Image by Ysabel Jongeneelen

We have a very small Chinatown in Antwerp. It is only one street. But in our small Chinatown is a very large Asian supermarket: Sun Wah. I don’t know what the name means but it is like a trip to Asia: Everybody speaks Chinese, the products are strange and beautiful, and it smells intriguing. Sometimes I don’t know whether it is a vegetable or fruit and when I have a box with strange signs on in my hands it can be impossible to understand what is in it. My mother bought once a can with snake in it. I didn’t want to taste it.

But it is a great experience to come here. I really love it!

I come there when I want to prepare some Asian dishes or when I’m looking for a special oystersauce for example, but I always buy something new, something I didn’t try before, or something completely mysterious.

I suppose it looks really like Asia in this wonderfull supermarket, but it probably is an asian supermarket with a Belgian undertone.

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Sun Wah | Shopping
Van Wesenbekestraat 16-18 | Stationsbuurt | +3237707714
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Ysabel Jongeneelen

In the Hoogstraat (close to the Zwarte Panter, check the Zwarte Panter article) there is a little shop called ‘Achter de Maan’ (Behind the Moon).

It is not so easy to tell what they are selling, but it is always fun. They have a lot of design things, and a lot of toys. One of the characteristics is that almost all objects are funny. They make me smile. There are original umbrella’s (in the shape of little persons), bags, funny kitchen stuff and Japanese toys. The sell similar things to Akotee (check the Akotee article) on the Melkmarkt, but yet they have their own style. In Dutch we call the things they sell ‘hebbedingetjes’: little things you want to have, but that are mostly not needed.

What I don’t like is that they sell a lot of plastic and that it is a little bit too expensive. But is is really a great shop to find the perfect present. For somebody else or for yourself.

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Achter de Maan | Shopping
Hoogstraat 45 | Meir | +3232907292
Mon & Wed – Sat 10:00 – 18:00, Sun 12:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Ysabel Jongeneelen

Even when you’re not a metal or Gothic or a punk-fan, there’s a shop in the Kammenstraat in Antwerp that is great fun and worth a visit. ‘Fans’ is a clothing shop for Gothics and vampires, and other subcultures and species… You can almost permanently find youngsters with extreme black clothing in this strange shop that has opened the seventies.

The owners of the Fans faced a lot of difficulties and lawsuits over the years because the neighbors considered them dangerous and provocative. But the people that come here may look dangerous, they are often insecure and mostly very nice. When I spoke to the owner last week, he told me: ‘We only get bloodthirsty after closing time…’ I thought this was very funny. In September they wrote `Black to School…’ on the windows.

I used to be afraid to go inside, but since a while I go there sometimes and wander around in the very little shop. It is a lot of fun. They sell the strangest things. I got me a ‘Giant Microbe’ – they’re like teddy bear microbes. I got “the flu”. They also sell coffin-shaped wallets, and of course a lot of clothes. Some are really wearable for ‘outsiders’.

This shop is an icon in Antwerp; almost everybody knows ‘the Fans’ and it is a part of this city. They say it’s a gate to the Underworld, but it is also an interesting place with interesting objects…

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Fans | Shopping
Kammenstraat 80 | Meir | +3232323172
Mon – Sat 11:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Ysabel Jongeneelen

On a lazy Sunday I love to walk through the Kloosterstraat. It’s my favorite ‘window shop street’. Most of the shops sell antiques: furniture, books, nice African antiques, etc. Some sell bathroom antiques, others sell Christmas decoration or fifties-objects. The fun is that there is this great amusing diversity and incredible curiosa.

The Kloosterstraat is like a constant changing open air museum where you can buy the strangest objects. If you have enough money of course. That’s an important detail: almost everything in the Kloosterstraat is heavily overpriced. But it is a pleasure to discover all the secret objects that are lost in time and lost in the Kloosterstraat.

They say that this street has an international reputation and that a lot of wardrobes and tables and books and stuff are sold overseas, but that I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m full of plans and dreams when I walk through this street. Plans for how I’m going to decorate that really big castle when I have that disgraceful amount of money.

I find it an amusing walk to the city center because every time I see things that I cannot believe or things that I never expected to see ever again. I can recommend a spaziergang to the South through the Kloosterstraat. And if you can resist all the beautiful things, it’s free…

On Monday and Tuesday the most shops are closed. The weekend is the best moment to visit this street…

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Kloosterstraat | Art & culture, Shopping
Kloosterstraat | Sint Andries
Aproximately Wed – Sun 10:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Ysabel Jongeneelen

There is a little shop in the Volksstraat in Antwerp where they sell strange but beautiful things. When it opened several years ago I didn’t expect that it would be such a success. Now I know why it is still there. It is one of shops that stays true to what they do…

The name of the shop means ‘Stone and Bone’ and that’s exactly what they sell. They have fossils, little skeletons of rodents (and sometimes bigger animals), antlers, pinned butterflies etc. It’s all very decorative and very classy. Of course they don’t sell anything illegal or any endangered species. They have also educational toys that stay true to the core idea of the shop. The result is a very cosy and warm shop where I like to come from time to time.

