Één week in de Stad van Antwerpen, België

Hallelujah! After a week of computer troubles my laptop now stays turned on long enough to blog!

Having been in Antwerpen for a week now I can honestly say it is fantastic place to live. It is beautiful, historic, friendly and accessible. My journey over here, on the other hand, was a nightmare! At one point I wasn't even sure I would get to London, let alone to Belgium, due to a major freight train fire on one of the main lines into Euston. After much too-ing and fro-ing I did eventually make it to London where I hot-footed it across to St Pancras International to get my tickets exchanged for the next train to Brussel-Zuid (luckily I had bought a combined ticket with my UK travel so I didn't have to pay anything extra for this - phew!).

Once I’d made it onto the Eurostar, it was great - it may have been a little worn around the edges back in Standard class, but it was fantastically fast and perfectly on time - and I made it to Brussel-Zuid in less than two hours. The trip was a great opportunity to look at the local landscape and appreciate how completely different it is to the UK i.e. totally flat! I even managed to catch a glimpse of a beautiful mural pulling in to the station at Lille opposite the platform, which I’ll definitely look out for again. Because of my delays I didn't leave Brussel-Zuid until half past 8 so it got dark fast as I changed at Berchem for Antwerpen-Zuid Station leaving me with nothing to look at outside. Luckily I had a map with me so I could try to figure out how to walk from the station to my building!

While I’d been frantically trying to get to Antwerpen, I’d managed to rearrange the time I’d meet my landlady so that she would be able to meet me to give me my keys and explain whatever needed to be explained. After struggling up what felt like a million steps from the station (but was only around 40) I finally made it to De Beuckerstraat. Once my landlady had left me in her daughter’s studio (my room was still occupied) I collapsed on the bed and slept for a long time – well deserved rest!

I spent my first full day in the city pottering around my local area, discovering where my tram stop is, my closest laundrette, the nearby park and (most importantly) my nearest supermarket. Carrefour Markt is roughly equivalent in size to a Tesco Metro, although the stock has the local variants instead of the typical UK staples – tinned things are apparently a rarity as the Belgians seem to enjoy jarred goods instead, most strange. (Handy hint: to find your local Carrefour Markt in België just enter your address here: http://www.gb.be/Shopsearch_search.cfm?lang=NL ) Price-wise most things were about the same or less in € as they would be in £ in the UK, meaning they’re a bit cheaper! Here’s a guide of what I paid for some of the basics:

• Small loaf of bread 1,40 €
• 1 kg sugar 1,12€
• 1kg pasta 0,85€
• 1l milk 0,80€
• 1l orange juice 0,99€
• 1 bunch bananas 1,50€
• Cereal (own brand) 2,85€
• Toilet paper (9 rolls) 2,25€
• Washing powder 3,95€

My EILC language course registration was on Thursday afternoon so beforehand I wandered into town and had a quick look around the Grote Markt, Groenplaats and Meir areas – stunning! I also stumbled upon the wonderful, the amazing, and the true student friend that is Hema. This shop is kind of like a cross between the homeware sections of Primark and Ikea, with some ‘essential’ foods, stationary, clothes, make-up and hygiene goods thrown in around the edges for good measure.  As I moved countries with only a rucksack, a suitcase and a handbag, I had no room for things like bedding, towels, lamps, storage boxes, mugs etc. so I have been gradually getting everything I need over the last week and lugging it home on the tram (luckily the 4 to Hoboken goes past Meirbrug just down the street!).

Mijn Nederlands is slowly improving after 4 days of full-on immersion class – it is seriously intense work! Not only is there no English in class, there is a mountain of homework and tests every two days in preparation for the final exams in two weeks. Thankfully my teacher makes it fun with lots of speaking, listening and reading as well as the traditional writing exercises, and my classmates are really nice. I’m the only native English speaker though so it can be funny at times trying to understand each other’s accents!

Mastering the tram system was my mission for Friday as I didn’t want to walk 45 minutes to get to class at 9.30! After consulting the map I got at registration (which I promptly lost after actually getting on the tram…) I decided I needed the number 24 to the stop at Franklin Roosevelts Plaats and headed to the stop at Antwerpen Zuid (over the rail station). As I hadn’t bought my ticket in advance (encouraged by DeLijn the company that runs the trams) I got on at the front and paid the driver the required 2€, sat back and enjoyed the ride! All I had to do to get off was press the blue button when we were approaching my stop – easy. I found out afterwards about the Lijnkaart you can buy from newsagents – ten journeys for 9€ - which is much cheaper so I bought one from a shop between Keizerstraat and Groenplaats on my way home (I got the 4 from Groenplaats).

How to: validate your tram ticket

1.       Go to the yellow ticket box and insert your ticket/lijnkaart with the arrow facing front and down

2.       Press the correct number of passengers making the journey (usually just 1)

3.       Take you card and make your way to a seat – easy!

Saturday was a hectic day as my landlady texted me saying I could move into my room at 3 – when I had originally wanted to be at the Laundry Day festival – so I had to pack everything up then wait until 4 before she actually showed up. She then spent almost an hour explaining how everything worked in excruciatingly slow detail when it was very obvious what needed to be done (grr). After she (finally) left I realised I had no bedding to sleep in so I had to run into town on the tram to get cheap stuff from Hema, run back, make my bed and head on over to the festival. I managed to make it there just after 6 so I wandered around for a couple of hours listening to the music, which was disappointingly mostly DJs and dance and trance. It wasn’t really my scene, so I bought some friets met saus (absolutely amazing – definitely the high point and worth battling to the counter for), sat on the grass for a while longer, and headed home again around 9. If club music isn’t really your thing – don’t bother going.

Today I mastered the laundrette – hurrah for clean clothes! It was slightly intimidating walking in and being faced with numerous signs in Dutch (it was self-service) but I persevered and succeeded in both cleaning and drying my clothes. To prevent others from being as terrified as I was here is my How to: wash clothes in an Antwerpen laundrette –

1.       Do not panic about having loads of change for the machine (it accepts notes up to 20€) but do make sure you have washing powder, dirty laundry and a book to read while it goes round

2.       Put clothes in an empty washing machine (make sure it’s a small one otherwise you’ll pay twice as much!)

3.       Select the programme by pressing the P button – 3 is colourwash, 6 is synthetics – and pour powder into the trays on top indicated by the red lights next to the programme number

4.       Go to the payment machine in the wall and put the amount in as stated on your washing machine (around 3,20-3,50€) and then press the button with the number of your machine on it to start it – do not press it until you are 100% ready to start the wash! When you want your change back press Wisselgeld.

5.       Read a book while you wait (timer on the front of the machine)

6.       When your clothes are clean transfer them to a dryer, close it and go to the payment machine, put in the amount for a cycle, usually 0,20€ for 4 minutes (you have to do each cycle separately – slow but you can check on the heat/length you need as you go), and press the number of your machine when you are 100% ready

7.       Go back to your dryer and select the heat level you want and wait for the cycle to end (repeat steps 6-7 as necessary)

Now that I have clean pyjamas it is time to go to bed and curl up with my Dutch notes to prep for my test tomorrow - goeidenacht!