Antwerp

Student discount.
 
One week before Christmas me and my friend Linn visited the Christmas market in Antwerp. From my cute little apartment in Haarlem it was only a 2,5 hour ride with the train and a train ticket only cost us 8 euros because we are still students (YAY! For student discount).
 
We stayed in a hotel called ‘TRYP by Wyndham’. We’ve had to walk 15 minutes from the central train station to the hotel and we stayed there for 4 nights. We had to pay 150 euros per person. That’s equal to 37,50 euros a night. My expectations weren’t that high because the price of the hotel was basically very low. But when we arrived in the lobby of the hotel it felt very good. There was a nice and luxury interior and the lobby was decorated with Christmas lightning. The hotel room was also very stylish and clean and the bathroom had everything we need.
 
We figured out that a daily tram ticket cost 5 euros so we decided to take the tram to the city Centre. The trams were actually very old and rickety and we missed our stop but besides that, they are very handy to travel to town.
 
The city Centre is very nice. Antwerp has a lot of old characteristic buildings and towers. A lot of these buildings and towers were decorated with Christmas lightning which resulted in a beautiful and romantic view. On various places in the city were Christmas markets and they weren’t hard to find because you only had to follow your nose. You could smell the warm Belgian waffles on every corner of the street and of course we bought two of them. I had a Belgian waffle with melted chocolate and strawberries. It was delicious! It was seriously the best waffle I’ve ever had. Normally I don’t eat a lot of sweetness but this time I treated myself because when you are in Belgium you need to taste the real waffles!
The Christmas market was nice but I personally prefer the Christmas markets in Germany. The one in Antwerp was a bit smaller and I missed the hot chestnuts haha.
 
We also went to the Zoo in Antwerp, which is next to the central station. And again, we got a student discount (YAY!) we only had to pay 7,50 euros and we also got a free cup of tea with a biscuit, how lovely! The zoo was very beautiful, especially the aquarium.
 
On Friday evening we decided to go to the cinema where we watched ‘In the heart of the sea’. The cinema was very big and there weren’t a lot of people so we could choose our own chair. And… surprisingly, even in the cinema we got a student discount!
 
On our last day we went to a large shopping mall just outside Antwerp, in Wijnegem, which was a twentieth minute ride with the tram. The mall was enormous but the shops weren’t that interesting. There were a lot of expensive shops and, you may be surprised but, they didn’t have any student discount at all. 

TRYP by Wyndham
€35,- p.p. a night

ZOO Antwerp
€7,50 (If you are a student)​