Runaway train...

Hello Everyone! Great weekend in Brussels - first weekend I remember where I didn`t see a drop of rain!

We planned on leaving for Antwerp on Saturday morning - Antwerp is less than an hour away and we heard it had a great shopping area. We left the apartment and headed for North Station to catch the train late morning. They leave frequently for Antwerp, so we didn`t have a specific time to catch a train. We met a guy named Adam who was heading to Amsterdam on the same train - he was from Boston and on day 3 of his 3 month European adventure - he sat with us and we had a great chat.

About a half hour into the ride, Dylan said "I think we're going the wrong way"...... then the train left. He realized then that we got on the wrong train and were heading to Luxembourg (the country) - not a good thing since our ticket was only from Brussels to Antwerp. We got off at the next stop (Ottignies - outside of Brussels) and ran for the next train heading back to Brussels which left in 2 minutes. We arrived in Brussels over an hour later and got on the next train to Antwerp - about an hour and a half after we originally left. We said goodbye to Adam and left him to figure out how to get to Amsterdam....

When we finally go to Antwerp, it was a beautiful day and our shopping extravaganza started. I bought 2 new pairs of boots (which I'm really excited about) and we explored the city. It was a shoppers heaven with lots of cool sights along the way.

We left Antwerp at 630 when all the stores closed and headed home on a packed train!

On Sunday, we got up early and headed towards a market that Dylan read about online (open from 6am to 1pm at South Station). You all know how much I love a good market - fleas or not! The outdoor market was bigger than I could have imagined! We were there for 2 hours and didn't see all the booths. We bought lots of fresh veggies, meat and cheese - all for about half the price that I would have paid at the GB! It was great! We are going to go back in 2 weeks time for sure to try to get through the whole thing. It was pretty crazy as people were hollaring everywhere trying to get you to buy things from their booths.
People pull up 18 wheelers and open up the side of the truck and 'voila' they have a butchershop, a cheese store, a fish market, a vegetable stand....etc....and sell off the side of their truck.

This was the highlight of my weekend - I was happy to go shopping and get new boots - but I loved this market! Next time, we're bringing the wheelie cart! :)