#you have very cool taste is music so I am like eek - I hope you enjoy

[saradika]

🎶!!

hello! 💖 I peeked through your blog and pulled some music from my favorites that had a romantic folk metal / heavy metal vibe (many with wolf lyrics/themes!) I hope you like this lil playlist! 🎶💕

— another tale of infinite dreams

gethsemane by nightwish

antvmnos by eluveitie

when the lights are down by kamelot

fullmoon by sonata artica

mon amour, mon ami by therion

of wolf and man by metallica

———

[saradika’s sleepover celebration - closed]

[littlenomo]

Boozing in Belgium

Our little week away to Belgium really got us excited for more travel and general time in Europe. So much beauty and history around every corner.

We started with a weekend in Antwerp with Sarah and Will. So much fun. We arrived pretty late but we went straight to start trying the beers and have a good old chin wag. Even had our first taste of Belgium chips for our midnight (or possibly 4am!!) snack.

The next day Will was our historical tour guide. He knows so much about so much; it was really fascinating. Learning about the cutting off of the giant’s hand, which was really just an old folk tale to explain why the word ‘Antwerp’ kind of sounds like “throwing hand” but now has been made into a big statue in the main square. Love it. And of course we started sampling some of the hundreds of beers that were on offer. We ended the day in a delicious Italian pizza place. The service is weird in Belgium, they pretty much ignore you and take as much time as they please to actually take any orders, but once you’ve ordered you’ll have your food so quickly. Weird system but it seems to work! Alex and I managed to sneak in a whiskey nightcap in a cool bar at the end of the street as well. We were staying in such a nice area in a beautiful Airbnb. God bless Airbnb.

Sunday the weather picked up and we went to Antwerp’s brewery, De Koninck. It was full of videos and info and I really enjoyed it! Then we chilled for the afternoon in a really nice cafe (no shortage of those on our trip!) with some cheese, much to Sarah’s disgust. After bit of wedding invite chat (eek!) and saying goodbye to Sarah and Will, Alex and I almost fell asleep in our dinner. Who knew wondering around and drinking could be so tiring?

Next day, amazing breakie and stunning train station later and we were in Brussels. I was a bit underwhelmed with the city and our Airbnb at first but I really came to love both. Apart from the fact the toilet cubicle didn’t have a proper door, I ended up feeling quite at home there. I thought Brussels was a bit more commercialised and lacked a bit of the amazing character we’d seen in Antwerp but I was soon proved wrong there.��

We managed to get a good balance between relaxing (we watched almost the whole of the ‘OA’ series - gripping but bizarre), and making the most of the sunny weather we were blessed with. We mostly wondered around, looking into cathedrals and tons of quirky furniture and home shops, but we also cycled out to the Atonium (a crazy space station type building that looks like an atom), ate plenty of waffles, enjoyed Belgian hot chocolate (oh my!), saw the incredible grand place, giggled at the peeing boy statue (such a weird tradition!!) and walked the entire length and breadth of the city. Our favourite shop was one where the guy had got old oriental furniture and repainted and varnished them in this gorgeous style. Bright colours, scratchy paint with a thick glossy finish. I am so sad we couldn’t buy furniture, but it was so nice just wondering around all the shops and getting inspiration!

I must admit, traditional Belgium food is good and wholesome (and HUGE portions), but not really my cup of tea. My favourite meal was actually the one night we had Thai, but there’s no surprise there. We also cooked in a few nights which was nice, though the palava at the supermarket almost made it not worth it, especially with our very limited French!!

One night we got a bit more boozy (though we did guzzle a lot of strong Belgian beers every day) and ended up going to a really cool bar called “La Machine”, where we spotted some jazz was playing from outside. It was such good music, bass, drums, guitar and sax and we even got chatting to the guitarist, Brazilian Victor, between sets. Alex bought me a 1 euro rose (which I don’t think he’s ever done before actually!), but it was falling apart by the time we got it home. I did manage to put it into water before I went to bed, but I did not manage to get dressed for bed before passing out. Priorities.

Overall a huge thumbs up for Belgium, liked it a lot. We hope to maybe go back in the summer next year to see Will and Sarah again in, hopefully, more sunshine! Maybe go and see Gent as well, heard it’s nice. You really can’t go wrong with the drinks, the cheese, the history, the jazz and the really superb home decor. My kinda place.