostel afterwards, passing by the University of Antwerp but not seeing anything of note. I grabbed a tote bag and almost immediately headed back out to take a quick tour of the diamond district. As advertised, there were Indian banks and Hasidic Jews. The scariest thing about the Holocaust is that it sort of succeeded. Will the Jewish population in Europe ever come close to what it once was? I see (and obviously one can’t really know by outward appearances) 100 Muslims for every Jew. And this is why the far right movement has gotten so much traction in recent years. After enjoying the fruits of Nazi imposed “ethnic cleansing” without any of the guilt for 50 post war years, Europeans who only paid lip service to diversity are now being confronted by a new visible other and the dormant xenophobia is awakening. It can happen again.
I grabbed a couple of classic Belgian beers (Leffe, Duvel, La Chouffe) from a Carrefoure Express (I must be getting closer to France) and sat in the astroturfed backyard of the hostel with a book. I only read the first two chapters of “The Big Sleep” before I got distracted by the chatting of backpackers. There was one solo British traveler in his late 20s who was quite the social butterfly and went about talking to everyone. My plan was to enjoy the beers, go find some French fries and have an early night. That is not what happened.
J, the Brit, gathered together a group of people to go out to a bar and I got shanghaied into that. Having finished four beers, I was let’s say easily persuadable. The plus side is I got to enjoy the evening sky, which after being thoroughly blanketed in somber gray clouds all day, opened up enough to catch the colorful display of the setting sun. We stopped at one bar/cafe, sitting outside. The prices were reasonable and I tried a local Antwerp beer (just so-so). After a shot of Jagermeister (ugh) and another round we moved to a bar which was doing karaoke. That was fun, though I wish the rest of the world could catch up to China on karaoke technology. I’m not a caveman, I don’t want to have to pore over a telephone book sized list of songs (sorted by year for the love of all that is holy!) and write down a code on a piece of paper. After karaoke, they went dancing and I went home.
I’m starting to think its pretty good that so many hostels are a bit anti-social, I don’t think I’d survive if I was having experiences like this every day. But, I am glad to have them every so often. The hangover the next day was worth it to stand on a stage and belt out a tune.
| Flixbus | 7.07 |
| Hostel | 151 RMB |
| Plantin-Moretus Museum | 8 |
| Waffle and Coffee | 4 |
| Beers and mini-sausages | 7.94 |
| Lidl (cheese, crackers, beer) | 4.34 |
| Round at bar | 15 |
| Total: | 512.5 RMB (USD 74.51) |
Running Total: 12940.2 RMB (USD 1881.25)
Daily Average: 369.7 RMB (USD 53.75)