Las Vegas Part 2 – Day/Night 1

29 April 201529 April 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

I had to pick up my cousin in Venice Beach,
because he spend a day at the beach,
while Marlise and I were in Beverly Hills.

From the moment I found him,
we drove to my apartment to pack our bags,
so we could go to Las Vegas.

I asked Jan to drive,
so I could work on my thesis in the meantime.

After driving 4 and a half hours,
we finally saw Las Vegas.

From the moment we saw Las Vegas in the distance,
we got really excited.

Because it just appeared out of nothing,
in the middle of a desert.

Finally, we arrived in Sin City.

Because this time our hotel was located at another part of the strip,
we had to take another exit of the highway.

From the moment we took that exit,
we were in the middle of the strip.

Bellagio - Las Vegas — Bellagio – Las Vegas

Caesars - Paris Las Vegas — Caesars – Paris Las Vegas

This time we booked a room in the Venetian,
a nice Hotel at the end of the strip,
where they filmed an episode of top gear.

We parked our car and went to the Check-in.
and the check-in trick worked again!

We booked a basic room
(like the other hotels advised me the week before),
and asked for an upgrade.

They gave us a free Bella Suite Upgrade.

Here’s a picture of the check-in and the lobby.

It was a nice suite.
2 queen size beds, a living area, a big bathroom and much more.

Bella Suite - The Venetian — Bella Suite – The Venetian

We didn’t want to spend to much time in the room,
because it was already 12PM.

We agreed on to only drink a few drinks in the room
and then go to the casino’s and clubs.

We weren’t sure we could legally drink on the street,
because in LA it’s forbidden to consume alcohol in public,
so we finished our drinks before we left the room.

Once you enter the strip,
you can feel madness atmosphere immediately.

We were the only ones without a drink,
so we knew it was possible to drink in public in Las Vegas,
we made a stop at a shop to grab some beers.

When we came out of the shop,
a mother and daughter stopped us,
to ask us in which country we lived.

I thought it was an odd question to ask somebody out of the blue,
but I think they just wanted somebody to talk to.

After we had a talk about the differences in cultures and country laws,
we took a picture with the daughter and continued our walk to the Club.

When we continued our walk on the strip,
two girls stopped us and they wanted to do a bet.

They challenged me, that I couldn’t lift them simultaneous.

Challenge accepted!

After I won the bet,
I lifted one girl on my shoulder,
closed the button of my shirt,
lifted the other girl on my arm
and posed for a picture.

Because we finished our beers,
we went inside a Casino to place a bet and get “free drinks”.

It worked.

Then we continued our walk towards the club.

But it’s almost impossible,
to get from one side of the strip to the other without stopping.

Because from the moment we walked out of the casino,
there was a rap/dance battle.

And again they challenge people,
on the street to battle them.

I gave them my best “dancing performance”,
so we could continue our walk.

Then a Pimp stopped us,
to ask us if we were interested in some company.

But we were only interested in his golden “grillz”.

He loved our enthusiasm and we allowed us to make a picture with him,
so we could Photoshopped some grillz for ourselves.

After we made the picture he gave us the ins and outs,
life as it is being a pimp in Las Vegas.

The crazy adventures/stories, girls, gambling, risk, …

After all his stories,
I had the idea he lived inside a movie!

What a guy!

Learning the ins and outs about a pimp life

Finally we arrived at a club,
but because of all the stops,
it was already after 3 o’clock.

Every bouncer told us,
they can’t allow people to enter after 3AM.

When we finally found club with an open door,
we walked in and it was empty.

We thought it was insane!!

They told us that every club on the strip has to close at 4 AM.

That’s why I love Europe and especially Ibiza,
we know how to party and the party is going on,
until the morning hours.

When we walked outside the club,
a promoter stopped us.

He asked us,
if we were interested in going to a club a few blocks away from the strip.

Because everything was closed,
I asked him until what hour the club was staying open.

With a big smile he told us, 24/7.

He even offered us a free limo,
to bring us to the club.

We agreed on going with him,
but still I found it a little bit shady.

My cousin convinced me to stop worrying, chill and enjoy the ride.

After a 10 minute ride, we arrived at the club.
It was HUGE!!

A lot of people were waiting in line to get in,
but because we arrived in a limo we could skip the line.

Once we entered the club,
we immediately saw it wasn’t a normal club,
but a strip club.

Weirdly enough, it’s accepted as THE place for an after party, by everyone.
Young, old, male or female.

It’s weird to explain, because it had the feeling of a normal club,
but with strippers instead of “normal dancers”.

The club was packed, A DJ was playing music, people were partying,
girls were dancing the poles, people are throwing money in the air and made it rain, …

After we had some more drinks and partied all night,
we went back to the hotel, to get some sleep.

Walking around in Las Vegas

12 April 201511 April 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

Rise and shine.

We had a great night rest in the MGM so we wanted to book some additional nights.

When we asked to extend our stay, they told us it was fully booked because of the March Madness weeks.

So we had to check-out the hotel and find another one,
but first we wanted to walk around in Vegas and have lunch somewhere.

We brought our luggage to the car and went out of the hotel.

The architecture of Las Vegas is unbelievable.
The architects did their best, to create something special for every building.

New York - New York and MGM — New York – New York and MGM

While walking around we saw an Irish pub, we thought it’s time to have a beer
(like they say, it’s beer o’clock somewhere).

While drinking the pint, we searched on the internet,
which hotel would be our next one.

Then I remembered that almost everybody I spoke with,
about Las Vegas, recommended us to stay in the Cosmopolitan,
but booking.com said it was fully booked.

