Travels to the capital of the EU, chocolate, beer, and diamonds

Last Monday we arrived into Antwerp, Belgium. A vast majority of our 600 students hopped on the train to travel two hours to Amsterdam, Holland. I was lucky enough to meet up with my personal tour guide for the day. I think we established he was my second cousin in-law. He’s my sister in law’s cousin, so we’ll go with that, anyway his name is Sebastian and he’s lived in Holland his entire life. Sebastian and his friend Kevin met up with my three friends and me to take us around the city. Our first stop was our hostel to drop off our belongings. After that we walked around the city for awhile as they pointed out all the key tourist areas, souvenir shops, upscale shops, the royal palace, grocery stores, etc. After walking around for awhile be ventured to the city park to relax for awhile. It was a huge open area with lots of people reading, playing Frisbee, and chatting with each other. It was great to get out of tourist mode for awhile and sit and people watch for bit.
After the park we went to one of the most popular museums, I’m sure you’re all excited to hear about the famous Van Gough artwork I saw, but unfortunately I didn’t make it there as we decided to go to the SexMuseum instead. I’ll let everyone use their own imagination; let’s just say it was very informative and graphic. Once we were done with the museum, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for our evening. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to Amsterdam’s popular comedy show, Boom Chicago. The four person cast was from the states; the show was completely improv and they just worked off the audience the entire time. It was quite hilarious.
After the show we went to some bars by our hostel in the red light district. It was quite an adventure. They had some great beer on tap, both Dutch and Belgium beer. It just so happens that about ever 20 ft there are classy women standing in glass doors trying to get guys to come in and have a nice conversation with them from $75-$200. Sebastian and Kevin took us back to our hotel and they headed back to their place about 20 minutes outside the city.
Tuesday, Steph and I did more sightseeing and tried to meet up with various friends who were in the city. After walking in circles all over the city we found the Ann Frank House Museum. The museum was very enlightening. The house and attic where she and her family hid out for years still stands and has been redone as to what the attic would have looked like in the 40s when she was there as a little girl. There were a few three minute videos to watch, they were interviews of people who either knew Ann Frank or were in that area at the time. The museum also had quotes all over the walls from her diary. The tour ended with a video of Otto Frank, Ann’s father, and how he was given her journal years later, it took him a while to read it but once he finally did he helped edit the book. The diary has been translated to 65 different languages and is still one of the bestselling books worldwide. To think that a 10 year old girl went through all of this was absolutely tragic to see. If you ever make it to Amsterdam the Ann Frank House is certainly a spot that you have to see.
Later that night, Sebastian came to meet up with us to hang out for a bit. The night consisted of more people watching and pub hopping in the red light district.
Wednesday morning we took the train to Brussels, the capital of the European Union, NATO, and Belgium. The city was phenomenal. We started our day with Belgium culture of course. Fries and beer....both excellent. Then we proceeded to check out all the sites. We went to an incredible church, Cathedral de la Kapelle. It was gorgeous, after visiting this church Steph and I decided we were going to attend a church service while we’re in Rome next week. My favorite part of Brussels was the Royal Palace and Parliament. There was a huge area of grass with a few fountains that sat in between the two buildings, much like the National Mall in DC.
Once we finished all the hotspots in Brussels we grabbed a waffle for the road and headed back to the ship in Antwerp. It seems as though the entire shipboard community decided to go a bar recommended by a local which so just so happened to be a karaoke bar. It was quite comical seeing all the guys up there singing oldschool Backstreet Boys songs.
On our last day we went to the famous Antwerp Zoo. The zoo opened over 150 years ago and had over 5,000 different animals. It was quite impressive, the chimps and tigers were my favorites. After leaving the zoo I found some free internet where I got to catch up with a few people on instant messenger. Im now currently at sea heading to Italy for the next five days. I have midterms in all of my classes so it’s going to be a busy few days. Hope everyone has a great weekend, shoot me an email when you are all back at work on Monday!

-ANM