This Is Antwerp invited 12 internationals to Discover Antwerp Through Experience, in short to go on a D.A.T.E. with Antwerp from the 3rd until the 8th of November. We’ll show them the best hidden secrets, jaunt the hottest places, survive workshops together, enjoy the finest meals and much more. But most important they will meet that one important thing that fuels Antwerp to be the dynamic city that it is today: creative people.
To get more acquainted with our guests, our own This Is Antwerp locals will gradually shine their light on them for you. We're more than happy to share their findings with you this week. Today we asked Joke to tell us what she knows about five of our guests: James Greig, Zsuzsanna Toth, Ariane Diaz Celena, Nicole Franzen and Robin Cox.
If you ask me why I like my city so much, one of the first things I’ll tell you is that I love the international vibes of my hometown. People from all over the world come to visit us and I’m pleased to say I’ve never met anyone who didn’t end up liking our very distinct character. So I'm pretty confident this D.A.T.E. can't go wrong! It is my honest pleasure to introduce you to a couple of the international creative minds who This Is Antwerp invited to have a taste of our town to get an idea of how this tiny Metropolitan is flavored.
From London James Greig will pay us a visit. He's the man behind . James is a graphic designer and aspiring writer. He is quite known for his blog that joins his passions for bike culture, art, design, photography, styling and heritage. In his blog you can read all about his thoughts on design, creativity and the world of enterprising. I’m hoping he will like our culture of sharing bikes and take his time to sight see the city from the comfort of a bike saddle. A hot tip for James: there’s loads of old and new fancy architecture around I'm sure you'll love. And you haven’t seen a real sunrise or sunset through a lens until you’ve experience one at the beautiful green curves of the river Scheldt.
Second in line is a ravishing lady from Berlin that goes by the name of Zsuzsanna Toth. Berlin based Zsuzsanna is the managing editor for the internationally known magazine . This awesome magazine is known for putting out portrets of people from all over the world with different creative and cultural backgrounds. If you ask her what stands out about herself, she’d say that it’s her addiction to trend magazines. A smart woman like her will undoubtedly fall in love with the many different cultures here in Antwerp. From the Moroccon produce vendor on the exotic market on Saturday to the rambunctious sounds of the African community at De Coninckplein: she’ll have plenty to discover.
To continue in the line of beautiful women: feast your eyes, ears and mind on this bombshell. Ariana Díaz Celma is the embodiment of trendy Spanish young-adults and runs , an online lifestyle magazine combined with a PR- and communication agency. I can try and convince you of her qualities, but I might as well let companies like Nike and H&M do the talking for me. Yes ladies and gentlemen: she is that talented. I'm sure it will only be a matter of time until she falls for Antwerp’s bubbling shopping streets, our unique sense of fashion and lifestyle. We’re Diamond City and we’ll be happy to show her all the goodies that make us shine.
As a fellow woman it makes me happy to see a woman to be on top of things. Nicole Franzen is just that. On top. Coming from thé Big Apple (NY) and with her experience as a traveler and photographer, there’s no doubt in my mind Antwerp will be able to claim a piece of her heart. I share her love for food and the beauty that the world around us holds. With our unique neighborhoods, mentality, food and different urban lifestyles I’m sure Antwerp will surprise her in a pleasant way. All of Nicole’s adventures can be followed on her blog I can't wait for Antwerp to be featured on it one day.
Of course I am a woman of flesh and blood and I’m sure many of the ladies will be happy to see Robin Cox roaming the Antwerp streets. Coming from Amsterdam you can be sure Robin knows what's going on. After all, the Netherlands are known for their liberal approach to life. Robin is founder of the website: an online platform that, just like This is Antwerp, motivates locals to write about their hometowns. I'm sure he'll be interested to see how This Is Antwerp works with a wide network of locals to keep visitors up to date about what's going down where. We might learn a great deal from each other.
Tomorrow our This Is Antwerp local Vincent Van Reusel- will introduce you to more of our international D.A.T.E.'s ...
Text by Joke Tourné - Antwerp Hashtagqueens
Pics by James Greig, Zsuzsanna Toth, Ariana Diaz Celena, Nicole Franzen and Robin Cox.