Final tips on Antwerp

If you're looking for a green area to spend some time in the sun, go to Park Spoor Noord. A good place to play with the kids, go for a pic-nic or just laying on the grass.

Every Sunday, in the city center, you have the Vogelmarkt, which is a market a little bit about everything: clothes, food, animals. Since most shops close on Sundays, this is a nice thing to see, when strolling in the center.

The most known street for shopping is the Meir, where you have the normal brands (like Zara, H&M, C&A, etc) and then some that are not so common in continental Europe (like Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, River Island). They close on Sundays, but on any other day the street is pretty crowded.

On that same street, you will find The Chocolate Line, which is one of the most famous chocolate stores in Belgium. Even if you're not planning on buying anything, just enter to see their delights and to enjoy the space where it is located, as it is a very nice and fancy palace.

The Central Station is very beautiful too, both on the inside and on the outside. If you go through the back entrance/exit of the station (Lange Kievitstraat), you will pass by lots of the famous diamond stores and will be in the center of the Jewish neighbourhood. You can see lots of orthodox Jews and their families passing by, all dressed up traditionally.

Not as famous as Amsterdam's red light district, Villa Tinto is, on the other hand, known to be the world's most hi-tech brothel. It is located near the pier and basically is a shopping mall turned into windows for prostitutes. It has a police station on the inside, lots of security and modern technological features. It can be interesting to pass by there (you can cross on the middle of it and the adjacent streets are also from Antwerp's red light district) just to see this one-of-a-kind thing.

Croatia

Last July, just a few days after Croatia joined the EU as the 27th Member State, I had the chance to take my last days of vacations as a EC trainee and visit a little bit of this beautiful country for the first time.

We flew with Ryanair from Charleroi airport to Zadar. There, we visited the city, watched the world's most beautiful sunset (according to Hitchcock), visited the Plitvice Lakes and swam in the blue sea of Sakarun beach, in the island of Dugi Otok.

The beach in Zadar.

An amazing sunset, indeed!

The Plitvice Lakes... you have to take a full day for the trip + visit and it is so worthy.

On our way to Dugi Otok, by ferry boat.

The best beach I have ever been to! With not many people too :)

This is a very small airport.

You have great views from the plane... especially these strange shapes islands!

Brussels is a great city to travel to other cities in Europe. There's plenty of low-cost companies operating not only in the Zaventem airport, but also in the Charleroi one, so you can get to lots of places for some cheap prices.

Kortrijk, Lille and Tournai

One of the other trips I made last Easter was to visit the cities of Kortrijk, Lille and Tournai, all in one day and always by train.

Here's some pictures of them:

Kortrijk

Kortrijk

Kortrijk

Kortrijk

Lille

Lille

Lille

Lille

Tournai

Tournai

Tournai

Tournai

These are all small cities, so you can easily squeeze them three in one day of travelling (especially with Belgium's awesome train connections!). I enjoyed all three of them, so I sure recommend a visit.

Caves of Han

So... even if my Brussels' time has long passed (I am back to Portugal since last August), I was checking my blog folders and realized I had saved some draft posts that I still hadn't concluded since the end of my traineeship. So here's a few more tips and tricks that can be useful if you're still living / planning to move to Brussels :)

Last June, me and some other trainees decided to gather to visit the Han Caves. These caves are located in the Namur district, in Han-sur-Lesse. We took the train headed to Arlon and hopped off at the Jemelle station. Then you need to take a bus that will take you directly to the place where the visitor's center for the caves is (you can buy the ticket to the driver and the stop is right outside the train station). Be sure to check these bus' schedules, as it doesn't pass too often.

At the sight we visited not only the caves, but also the wildlife reserve. You can reach the entrance of the caves by foot or with a mini-train from the center of the village. For the reserve, there is a train as well leaving from the center that will take you there (which is always playing a joyful tune saying "les grotes de Han... pour les petites et les grands!"). Then you can either visit the reserve always in the train, or you can get out at the entrance and visit it walking. That's what we preferred to do, to get a better view of the place and since the weather was nice.

In the reserve you can see some different species of wild animals, but all of them are gathered inside fences. The place itself is really nice, with lots of trees and green fields.

In the caves you have to wait for the start of a guided tour (they have them in French, Flemish and English). The tour takes around 1h30 and you will follow a guide that will provide you with explanations in several parts of the visit. In the end you have a lights' show in one part of the caves. The caves are huge and it's much colder and wetter down there, so be sure to dress appropriately.

This trip is perfect for a full day, as it takes some logistics to get to the place via public transportation from Brussels and it also takes some time to visit both places. So I would advise you to leave in the morning (we left at around 9h30) and expect to return in the evening (we arrived at around 20h30). Be sure to take something to eat along with you, as in the village you have a couple of restaurants/cafes, but not with much variety of offer (or nice prices). Plus, taking your own food will allow you to enjoy it with the sights of the reserve and will make you not waste time :) The village itself has some nice attractions as well, like a wax museum picturing different kinds of craftsmen and some typical shops. I would recommend a visit to this place, it was a day well spent!

Gentse Feesten

The festival of Gent started yesterday and will be ongoing until the 29th. I was there yesterday, as Gent is one of my favourite cities in Belgium and wanted to see how it looked like with its biggest party. It was great! The streets were crowded with people and a lot was going on (for free!): concerts, theatre, parades, individual performances, the shops were all open, lots of places to eat and drink, boat trips... you can really spend there a great day. Try to pass by there if you can!