continued

july 27th:

- wandered through a huge market
- hannah went to the anne frank museum while i got some coffee and sent emails
- at night we went out to a bar and met some nice dutch people. we tried our first shot of jenever (the "real" gin) and some good dutch beers, recommended by our new friends. we also learned about the unique christmas traditions in amsterdam and "life as the locals live it". then jeffrey came back to hang out at the hotel for a while

july 28th:

- after an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the PERFECT amsterdam mask to add to my collection (they were adamant that the alien mascot mask was not for sale), hannah and i made our way to the train station and caught a train to antwerp.
- upon walking out of the [beautiful] train station in antwerp, i remarked that i had not expected antwerp to be so urban. it is the second biggest city in belgium, but i had heard very little about it... we walked through the main city area and quickly understood why antwerp is known as a fashion capital (right after paris and milan, the biggest fashion center in europe). it reminded me of a giant outdoor mall. at first i really liked that it was so lively, but i quickly realized that the only for me to really enjoy the city would be to get out of the (huge) shopping center. that night we enjoyed a drink on a beautiful terrace, wandered around the city, found some good pizza for dinner (cheap with a student discount)and had our first taste of belgian chocolate! yumm.