Travel Diaries: I Went To Antwerp & Warsaw!

Last August I finally went on vacation. Two times actually. I did go pretty late this summer, but I’m really glad I did that because it made me have something to look forward to the weeks in advance -when I had to work an awful lot-. Anyway, in today’s post I want to give you guys a little preview of what my two vacations we like, what I did, some really amazing things I ate and some other highlights. So, long story short, if you’re interested in reading about my vacations to Antwerp and Warsaw, make sure you continue reading this post!

My first vacation was the one where I went to Antwerp with my boyfriend. I always have three weeks off from work during my summer break and in the second week I had already booked my trip to Warsaw. Because I wanted a couple of days for resting between my two trips, this trip to Antwerp lasted only 4 days. However, that didn’t make it less exciting or fun at all. It was my second vacation with my boyfriend so that’s always an exciting thing and we did a lot of fun things.

One of the most fun things we did is we went to the Antwerp Zoo. I had never been there before and it looked really beautiful. They had a ton of unique animals and I took a lot of pictures. Because it was very humid a lot of the animals were hidden, but I still really enjoyed this day.

Another thing I really enjoyed doing is swimming. It had been years since I went swimming so it felt so weird to finally be in the water again. Our hotel had a hotel across the street with a swimming pool where we could swim for free all day long, so we definitely did. It was about 35 degrees outside so the first day we ended up swimming for 4 hours straight. I did feel that in my muscles the next day.

Obviously we also went to the city in Antwerp. We wanted to buy some gifts for our families and I really wanted to go to a place called ‘Cupurus’. I had read online that this was supposed to be the best coffee place in Antwerp so I really wanted to taste that. I ended up getting a cappuccino and indeed, it was the best cup of coffee I had ever had. I really wish we had a Cupurus back here, so I could go there every day for my daily caffeine shot. My boyfriend isn’t a big fan of coffee so he ended up getting a fresh iced tea, which looked really good as well.

To transport ourselves throughout the city we decided to rent bikes. This was very affordable, I believe we paid €4 per person for 24 hours. I have to say that I did need to get used to the bikes because they weren’t as comfortable and steady as the one I have back home, but I did really enjoyed exploring the city like that. Everything was less that 15 minutes away by bike and biking is obviously so much more fun in a city like that than taking a bus!

Overall my boyfriend and I really enjoyed our stay in Antwerp. I think it’s a nice, big city with quite a few beautiful buildings to look at. They have the most amazing waffles in the world and I really liked the pastries from Panos. I’m definitely going back sometime!

Moving on to my second trip, to Warsaw. We went 7 days, just like last year and we decided to go to the same hotel as we did last year. To our surprise we ended up getting an upgrade and instead of a one room apartment we got an entire loft with two floors! We both had a separate two-persons bed, two bathrooms and even a balcony. We were already pretty hyped for this vacation, but the upgrade made it even more exciting!

Like always my best friend and I went there to go shopping. So that’s exactly what we did. The first day we went to an outlet centre where they have brands like Tom Tailor, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike but also Mango, which is one of our favourite stores. We ended up spending quite a lot of time there and bought some really nice items with pretty good discounts.

The other days we went to different malls throughout the city like Galeria Mokotow, which was very near to our hotel. But also to Galeria Zlote Tarasy and Arkadia.

One day, however, all of the stores were closed due to a national holiday. Usually we do plan one cultural day -where we end up shopping after a couple of hours anyway- but we didn’t plan it as soon. We ended up wanting to go to the Chopin Park, but somehow we went wrong and ended up at a really pretty botanical garden. In my most recent outfit post you can already see some pictures we took there of my outfit, and these two pictures above are taken there as well. It was really pretty and calm, but not extremely big so after a while we went back home again.

Because everything was closed and we were home pretty early, we decided to go to the movie theatre that night. We didn’t have anything better to do after all. Even though we both saw Mamma Mia! already, we went to see it again and it was a whole lot of fun. The songs are so catchy and it’s such a fun and happy movie. I can’t get enough of it!

When it comes to food Warsaw was just incredible. We are a huge fan of Vapiano, which is a great fast food Itialian place. We also have it in the Netherlands, but it’s more affordable and they have better Fanta in Warsaw. We actually went there three times and all three times I got my favourite Aglio e Olio pasta! I love that!

Another great discovery was Tacomole. Oh my! That stuff is amazing. I got a quesedilla with a lot of cheese, beef, paprika, jalapeño peppers and I believe that was it. Well, I have had quesidillas before, but this was next level amazing!

My last food-thing I want to share is a new combination I found out at McDonalds. For the first time ever I decided to get a McRoyale. In the Netherlands we have the Quarter Pounder which is pretty similar to this. But that isn’t it, the discovery is adding jalapeños to it. My lord! It makes it spicy but so, so, so good! You really have to try that if you love a good cheesy, spicy burger!

With that being said I think I’ve told you guys everything I wanted to tell you about my vacation to Antwerp and Warsaw. I hope you enjoyed reading about it and be sure to let me know what your vacation was like!