For example: when I’m completely desperate looking for a nice gift for somebody. A lamp made from a seahedgehog, some pearls of the sea, shells, a tooth of a shark. You can find great things for very little money. I’m enjoying just being there, or looking in the window. Nice owners with an eye for style. And it’s not expensive. That’s how I like it!

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Steen en Been | Shopping
Volkstraat 59 | Zuid | +3232372522
Tue – Sat 11:00 – 18:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Ysabel Jongeneelen

When you are in Antwerp on a Friday morning, it is something you really have to see: the strange and famous ‘Vrijdagse Markt’.

It’s great and it’s so typically Antwerp. It’s Friday morning adventure. A second hand market but as an auction: they talk really ‘aantwaarps’ and sometimes you think they will be fighting soon because people get all excited.

They mostly sell furniture and bicycles but it is incredible what else you can buy there: a box with toothbrushes made in 1963, a complete correspondence between a mother and a son over twenty years, a broken toaster, etc. Sometimes it is real rubbish and sometimes it is a treasure. A lot of the things come from old people that died, shops that went bankrupt.

It starts at nine in the morning and it finishes at one o’clock in the afternoon. The garbage car comes between one and two and cleans the whole square. And that’s necessary. All the things that nobody wanted are left behind.

I don’t know how long it already exists, but I guess it has always been there. I’m mostly working on a Friday morning and I don’t go there often, but when I have the chance I don’t want to miss it, this special market, so lively, so energetic.

Tip: the museum of Plantijn en Moretus is on the same square…

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Friday Market | Art & culture, Shopping | Free
Vrijdagmarkt | Meir
Fri 09:00 – 13:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Niko Caignie

If you want to wander among the real citizens of Antwerp, get up early on a Sunday morning and visit the market place. Here the salesmen, shout and show off their goods. Especially some fruit sellers are really funny to watch.

Recently the Antwerp city built a roof over this huge square. The elements of nature won’t interfere with your shopping needs anymore!

On Saturdays the market place is about delicious food, vegetables, fruits and exotic items for your meals. On Sunday you can find general household items, clothes & food.

Worth a visit, worth getting up early!

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Theaterplein | Shopping | Free
Theaterplein | Meir
Sat 07:00 – 16:00, Sun 07:00 – 13:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Igor Daems

I like independent bookstores. They almost all have to struggle hard to compete with the large chain stores so I think we should all support them.

‘t Stad Leest (the city reads) is a new independent bookstore in the centre of Antwerp and I loved it from the first step I took inside. It’s housed in a historic building, you first walk through a big entrance hall and then you arrive in large space, more clean, white and modern than you would expect from the outside.

No bookcases here, just large white tables with the books on top. I like the fact that you immediately see the cover of each book, you don’t have to bend your head in strange ways to read the title like in other stores. The range of books they sell here is great: contemporary books next to a selection of the classics.

There’s also a good quantity of English novels and a separate department of children books. For me this bookstore is a winner. The atmosphere is great, because it’s so spacious you never feel it’s too busy and they play nice music. My only problem is finding time to read all the books I buy …

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Bookstore ‘t Stad Leest | Shopping | English paperback € 10
Steenhouwersvest 16 | Meir | +3232330880
10:00 – 18:30 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Caroline Dhont

Alright boys, sorry about this, but this will be a very girly post. So maybe you should skip to the next article, or if you want to score with your girlfriend and take her to this special shop, do keep reading!

Girls! Sienna is a small shopping paradise. It might be a little store, but it’s packed with beautiful dresses, skirts and blouses! Here you can find that perfect outfit for every special occasion. The only problem is that you might look better than, for instance, the bride .

The personnel is also very helpful, and will help you looking for that perfect piece. Just around the corner is ‘Little Sienna’, where you maybe can even find a junior version of the dress you bought for your mini-me, isn’t that cute?

And to be ahead of everyone, the shop will send you (if you like) a text message or e-mail to announce when a new collection has come in. Sienna a shop worthy of fashion city Antwerp!

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Sienna | Shopping
Lombardenvest 56 | Meir | +3232273666
Mo – Thu 10:00 – 18:00, Fri – Sat 10:00 – 18:30

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp

Image by Caroline Dhont

I remember guiding a friend around in Antwerp, showing him a great amount of fantastic places, and at the end of the day, dropping him off to go home, he was most impressed by our grand central train station.

The station was built at the end of the 19th century in a magnificent eclectic style. The roof over the platform is a lucent structure of steel and windows that will remind you of the Eiffel Tower. If this will be the first time you visit, you probably won’t believe 5 years ago this station only had 6 platforms. Recent structure works have expanded the station to about 24 platforms built into a large gaping hole. You’ll have to see it to believe it!

The station is now roofing a large part of Antwerp’s famous jewellery and diamond shops (however we Antwerpians don’t go there, beware of tourist traps!) and other facilities.

So don’t worry if you miss a train, you’ll have a great time exploring the station! In fact, Centraal Station Antwerpen has even been voted Europe’s most beautiful train station, I second that!

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Centraal Station Antwerpen | Art & culture, Shopping
Koningin Astridplein | Stationsbuurt | +3232320103
05:00 – 02:00 daily

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Antwerp