Last week, I went to Venice and Santa Monica, with David Decoster.
Because it was such a busy week, I wasn’t able to upload the pictures at that moment.
But here’s what we did.
First we went to Venice Beach to walk around and look at what was happening.
In Venice everybody thinks they’re an artist!
But believe me, they aren’t always good.
Its harsh to say but some of them are really without talent.
But they are having a good time.
Or this guy.
He’s just a drunk bum, who’s trowing all his bottles, from the night before, on the ground to jump into it.
But there are also people like these guys.
Giving a real show, doing crazy jumps, dancing, entertaining the audience en giving advice to kids.
Or the creator of this piece of art.
He recreated Bumblebee from the transformers out of trash.
Or the freak shows.
With the bearded lady (who’s just a man), the monkey man, the little man and so on.
But besides all the shows and craziness, Venice is also known for all the sport possibilities.
The Free outdoor gym, the basketball courts, the weird tennis, skate bowls, ….
So we walked towards all the sport possibilities, to check them out.
And with a views like this, the walk was more fun
Here we are at the skate bowl, where everyone is giving their best shot, because they know there’re always people watching.
There’s a really nice atmosphere.
Everybody is talking to each other without knowing another.
Clapping if somebody did something cool or asking, encase someone fell, if their okay or need some help.
Then there is the free outdoor gym with all kinds of attribute to workout.
Venice Muscle Beach is known is as a legend for working out.
So David couldn’t resist and had to 20 pull-ups.
There’s also an paid outdoor gym, so you have to be a member to use the machinery.
And the one’s working out in the outdoor gym, are really liking the attention of the crowd and constantly interacting with them.
Especially the guys, they think it’s the ideal place to pick up girls.
So there constantly showing off their muscles and what they can lift.
Afterwards we watched some random guys, playing basketball.
When we walked the whole Venice boardwalk, it was time for a cold beer.
After a couple of beers, we went to Santa Monica.
Santa Monica is completely different than Venice.
Not that many performers, no more hippies and crazy people, less activities and so on.
But it has other things to offer too.
The pier, a nice promenade, a lot of restaurants and shops, …
And in our case, we wanted to see the pier.
When we walked over the bridge, we saw the typical LA traffic.
There’re always traffic jams, no matter what our or where you go.
In this case it was a traffic jam towards Malibu.
But on that bridge you also had a nice view over the beach.
On the pier itself, you have a lot of possibilities what you want to do.
There are restaurants, tourist shops, an amusement park, fishing possibilities, …
Here’s a picture of one of the most known shrimp restaurants in America, Bubba Gump.
It’s that famous, that they even got a tourist shop.
Here’s the entry of the amusement park, but we didn’t went inside, because it looked like an amusement park for kids.
But still cool to see, because unbelievable that they build it on the pier.
While you walk around on the pier you hear different kinds of bands playing
or street artists trying to get the attention of the people.
But it’s really crowed during the weekend so the street performers get a lot of attention
Once your at the end of the pier, you get a really nice view over the beach.
After walking the whole day and looking around in the two cities, we had dinner and went back to my place.
David had to work early the next day and his hotel was located an hour from Los Angeles, so after one drink we called it a day.
I went a night out with Vladimir Karetnikov, an affiliate from Adsimilis.
First I went to his apartment in Marina Del Rey, a beautiful place in Los Angeles.
We started of with some beers, but then I told him what I usually drank during my student years.
A great starter/aperitif, before you go to the clubs or bars.
Vodka – Champagne/Prosecco/Cava, in my opinion a great combination.
He gave it a try, and he liked it :).
After some drinks, Vlad showed me his view.
Damn if that was my view, I would constantly sit outside!!
Then we went to a bar in Venice to have supper and some beers.
I think we were a little too early at the bar.
But we had a good time so we didn’t mind.