Living in Antwerp!

Hi antwerpster, welcome on Expat-blog!

Hi Hayley (I'm going to take a wild leap of a guess about your name there )! I'm American and living in Antwerpen as well, for about a year and a half now. I think it's fabulous! If you want someone to show you around at all, or just to sit and chat about the experience here, or, you know, whatever, don't hesitate to ask! I hope you're enjoying the city, and life here, as much as I do!

Hey Lucie, I'd be happy to get together with you sometime in the near future and help you out with the city, but tomorrow won't work.

Hi Lucie ! sorry can't help you in Antwerpen but if you visit Brussels sometimes, that's no problem !
enjoy your stay in Belgium !

Good luck and welcome

hi hayley,

have you guys made the desicion yet? Im also moving to the area soon and im incredibly excited but super stressed at the same time! one thing though, Im from South Africa and I know Afrikaans so i wont have the language problem! how are you finding it? Is there enough English around though to help you through it all?

best of luck to you both!

Liela, what decision are you asking about? Hayley had already been here several weeks at the time of this post...?

As I said in your other post, English is fine here. Do you know standard Dutch? I know Afrikaans is similar, but there are still enough differences where it's actually a separate language, not just a dialect, and such. My husband has even encountered plenty of words and whatnot here that he was unfamiliar with due to just the difference between standard Dutch and Flemish/Antwerpian dialect Dutch.

She mentioned that she is there but they might permanently make the move... It is a lot easier for (most) afrikaans speaking people to learn or speak dutch than the other way around fro some reason. Flemmish is even easier. I understand both perfectly but have plenty of Flemmish speaking friends and we all speak our own languages and we rarely have trouble understanding things. I did however have german and dutch at school so Im sure ill pick it up real quickly

Ah OK, then you're right, you should be more than fine.

What she said was that they considered this permanent.

[Moderated: off-topic]

Hi there

Ive also just recently moved to antwerp... Language is a huge thing... Where do you actually meet people that speak normal english or afrikaans... Hahahaha..

Wellcome in Antwerp !
You have a point there : most of the Flemish THINK they are fluent in English.  But then you have to realize that, whilst basic English is quite easy, real English is extremely complicated for a non-native speaker.  The mix of standard English, Cockney, South-African English, Australian and different American tongues we hear on TV is not very helping.  However, I guess most people will understand you, as long as you keep it simple.
Afrikaans is another thing.  You will hardly find any local who speaks it.  But overall Afrikaans is considered "cute".  We Flemish especially love your vocabulary, with suggestive words as "moltrein" en "vonkelwijn", although words like "warmpatat" may require some additional information.   Guess you already found   majstro.com/woordenboeken/Afrikaans-Nederlands ?
Anyway, it might confort you that more often than not interviews in Afrikaans on Belgian TV are without subtitles !

hi
i am new alsow
but just one week now
i like to konw you to talk have acooffee
nice to meet you

best regardes
tarek
0486890077

Hello All!
My husband and I are in the midst of relocating to Antwerp.  We would love to live within 10-15 minutes from the heart of the city to still have access to stores, restaurants, but  be near a greener, less crowded area. We are very athletic and would like to live near bike paths, running paths, parks, and a gym to be able to workout  in harsh weather.  I visited a huge beautiful park with historical landmarks, but did not get the name and it was near big beautiful homes in an more expensive home neighborhood.  It looked ideal, but will have to research more on what it was and how far it was from stores.

My husband will be working in Wilrijk and would like a 20 minute bike commute to work, weather permitting.

Any suggestions for acclimating to learn the regions and getting around?   

Thank you in advance for your feedback.  My experience so far visiting has been amazing, the people were so friendly and so helpful.  We expect nothing less than loving it here... B

Oh and does anyone know an ideal area of what type of area we would like to live???
Sorry it did not look like a question.
Thanx!!

find the exact work address.
Take radius mapping tool like this one, decide how far your husband can cycle in 20 minutes (at a guess 6-7km) and draw a map.
Keep housing search within that radius.
http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm
There are shops and parks everywhere, as well as bike paths, minor point so don't look for them.
Find out the postcodes within that map.
Go on immoweb and look at properties in your price range.
Be careful of "charges" which can cover all sorts, so try and get a breakdown and remove essentials like water/gas/electricity.
Look at public transport lines.
Trams are numbers are 1-15 and 24 - 2 and 6 in Wilrijk.
http://www.delijn.be/images/Antwerpen%2 … -16716.pdfhttp://www.delijn.be/images/Tramschema% … m7-1666.pd
Major bike paths
http://www.antwerpen.be/docs/Stad/Bedri … _verso.pdfhttp://www.antwerpen.be/docs/Stad/Bedri … _recto.pdf