Antwerp, Belgium

Getting to Antwerp was a mess because there was a workers strike going on the day I arrived which meant that all trains from Brussels to Antwerp were cancelled. So, some other stranded people and I decided to try to haggle with some taxis to get a good price to Antwerp. Most cabbies wanted 50 dollars per person for the 35-minute drive, but we only wanted to pay 20. There were 5 people that all threw in to give one guy a hundred for the trip, but the other cabbies were not having it and started a fight. This was a really intense scene watching these two cabbies physically fighting each other especially because one was greedy and wanted us to pay more per person. I tried to put my bag down in the trunk and one of the angry rejected cabbies took a swing at me but missed. Money and greed are everywhere. Either way, we made it to Antwerp and fortunately one of the other passengers in the cab lived in Antwerp and directed me to a nice inexpensive hotel.
I wanted to visit Antwerp to see a concert that I had heard of and also check out the city, the diamond, the beer, and the chocolate. All were amazing. I really wanted to see an up and coming west coast producer named Noah D while he was on his European tour and I am glad I did. He played at Untitled’s 3rd birthday bash with Mala, Hijak, Sgt. Pokes, and Science. The Belgium scene was very cool it was fun to meet so many young people all coming together for some good music. That show was a very memorable evening.
The next day I went to the Diamond museum. The museum had 3 treasure rooms with an amazing collection of gold and diamonds displaying the immense wealth of the previous owners of such treasures. I really liked two diamond pieces the best, one of which was a broche of diamonds imbedded in gold shaped to look like grapes on a vine, and the second was a group of diamonds shaped to look like a dandelion. The diamond museum was very cool to see especially for the amazing detail and artistic value in there one of a kind diamond collection. During the stay in Antwerp, I tried a bunch of new Belgium beers and even shelled out some dough for some really nice chocolates that were totally worth it. I enjoyed my stay here and would definitely like to come back to Belgium.