Enrichment week to Antwerp

For enrichment week, me and some peers from my college group went on a trip to Antwerp in Belgium. Before I left I was nervous as I usally am when I travel away from home but also excited to see what the city had to offer.

We were traveling by train so as I waved goodbye to my mother at Crewe station, we set off to ride many'a trains. We later arrived at our hotel which lucky enough; was right outside the station! We were all given the rest of the night to explore the area and hotel.

The next morning was a Tuesday and we all bought tram tickets so we could travel into the centre of Antwerp and visit the MoMu museum. This is where we were greeted by our tour guide. She gave us an insight into the main fashion section of the city. In the museum we were shown the work of degree level students from the educational unit of the museum. Which had produced the famous Antwerp Six. The students work was to an amazing standard and you could tell that so much, dedication, detail and time that had been put into each outcome.
Once we left the museum we were shown all the different types of streets that would offer sterotyped wear, such as; The high street backbone which had shops such as New Look and Top Shop. There was also a street which was graffittied which seemed to be aimed at a more, skating and bad boy genre. I am a person for graffitti and I thought that decorating the strrets added appeal and character.
One shop particularily stood out to me was 'Fish and Chips' they incorporated graffitti in their shop window disply which I thought was a very clever and retro way of advertising.

We were then given the freedom to look around the shops and explore, although we had to meet back up at the hotel for six. Me and Krystel wondered off and seemed to have gotten lost, I found this very frustrating and scary as we didn't speak the cities launguage. We spent most of our time walking around in circles using a picture I had taken of a Clock to try and find our way back. This proved to be sucessful as we found Jess and Sophie (the happiest moment of my life!)

I was slightly devestated that I couldn't explore the city centre and see its full potential as i was lost but we did see a shop the had a very different was of luring in customers. Julie... Julie the dog. This was a Jack Russell that had a beautiful coat and a Diomand collar. When we asked why she had a diomand collar the owner replied ''She has to. She's in fashion!!"

Wednesday; we took the tram to the MoMu museum again to spend the day looking around the Stephen Jones exhibition. I had never heard of him or his work but when I arrived at the museum I was instantly intreuged. My favourite piece of work was the, what looked like a wedding dress. It looked so elegant and so much time and care had gone into it.

Thursday was the day we were due to leave and we were given the morning to do some last minute shopping or pack. I spent the morning sleeping as i didn't have a good nights sleep. We left the hotel and waited for the first of our ling train journeys back to England. We arrived back into Crewe late at night.

Whilst in Antwerp I learnt a few things, Personal and Educational:

1. Don't ever become lost in an unknown City

2. Sleep more.

3. Antwerp has much to offer, buildings art work and fashion.

4. Dogs can work in fashion.

Overall I did enjoy my time in Antwerp, but travelling is just not for me.