Marta and the Chocolate Land
After not having updated for ages, for which I'd like to apologize, I've come with some fresh news. The holidays are finally over and we started lessons last week. I have to say, though, that the holidays were pretty productive and I got the chance to visit a couple of new places. Here's one of the most interesting ones I've seen.
We mostly associate countries with their food - pizza makes us think of Italy, tacos make us think of Mexico... Now think of a place where shrimps are as small as they are delicious and the main specialties are chips, waffles with sugar and whipped cream and (most of all) CHOCOLATE. Is that heaven? Not quite, but close... it's Belgium!
My friend Anneleen (20, in the picture between me and the Japanese girl) invited me to visit her in her hometown, Antwerp, and even offered me her place to spend the nights. So I stayed there with her and her family (really nice and fun people).
It was a seven-hour trip by train, but it was worth it, not only because Antwerp has one of the most beautiful stations I've ever seen, but also because we drove along the Rhine and I got the chance to see really wonderful landscapes on a sunny day.
On our first evening there we took a walk around the city centre, where I could see one of the main features of Belgium - diversity. You hear lots of different langauges and see people from every possible corner of the world. But it was only on the next day when I actually got to experience the city.
The first place we visited was Rubens' House, the house where the famous painter spent his last years. Apart from learning about his life thanks to the audio tour, you can also see the paintings and sculptures from other artists he used to collect. He was very interested in both mythological and religious art (which could sound like a contradiction!) The mythological influence can especially be seen in his beautiful garden. Don't know whether you'll recognize him, but on top of the wall there's Hermes, the messenger amongst Greek gods (and the god of translators! :)) At the back of the garden you can also see a small building resembling a Greek / Roman temple. Apparently, Rubens wanted to bring 'a small piece of Italy to Belgium'.
We spent the rest of the day in the city centre, where we had a delicious waffle with sugar and gream (yummy!) and visited other interesting places, such as the university where Anneleen studies, the little botanic garden, the cathedral and the Church of Carolus Boromeus, who has his own statue on the Old Main Bridge (Alte Mainbrücke) in Würzburg. Unfortunately, as it was in the middle of Easter, we could only visit both churches very briefly and the pictures are not too good (that's why I'm not even going to post them). One of the things that caught my eye most was that Belgian churches use a lot of dark wood, which contrasts in a nice way with the white walls and columns. Oh, and let's not forget THE castle!
The castle is located near a large river, which people from Antwerp are very proud of. Anneleen also took advantage of that moment to explain to me the legend about the origin of the city's name. Antwerp's name in Dutch is Antwerpen, which means something like 'hand throwing'. A long long time ago, a giant arrived in the coast of Antwerp and decided to bully all the sailors who dared to come close to him. If they didn't give him treasures, he'd make them sink. Many of them made the mistake of not taking him serioulsy... One day, a man named Bravo decided to get rid of the creature that was terrifying the population. Together with his seven men, he fought the giant. The battle ended with Bravo cutting off the giant's hand and throwing it down to the river. In the old town there's a statue that commemorates this fight, and here's a picture.
While standing on this place, something else caught my attention... it was the beautiful, old buildings on that street. Here you can see some of them, with rooftops resembling staircases, which is a typical feature of Belgian architecture.
And slowly but steadily the evening came and it was time to go back home and have a rest. We enjoyed a delicious home-cooked meal (from here I'd like to compliment Anneleen's mum once again, that fish with shrimps and sauce was A-MA-ZING!) and then a funny film.
The next day, which was a Sunday, we visited Bruges. However, most of the shops were open, which also surprised me. The main thing you should know about Bruges is that it's a truly beautiful, fairytale-like city. Wherever you look, you see cute buildings, not to mention that we also had lovely weather. It's quite small and you can walk everywhere, but this is also part of its charm.
The first thing we did was going up a tower from which you can see the whole city (another déjà vu of the Cathedral in Cologne...)
Maybe there's not much you can do there, but only walking around the city is a pleasure. In contrast to what I had heard, it's Bruges and not Amsterdam the place that's popularly known as the Venice of the North, owing to all its briges above the river, which reinforce the fairtyale atmosphere. There are, though, two other things I have to mention. First of all, the city was full of tourists, especially Spanish people, so we heard more Spanish than any other language. On the other hand, another attraction of Belgium is the Chapel of the Holy Blood, where there's allegedly a bottle with Jesus Christ's blood (another déjà vu, but this time of the 'heart' of Alba de Tormes). And yes, we were there, but we didn't see or touch the blood (if you enter the church during a celebration, you're forced to touch the bottle).
We had fries, which is another typically Belgian meal. You can have them with ketchup or mayo nearly everywhere on the street. They are not too crispy, but the important thing is that they are made of real potatos and taste very good. Oh, and of course, let's not forget the most important thing... CHOCOLATE. Every two steps there was a small chocolate shop, where you could see all sorts of creative products. And yes, they are all delicious, I've tasted them myself ;) Yeah, that was definitely the best souvenir I could have brought from that country...