But because I really wanted to try out that hotel,
I said we have to check it in the hotel itself?
before we book another hotel.

But first lets grab some lunch, because it was already 2PM
and I saw there was a Hard Rock Cafe close by.

Here we are on our way to the Hard Rock Cafe.

There it was, like everything in Las Vegas, this was huge as well.

We made a reservation on the terrace,
but when we arrived we had to wait 15 minutes,
the ideal amount of time to spend in the touristic hard rock shop.

So probably they do that trick to everybody.

But it worked, Marlise bought a t-shirt for her brother.
After the purchase the buzzer buzzed, that our table was ready.

After lunch we walked to the Cosmopolitan.
We went to the front desk to ask if they had anything available for us, that night.

We were lucky again, because there were still a few suites available.

They told us the same story as in the MGM,
to use a third party website to make the booking and then come over to the desk,
to get an upgrade to suites.

But use hotels.com, there are free rooms on that website.

So we listened to the advice, stepped back 3 steps,
and used my mobile phone to make a reservation,
for a standard room and walked back to the front desk.

To avoid problems we went to the same receptionist,
who gave us the hint to do it this way.

She smiled and said/ welcome mister martens I see you have a reservation.
Are you interested in an upgrade?

Then she explained all the available upgrades they had that night.
We decided on taking the terrace suite, with a view over the strip.

And I have to thank everybody for giving me the hint to go to the Cosmopolitan,
because it’s a real nice hotel,
with a lot of activities, restaurants, gambling areas, shops and so on.

When we checked in the room,
and thought it was time for an aperitif on the terrace with a view over the strip.

In the meanwhile I made a reservation at STK.

A great steak restaurant in the hotel itself.
After our aperitif, we went downstairs to play a little bit on the jackpot machines,
but we weren’t good at it, so we played on roulette machine instead.

After a few hours it was dinner time.
So we headed to STK.

A really nice restaurant, quit dark, loud and crowded, but what a great atmosphere.

The food was great and their wines were exquisite.

After dinner we had a few more drinks and went back to the room to sleep.
We had to because we wanted to rise early, to visit the hoover dam and the Grand Canyon.

But before I went to bed, I needed to take some extra pictures of the strip during the night.

Venice & Santa Monica With David

26 March 201525 March 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

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.

David Decoster Arrived in Los Angeles

22 March 201520 March 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

The Belgians keep on arriving, in Los Angeles 😛
What a coincidence!
First Filip Grossard, now David Decoster.

Normally David had some business meetings somewhere else in America, but they changed it last minute, to Los Angeles.
So he came over, to visit me.

Here he is, driving in my street.
In the right corner you see some children, selling fresh lemonade.

We sat on my terrace for a little bit and then out of the blue, there was a blimp flying over, so I had to take a picture of it.

But from the moment the sun set, it was so beautiful, I had to take another picture.

After a few drinks, we ordered a Uber (Taxi) and went to Santa Monica.

It feels like, there’s always something happening.

This time there was a guy dancing and doing funny things.
So we took some time, to see him perform.

Because we forget to reserve the restaurant and if we wanted to eat there, we had to wait for an hour.
So we decided to go to a sports bar instead, have a drink, eat some wings and Nachos and watch some UFC.

Lunch with the sales-team at WurstKuche

20 March 201520 March 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

Today the sales-team went to Venice, for Lunch, at the Wurstkuche.

The lunch, was a gift from the company, because we were preforming at top level :).

Wurstkuche is known for their exotic sausages sandwiches, with “Belgian Fries” and a lot of imported beers.
So we were in for a treat!

Here we are, on our way to the restaurant.

Nathan was taking his time, to take the wright sausage.
He chose the Rattlesnake & Rabbit with Jalapeño Peppers sausage.

When it was my turn to choose a sausage, I freezed.
There were so many choices!

Eventually I chose the Buffalo, Beef, & Pork with Chipotle Peppers sausage sandwich.

It looks like everybody was very happy with their pick.

Everybody happy with their hotdogs — Everybody happy with their sausage sandwich

Everybody happy with their hotdogs, especially Eleah — Everybody happy with their sausage sandwich, especially Eleah

BBQ on my Terrace

13 March 201512 March 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

Yesterday, I invited some friends to come to my place.

We had a full moon and the sky was clear, so a great evening for a BBQ.

It's going to be a good night — It’s going to be a good night

A Night out with Vlad

26 February 20155 March 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

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.

A Night out in Venice Beach

20 February 201520 February 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

A Night out in Venice Beach.

At Nikki's Venice Beach — At Nikki’s Venice Beach

Afterwards we went to a sports bar

And after a few beers in the sports bar we went to Bungalow in Santa Monica.
I really like that place !!

On our way to The Bungalow in Santa Monica

Getting to know the neighbors

14 February 201514 February 2015 yannickmartens Leave a comment

Yesterday I had a great time getting to know the neighbors.

They gave me tips on where to go, what to do and so on.
They even gave me some fun facts about the internet.
That it was invented in California, the story behind it and that the first message over the internet was “login”.

In the meanwhile, I introduced them to some Belgium beers:
– Tripel Karmeliet
– Duvel
– Delirium
– Stella Artois

Here’s a picture with Craig.

Beer

Las Vegas Part 2 – Day/Night 1

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Walking around in Las Vegas

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Venice & Santa Monica With David

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David Decoster Arrived in Los Angeles

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Lunch with the sales-team at WurstKuche

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BBQ on my Terrace

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A Night out with Vlad

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A Night out in Venice Beach

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Getting to know the neighbors

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