My Birthday in Belgium!

Sunday we had a free day for "Research". Pft. I used the morning to wander around Antwerp and in the afternoon a group of us went to the zoo. This is the view looking out from the door of our hotel. From here you can see the large open block and the street across from the market. Directly on the left of this photo there is a street at a 90 degree angle from the one across the street that is lined with restaurants all with tables outside. That's where the Pita Shop is! 

I wandered around the market for a while and got a terrible cheeseburger at one of the venders. 

The market spilled over to the blocks around the street too. If I lived here I would definitely come to the market to do my grocery shopping but they also had everything from clothes, to electronics, flowers and cleaning products.

At 2:00 a group of us went to the Antwerp zoo. 

This is the end of the Meir, the main shopping street that I mentioned in an earlier post. 

To get to the zoo we had to walk back through the diamond district towards the Central Station. 

China town!

Antwerp Central Station. The zoo is placed in the left hand corner tucked between the two buildings. 

The school will reimburse us for any tours that we go on so why not visit everywhere we can?!

Butterfly house. 

Long day.

Solo photo with a duck.

They have raccoons at the zoo. The exotic animals from the United States. The exhibit should have just been trash cans...

For dinner another group of us went to the restaurants across from the hotel. This street is the one directly across from the market and at a 90 degree angle from the street across from the hotel. That's confusing but our hotel is on a 60 degree angle from the market place. Just trying to explain the layout!

The guys were trying to get rid of their 20 euros in coins from the laundry mat. Also, they do not separate checks so it's a little difficult to pay at restaurants. I'm sure the waiter hated us because of all the coins...

All in all a pretty good birthday. You don't get the chance to turn another year older in Belgium very often so I take back "pretty good". It was great. The pita guy gave me a free ice-cream and that was my cake for the day. Thanks for the present mom and dad! The experience has already been amazing.

Emily