LIFESTYLE: a day in Antwerp

Antwerp is my home and my city (although I grew up outside Antwerp, sssht don't tell anyone). Me and Mr. Boyfriend recently noted that we'd actually never gone sightseeing in our own city. To settle that matter right away, we spent a tourist day in Antwerp and discovered neighborhoods and shops we'd never been before. 

Follow us around!

1. First we went to the Plantijn-Moretus museum, which is an old atelier and printing company. It is even acknowledged as Unesco heritage. You can admire the oldest presses and printing techniques in the world which will blow your mind. Even the interior is still authentic. Oh, and there's loads of books and manuscripts, obviously.

Address:

Vrijdagmarkt 22 

2000 Antwerp

2. Secondly, we went to the City campus of the University of Antwerp. We haven't studied here unfortunately, so we decided to take a look at the gorgeous campus which kind of reminds me of Oxford, which I visited two years ago.

Prinsstraat 13

2000 Antwerp

3. Afterwards, we went to the Béguinage (this is the only translation I found online) of Antwerp. A 'béguinage' or 'begijnhof' is a place where a semi-monastic community of religious women live, who sought to serve God (thank you Wikipedia). Not that we're very religious people, but we wanted to visit it because it is so unique and hidden in the city center of Antwerp, I didn't even know we had a béguinage!

Rodestraat
2000 Antwerp

Afterwards we stumbled upon this amazing sign outside the Highlander café at the Stadswaag in Antwerp:

At the Stoelstraat (Chair street - I know, sounds lame) I captured this image which reminds me why I love my city so much!

4. We then visited the 'Kaasrui' and the 'Korte Koepoortstraat' which is a hip neighbourhood, pretty close to the more touristic places in Antwerp. We bumped into this barbershop Brabo's Hand which looked amazing and had all kinds of bearded men in there getting a shave. We also happened to pass loads of tattoo shops and I have to say, I found it all very interesting. The sound of the needle made a chill run down my spine though ;-)

Korte Koepoortstraat 8
2000 Antwerp

We then visited Japan Center, still in that neighbourhood. Me and Mr. Boyfriend are crazy about everything Japanese and we went crazy for all the stuff in this shop. My favorite item was this wooden bath tub which had me dreaming of an amazing zen bathroom. We'll definitely be picking up some stuff from this shop when we move in together.

Korte Koepoortstraat 11
2000 Antwerp

Another shop on that same street that got me very, very excited was Red Juliet. They are known for creating qualitative, fifties inspired dresses. I had read a bit about this shop before and got so excited when I bumped into the flagship store. Even though the dresses are kind of above my usual clothing budget, I'm definitely prepared to save up for such a beautiful fifties dress. (I already have picked my favorites below)

Lange Koepoortstraat 78
2000 Antwerp

 

5. After the Kaasrui, we went to the marketplace and city hall of Antwerp where there was an antique market going on. I especially fell in love with one stand that had all leather, British inspired stuff such as old horse riding boots, leather sport balls, suitcases, cricket and gold clubs, ... I wanted all of it!

Grote Markt
2000 Antwerp

6. We got hungry (even though we already had lunch - story of my life) and so we decided to get some Belgian fries and ate it on thé raft in Antwerp in front of 'The Stone', the castle of Antwerp, while having a view of the Schelde, the river that runs through Antwerp. Later on, a pigeon pooped on my purse because it was jealous of my fries.

7. Lastly, we visited some shops on the Huidevetterstraat street and at the Wilde Zee neighbourhood. I finally got a chance to visit the 'new' & Other Stories, Brandy Melville and an art gallery that attracted our attention. We didn't actually buy anything since we're both #extremelybroke.

We really liked discovering some new places in our city and will be visiting even more museums soon. Did you like this kind of post? I really loved creating it :) I tried video blogging the entire day, but my camera died after visiting the museum -.-

If you have any recommendations for places in Antwerp or other cities we should visit, leave a comment below!

xX Anine