Het Zuid, Antwerp, Belgium,
The center is also the place from which both of the city's main shopping thoroughfares extend. The Meir, heading east, is a wide pedestrian boulevard lined with grand patrician mansions out of which global brands like Esprit and Diesel sell their wares. Heading to the south is Nationalestraat. It, and the streets around it, which include the trendy Het Zuid neighborhood, are Antwerp's answer to SoHo.
The center is also the place from which both of the city's main shopping thoroughfares extend. The Meir, heading east, is a wide pedestrian boulevard lined with grand patrician mansions out of which global brands like Esprit and Diesel sell their wares. Heading to the south is Nationalestraat. It, and the streets around it, which include the trendy Het Zuid neighborhood, are Antwerp's answer to SoHo.
To the south we went. As we made our way down the street (which at some point turns into Volkstraat), Mr. Ottomer offered up colorful bits of local history and asides about this and that shop. At some point I realized what was so different about Antwerp: It can look and feel like one of those towns riding along on its picturesque and historic past, but it is actually a place of energized and creative enterprise. And unlike a city like, say, Berlin, where one usually has to brave garbage-can-filled alleyways, unmarked graffiti-covered doors and major attitude in order to find the interesting bars and galleries, Antwerp's edgy shops and cafes reside behind Old World facades, with very little hipster posing.
(If you're looking for grit, you might head to the city's old port area, where the Het Eilandje neighborhood is home to a growing number of new bars and restaurants. It is also the site of the soon-to-be opened Museum aan de Strom, or MAS, an already iconic piece of contemporary architecture that looks like brick Tetris shapes that have fallen from the sky.)