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

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

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

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

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