Fabulously French: Did you know Belgium has 3 national languages?

Our 24 hours in Brussels was up, and it was time to move on to the city of Antwerp, which is about an hour north of Brussels. For those of you who do not know, the country of Belgium is split into 3 parts; you have the capital (Brussels), the Flemish part, and the Wallonian part. The country also has 3 national languages: French, German and Flemish. In Brussels we were able to get by because French is spoken (hallelujah!). In Antwerp and Brugges, however, we ran into some difficulties because that part of the country is Flemish speaking. Can you imagine having a country that has 3 national languages??? And can you imagine traveling throughout a country and in one place seeing Flemish, and then in another place see French? It's quite a change, and makes you feel almost as if you were in a completely different country. Emily and I were happy to be out of Prague for one reason: we were back in a land where we could communicate and not stick out like tourists. Well, someone had the last laugh at us as we entered the Flemish part of Belgium. Thank goodness we were crashing at a friend of Emily's; with her help we didn't stick out too badly.

I think at this point in our travels I was quite tired of walking around and sightseeing, because I don't recall anything super fascinating or interesting to say about Antwerp. The most interesting part about Antwerp is the pedestrian tunnel that connects the main city to the suburban part; but I unfortunately left the tunnel taking pictures to my friend Emily, so I'll have to post those at a later date. As I look back on my pictures from my travels, I've decided that I really liked the architecture within Belgium. It just had a different sort of flair to it, and it was something that caught my eye.

I believe this is Antwerp's town hall

This just looks so European to me.

I really fell in love with the Antwerp train station (an odd building to fall in love with, but there you have it). We made our way towards it as night was beginning to fall, and it was just so incredible looking. We got picked up by Emily's friend in her car, so this as our first look at the station.