Sweated my way through Antwerp last Friday with Taylor. It felt good to bring some of that mess to a new city. Oh wow, is it hot here. Have I told you? And the funny thing is, it's not even St. Louis-hot or Philly-hot or NYC-hot, but people are FREAKING OUT. I mean, no one really has air conditioning. In most cases, it's hotter to sit outside and sweat with the sun beating down on you (because you survive for those moments in which you think you just might kinda sorta discern a breeze) than it is to actually venture inside anywhere. And the tram? It's a new hell. It's all I can do to try to keep from vomiting at the awful stench of overheated humanity. People are slimy and sweaty and all up in your personal space because there's nowhere to go. Y-U-C-K. Maybe if I did vomit someone would give me a little space? (Oh, and I'm totally off the raw meat during this heat snap. If there's anyone who's reveling in this warmth, it's no doubt the parasitic larvae.)
Oh yeah, so this post is about Antwerp! It's nice there. Much smaller than Brussels; and everyone speaks English. And the shopping is as good as they say it is. Don't get me wrong, I think Brussels has some really good shopping, but shopping Antwerp in a day is much more do-able because things are closer together. And there's water there. *sigh* I miss water. My silly city
buried its river. Did you know that? Brussels was like, "Water? No thanks! We're gonna drop some dirt over it!" (OK, you can read the story; it was polluted and stuff.... But STILL. Brussels, what you did is UNNATURAL. There was a river, and man decided to undo it. I feel like one of these days, the Senne is gonna bust up through the city in a big stanky pop of 100+ year old terribleness and show us that we're still pretty powerless when it comes to nature. Am I right,
volcanoes and
earthquakes?)
Sheesh! Sorry! Back to Antwerp, where there is indeed water. (I didn't take any pictures of it, though. Sorry.)
Wapens! Makes me laugh!
This is some sort of ringing contraption for the door. If you have one of these on the outside, you've totally got to have a Lurch type on the inside. I should have pulled it just to see how one says, "You rang" in Dutch.
Double yumminess....
Now wipe your mouth and move on!
Spotted these chaps shoe shopping. The one on the left was a smidge grumpy, but they sure were cute. And whatever, I'd be snappy, too, if I had all that hair in this heat.
My li'l iPhone can't begin to capture the magnitude of this church. I will return to Antwerp with a proper camera, fearless readers! Mark my words!
