Some Dutch, some tourism and één beetje more Dutch...

Four days of intensive Nederlands and two days of blatant tourism later I'm still catching my breath!

The Dutch learning has been continuing at break-neck speed, mastering both the past and future tenses in just two days. The tests and pop-quizes are still coming thick and fast but the end is now in sight, and at least my teacher is still trying to make it fun despite the heavy-going grammar! Breaks are spent chatting in the dipped seating area next to the Agora cafe in E building and in the queue for a sandwich from Jean-Pierre's. This unassuming yellow little shop has been serving students for around 50 years and provides delicious sandwiches, drinks, cakes, deli meats, coffee, chocolate and fruit for very cheap prices - a crunchy smos (your filling comes with lettuce, tomato mayonaise and sliced hardboiled egg) sandwich costs between 1,70€ and 1,90€ and coffee is around 1,20€

Thursday and Friday saw me officially registered as a resident of België and student of UA - fantastic! My student card should be delivered soon and once the police have checked that my name is on the door my residency permit should be finalised and I can get my official card and stop carrying around my passport as ID. 

My girlfriend came over from Dundee to visit at the weekend (apparently Ryanair do respectably priced flights from Edinburgh) so as her flight was arriving at Charleroi airport (south of Brussels in Wallonia - French speakers! The horror!) late in the evening I went to meet her at the train station in Charleroi-Sud. To avoid paying 13,70€ each way and in anticipation of further travels beyond the city limits of Antwerpen, I bought a Go-Pass 10. This is basically a bulk-buy discount ticket for those under 26 - ten journeys anywhere in België within a year for 50€. I bought mine from Centraal-Station (well worth a visit just for the architecture - it has been rated recently as one of the world's five most beautiful), filled it in and was on my way. Easy! You don't even have to use a journey per train if you're catching connections just so long as you don't break your trip - perfect for me since I live next to the minor and little served Antwerpen-Zuid Station.

        How to: use your Go-Pass 10 –

1. Write the details of your trip along the first line of your pass (note: the day must be written in Dutch - Mondag, Dinsdag, Woensdag, Donderdag, Vrijdag, Zaterdag, Zondag) using your departure station and final destination
2. Hand it to the conductor on the train to stamp and ta-da! you're on your way for a fraction of the price - just don't forget to use another line for your return trip!

Yet again the efficiency of trains on the continent amazed me - we left every station exactly on time - and 1hr 29 minutes after leaving Berchem I arrived at Charleroi 107km south on the opposite side of the country ready to turn around (on the same train). We made it home just before midnight - a three hour round trip - which was pretty good going!

Saturday was spent showing off my beautiful new campus and city. We wandered through Grote Markt, saw the Brabo fountain and guild houses, spent ages being amazed by the cathedral (3€ for a student and Dundee matric cards are accepted!), walked through Groenplaats, down Meir to see Stadsfeestzaal (a 1908 shopping centre covered in gold gilding and flourishes, and complete with an opera singing quartet) and buy some lunch from Del Haize to eat while dipping our toes in the fountain on Wapper by the Palais de Meir. We also bought a chocolate bear lolly (wow), looked at a chocolate kitchen while marvelling at huge chocolate monsters before heading over to Het Steen and the raised promenade by the Scheld (buying a fresh waffle from CoffeeGo en-route). A tram to the new court building (yes, I am such a law student) and a game of travel monopoly later (I maintain that the dice were weighted against me by the faeries) finished the day.

Sunday was just as touristy, if not more! We attempted to go on a river tour but despite the timetable saying they were running, they actually weren't - boo. Instead of being disappointed, however, we simply moved to the next stop on our plan - the Museum Plantin-Moretus on Vrijdag Markt. After a slight detour to a flea market we found the unimpressive looking building and ventured in. Being the canny students that we are, once we saw the 12€ entry fee we asked for a discount by flashing our UoD cards - voila - 1€ and a free English audio guide. Due thanks need to be made to Lonely Planet's Belgium & Luxembourg guide here - without their recommendation we would never have ventured into an old print works and family house. As is it, we spent over 2,5 hours wandering through the 33 rooms in amazement accompanied by the excellent guide (with music at times!) and saw the only museum room to be on the UNESCO world heritage list, as well as the two oldest preserved printing presses, a renaissance garden and courtyard that puts Oxford to shame, and a whole collection of Rueben’s paintings. I can't rave about this place enough - definitely worth a visit even if you're only in the city for a weekend.

An authentic cone of frieten met mayonaisse (from a Firtuur on the corner of Groenplaats towards Grote Markt) and a fresh chocolate coated waffle refreshed us enough to walk to the Plantentuin (i.e. botanical garden) which, although much smaller than Dundee's, was beautifully laid out and a really nice place to sit and pass the time - plus it's free. Next on the agenda was a walk towards Centraal-Station via the diamond district (a girl just needs to look at pretty diamonds every now and then) to marvel at the 1905 architecture – marble, gold, arches…truly fantastic. For our penultimate trick of the day we were going to walk through the Jewish Quarter to Stadspark and then on to meet the 24 tram home. It didn’t go exactly as planned…we managed to get to the Park but somehow crossed a bridge and ended up in the wrong corner (thinking it was the right one), walked down a road and found the wrong tram stop. Luckily I had a street map in my bag, so we walked back to the park and tried again, this time successfully! Interesting note about Stadspark – the wild rabbits do not look like the ones in the UK…they look like pet rabbits idly nibbling the grass. Strange. The day was concluded with a cheap and cheerful meal in Da Giovanni’s next to the cathedral off Groenplaats and listening to an impromptu concert by Rueben’s statue. A truly touristy weekend!

The success of the laundrette and tram system (which I now know like the back of my hand – well, my trams anyway!) encouraged me to face the duel tasks of the official waste bags and the post office. Yesterday, after looking everywhere for the official bags for a week – if you put your rubbish out in supermarket brand ones you can be fined – I finally gave in and asked the cashier at a Carrefour express near Unif. Mystery solved! Apparently you have to ask for them (Restafval for general rubbish, groot or klein depending on how big your bin is) and pay a lot of money – 7,50€ for 10 large 7,5l bags! This includes the collection fee though, which makes it a little better… The post office was mastered today (opposite the tram stops in Groenplaats – Bank van de Post) as I had to post my receipt of funds letter to the international office in Dundee. In this post office you can’t just pick a cashier and queue – you need a ticket as you walk in through the interior doors which will tell you what your number is in the queue and you’ll get called to the right desk by the computer screen above loker 3. Very confusing! Nonetheless, I managed to get my letter posted – hurrah!

Time to study for my final pre-exam test tomorrow…