Antwerp with my friend Claire

On Wednesday, September 11th, my friend Claire and I met up in Antwerp Central station. 
I had asked if she wanted to come along to Museum Plantin-Moretus with me, because I wanted to see the expo De Grotesken (The Grotesques). 
Claire had already seen it, but as it was super busy when she went, she could stand seeing it another time to see all the elements she missed due to crowdedness. FIY, I was just making random faces in the expo photo set-up because I could, there's no other reason to it :). 


But first, we needed to stop at Starbucks for Pumpkin Spice! I had a frapucino, she had the latte. Because I'm a “pumpkin everything” kinda girl, I also had a slice of pumpkin cake :). I even managed not to spill too much on my dress, mission accomplished.



We also exchanged birthday presents at Starbucks. 
Claire got me the small kuretake palette, which is amazing. 
I know I own the biggest one, but it's neither practical nor necessary to take all 36 colours with me all the time, and I had been saying I wanted to get the small one so I could just use the paints as spares and fill it up with all the colours I did need for the painting I was working on in class. 
Makes my life so much easier. 
Provided I'm not working on several pieces at once of course, then I need all the paints! 



Because of the way had crossed the street, we ended up nearer to the Kammenstraat than the museum, so we decided to stop by the Dr Martens store before the museum (they have lockers anyway) rather than after. Because I keep snapping joint capsules in my foot, 
I decided to get a pair of low shoes there as the wooden soles I have on my brogues, are definitely not doing me many favours ><. 
They didn't have the two toned brown pair I really wanted, but they did have the pair I liked second best. 
They're too big, as usual (I have a half size, it's very pesky!) but with an added sole it's absolutely fine. Still a little on the big side, but nothing different from all my other shoes :). Luckily the leather is really soft, and Bert was kind enough to treat them with leather wax, which made them even softer and it took me no time at all to break them in. 



But yeah, after the aquiring of shoes we wandered into Plantin-Moretus. Where the staff was, as usual, amazing. They are so kind and friendly and helpful! And they always let me store my fancy umbrellas behind the security desk, which is much appreciated. And there were very few people in the expo, so we really got to see everything!  Plus the rain had let up, so we got to take photos in the beautiful museum garden courtyard area.
Good times, good times!





Here's some photos I took of the expo :).















 

We were both on the hunt for some stuff we needed for our homes, so more shopping had to happen. 
I found a table cloth at Dille & Kamille (the one I wanted and Bert thought was too autumnal, he'll live!) but I decided against buying a plant like I originally set out to do. Because I was already carrying a lot with that big old shoe box. 

At that point, we were in need of a drink, so we went to Foodmaker to have some organic drinks :). And just hang out. Foodmaker is usually pretty quiet upstairs on a weekday, so we like to sit there and hang out. Either there or Pain Quotidien. 

Considering it was late afternoon by the time we were ready to continue our search for home stuffs, we decided to brave Primark. On Wednesdays schools (kindergarden through to high school) are out at noon (for most kids, there are exceptions) so it can get pretty crowded, but usually once it's nearing 4PM, it calms down again. 
Claire and I bought a set of chair cushions, and split it in two because we only needed one each, and nothing else. Because Primark just doesn't have anything else we want (our wallets rejoice). H&M didn't have what we were looking for, we resisted shopping at Zara (yeah we got lured in by the cool stuff in the window again, but at least this time I didn't buy anything!). Tiger didn't have what we were looking for either, but they did have their Halloween stuff out already. Which is sadly same old, same old. Well, good for my wallet I suppose. They do have this cool range with creepy doll head planters and such, which I kinda wanted to get, but decided against it. Of course, I got one the week later (and a few other things) and put a fake rose plant from IKEA in it. 



The thing I wanted though: touch pens for Bert's grandpa, seemed to be out of stock yet again (whenever he runs out, Tiger does too, apparently, but I did find them last week so yay!). Sostrene Greene (or however you spell that) did have the brush I wanted (but alas, it got ruined in my bag, so it'll be one I keep for inks and I'll buy another one and be more careful next time I'm in Antwerp). 
I also got one of their giant totes for they are cheap and it allowed me to carry the stuff I had bought a little easier in one big bag rather than several smaller ones with all different lenght of handles. 

After that, we were really peckish, so we decided to stop by Burger King. I got chicken strips instead of chicken nuggets, because Loa likes strips the best. He ate 2 out of a pack of 4 in the end, because I took 3 home with me. I can't eat a box of bacon cheese fries AND a bag of chicken strips! 

Considering it was quite late after dinner, we decided to call it a day. 
We had had loads of fun, and we definitely need to go and find another expo to visit soon. 
I love going to museums, and I've been lucky enough to see several really cool expos this summer (the Giacometi one at the LaM, the summer ones at La Piscine, Lille 3000 – Eldorado in Lille and Grostesken at Plantin-Moretus, expect more blog posts soon!). 
I really want to see the Tim Walker one at the V&A so hopefully I'll be able to travel to London for that! 

All my other Plantin-Moretus photos are here. 

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