The Ginger Diaries
Europe
Apple Picking in Haspengouw

Apple Picking in Haspengouw

According to Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, there are currently 11.376.070 people living on the 30.528 KM² piece of land known as Belgium. Said little piece of land is divided into 10 provinces. And today I am taking you on a day trip to my favorite one: Limburg! Or as we Antwerpians like to call it “The Limburg”. I am imagining the Limburgers reading this collectively clicking away from my blog now. More specifically I’m taking you along on a field trip to the beautiful region…
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Travel
A Visit To Zwin Nature Park

A Visit To Zwin Nature Park

On a cold morning in February, my boyfriend an I decided to drive to the Belgian sea side for a day. We never go to the sea side. There’s nothing to do when it rains and it’s bustling with tourists as soon as the sun decides to peek from behind the clouds. Add to that the infamous Belgian traffic and you get a recipe for “nah, let’s just go somewhere else”. However, there’s a nature reserve near Knokke that I had …
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Europe
Flowering bluebells in Hallerbos

Flowering bluebells in Hallerbos

Years and years ago I made a bucket list of all the places I wanted to visit in Belgium. To this day, not many items have been scratched off, aside from exploring Brussels (which I’ve been doing lots of lately!). Not too far from Brussels is Halle, well-known for it’s beautiful Hallerbos. The Hallerbos is a forest that turns into a fairy tale-like scene every Spring. Shades of white and yellow slowly turn into shades of purple as daffodils and white anemones make …
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Europe
A Roadtrip To Luxemburg (Malmedy, St Vith & Clervaux)

A Roadtrip To Luxemburg (Malmedy, St Vith & Clervaux)

After our exams in June, my friend K and I got the crazy idea to drive to the south of the country and just see where we’d end up. K had almost never been there and had made a short bucket list. I on the other hand know the region well and told her I could guide her around. My grandparents have a caravan in Trois-Ponts and all we knew was that we were going to sleep there. On our first night we went …
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Europe
Open garden days at Hex Castle

Open garden days at Hex Castle

      The Flemish province of Limburg is to me, without doubt, the most beautiful of all. Spread unevenly through  the hilly landscape are large estates and castles, such as the beautiful domain of Hex. After exploring the Haspengouw region in May, I subscribed to a newsletter to inform me about other fun events and the first email I received included an invitation to the open garden days. I’m a girl and I love castles, so I knew I had to be there. …
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Europe
Christmas in Brussels

Christmas in Brussels

Brussels is a city that really had to grow on me. With Antwerp no more than a single bus ride away, I too often left Brussels aside. It was that city we always would always visit on school field trips, but apart our one hour of free play inside the natural history museum we never got to do much exploring. It’s only since the start of this school year that Brussels has become a favorite one-day getaway location for us. Only 40 minutes from Antwerp, …
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Europe
The Antwerp City Gardens

The Antwerp City Gardens

              You might remember my post about saturation (cleverly called “I can’t get no saturation”) last year, where I posted a pathetic two photos of a small trip we made to the city gardens. Shame on me. So when we were in Antwerp to clean up K’s apartment last week, I decided it was time to get the camera out again and see how my beloved flowers were doing. To say that they were doing great would …
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Europe
Beautiful Haspengouw

Beautiful Haspengouw

    Imagine a land, with nothing but blooming trees and little lambs frolicking through immense fields of dandelions and grass. Imagine sunshine and happy faces. Kids with ice cream on the tips of their nose, running around you while you’re trying to keep your balance so you don’t drop your camera. Imagine Belgium. Last week I was watching the weather forecast, a rarity, when the weatherman mentioned Haspengouw, the fruit region in the east of Belgium. He had me glued to the …
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Europe
Antwerp botanical garden

Antwerp botanical garden

          I’ve been secretly coming to Antwerp since I was about 14. I took the bus to school and on Wednesdays we always had half the day off. The bus to the city left right across from my bus home. I always lied that a friend was with me, but in reality I was often taking the one hour bus ride on my own. My mom would kill me if she knew. In the beginning I’d wander around the shopping …
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Europe
A Day In Antwerp

A Day In Antwerp

My latest photograhy “things”: overexposure and out of focus subjects I wrapped up the schoolyear yesterday and those who follow me on twitter know I have landed a temporary full time job for the next two weeks. Starting today. Gosh, did that hurt in the morning, haha! I love the job though and I got to meet all the new co-workers that joined our team since my last day in May. The sales are coming up and we are starting with a pre-sale this friday,&…
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Europe
A Day In: Bruges (Belgium)

A Day In: Bruges (Belgium)

2 Belgian posts is one week. I feel kinda patriotic right now! Last weekend we visited Bruges, the same day as we went to Knokke. It was a nice sunny day, and so the streets were very crowded. Everywhere I looked there were tourists snappin’ pictures of the typical architecture. I have some photos to share too. Not my best photography, but still worth sharing, in my opinion.        
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