As this was a last minute decision, I had some trouble finding a hostel on a Friday night. Hostels dot com said that everything was booked. But they also said that for Paris, and after e-mailing the hostel there directly, I found a spot. So assuming the site was just broken, I e-mailed a likely-looking hostel, jumped on a train, and went to Antwerp.
Antwerp is amazing. I really like train stations, and this was one of the best I've seen. Directly outside the station is the city zoo on one side of the square, and Chinatown on the other.
The city was less impressive as I walked to the hostel, however. I guess it was garbage day, so all along the way the streets were lined with huge bags of trash, some of which had ripped, and all of which smelled. When I arrived at the hostel, it turned out that all the rooms were booked, except for a double that was expensive. And they couldn't let me on to the WiFi, so directed me to a pub/cafe around the corner where I could access the internet and figure things out.
From here, the luck changed and things got great. I ordered a delicious ginger tea, hopped on-line and started looking for accommodation. The bar tender brought me the tea, and we started up some small talk. I said I was only in town for one night, and my hostel plan had fallen through, so was just trying to figure out where to stay. He looked at me, thought for a few seconds, then said "You look like a nice person. Do you want to just stay with us?". I thought for a few seconds, looked at him, and said "You also seem like a nice person. Sure." So that was taken care of. He also plans events in the city, and said I was in luck. The night I was in Antwerp was one of three nights in the year when all the private art galleries are free and open to the public. Then he pulled out a flyer, circled the good galleries for me, and suggested I rent a bike for the 24 hours I was in the city. So I did. And it was most excellent!
The art galleries were amazing. Also free wine and cheese events at most of them. I particularly enjoyed one with interesting photos of famous artists and musicians. Another that caught my attention was all watercolours, like this:
The fellow and his boyfriend went to some massive CD release/art opening thing which I was invited to, but I was too tired. They got home around 7am - I was feeling too old for that kind of a night. I got up and went to the Exotic Market in the morning - basically a regular market, only you can get awesome Greek and Moroccan food as well - then had coffee with Bert (bar tender) back at the house before leaving for the train station around noon.
We had a bit of a conversation about random acts of trust like this, and politeness, and travel. I guess after I left the bar to adventure around town, he'd offered the gallery advice to a couple of other tourists that had come in. In general, he was excited about the increase of tourists to the area. I think it was a predominantly Turkish or Moroccan area, that's been morphing into hipster, so it's a bit off the beaten path. Anyways, once he gave them an inch they wanted to take a yard - they started demanding information from him, how to do things, where to go - he had to back waaaaay off, as he was at work, and shake them somehow. He said he would never offer to have them stay at his place had they been in need of help - they were so demanding. I told him about my other random house-stays, when I was taken in in Fiji, and when we reciprocated and offered our place in Sydney to some random German tourists I met at a beach. I guess you get a sense after a while of what type of person is ok, and what isn't, and generally you can recognize each other, and things work out.
Anyways, that was my Antwerp adventure! The city was really amazing. I highly recommend checking it out should you be in the neighbourhood some day.
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