Awesome idea for a travel video =D Check it out.
MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.
Chris / @chrishimself84
Awesome idea for a travel video =D Check it out.
MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.
Chris / @chrishimself84
So, when we decided to drive over to Downtown L.A. one afternoon after getting a sunburn in like 30 minutes at Venice Beach (L.A. sun ain’t nothin’ to fuck with!), we got there not knowing, what to expect really. My homie Cenk, who is right now doing a year in high school in Santa Barbara only told me, that it would get unsafe at night. Well, you could tell, because all of the jewelery stores already had their windows emptied at around 6:00pm.
But we had some good timing as the Downtown LA Art Walk was going on on this evening! It’s a monthly showcase of the best galleries, artists, restaurants, bars and shops located in Downtown Los Angeles – mostly on Spring St. – and happens every second Thursday of the month.
Yay, we were going to check out some art!!!
This right here is mostly some art, that I only knew from The Hundreds blog so far. The art scene must be really big out there in L.A.
This location – the first one we checked out – was in the basement of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange Building as they had many former financial company buildings and offices open for the Art Walk. And DJs everywhere.
They had the silk screen thing going on outside. Party was postponed until later though, I guess.
This shooting was also going on.
Over here, they also had a live singer. Overall a very relaxed atmosphere all over the place.
The Spring Arts Tower also featured lots of good art. This tower was formerly the headquaters of the Citizens National Bank and the Crocker Bank and offers now work space for artists among other things.
This one right here is by Carolin Kewer. Somehow I like it!
They also had these photographs of Tokyo/Japan by Jake Thomas.
I also liked this photograph, that he entitled ‘Even Stars Need Help to Shine‘. True dat!!!
But my favorite one by him is still this, because this simple picture of this man get such a strong message across: ‘Moving Forward, Wrong or Not – Your Own Path‘
Also these bunches of food trucks were not missing here as they were taking up whole parking lots.
Also some Döner. But didn’t wanna try it!
On other parking lots there were also this little booths selling all kinds of art as well.
Really liked those graffiti-spray-can-lamps!!!
But then it was time to drive home, homie!
Beverly Hills coming up next!
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
As announced in my last L.A. post, I take you to a tour through the Venice Beach Freakshow. But to be straight: the pictures won’t tell the whole story here. You have to experience it!!
There is so much stuff going on on this Ocean Front Walk, I was wondering why they had this special location, because ALL OF IT is a freakshow! There is everything going on, that you could imagine, PLUS everything that you would have never imagined.
Overall, this area seems to attract also talented and gifted people that pursue their art. No offense, but many of them seem to be also somewhat crazy or I don’t know. There was this one guy, who had the appearance of a homeless, sitting at his bummed up and damaged piano on the Ocean Front Walk. He played really well, but maybe he is one of the people that failed in their quest of making it to Hollywood???
Also on our first night there, when we went to SUBWAY to get something to eat really quick, there was a guy in there, that was working on his art, that was spread out over two tables!!! But that just seemed to be normal there as nobody else did even care.
One day, a guy was discussing Nate Dogg‘s death really loud! He had the opinion, that he died, because he had too much money to spend on unhealthy food.
A few minutes later a homeless man needed my help: “Do you guys have any change, so that I can get my wife drunk, so I can get laid tonight?” I was glad to help him out!!!
But maybe you’ll also come accross the stars of tomorrow…
There were also many murals around.
I very much liked this one.
Horny streetart.
If I would have a Mexican wrestler nickname alreadyyy, I would’ve also brought homw a mask. Maybe next time! Nickname suggestions welcome :)
Obviously you are not allowed to be dope on 7th Av in Venice. Must suck for the residents over there! ;-)
What I didn’t mention before… We even had ocean view from our room in the hostel.
Look closer!!!
Also while I unfortunately don’t have any other pics of Venice Beach Hostel, I can only recommend staying there. It is right by the ocean and Ocean Front Walk, right by Abbot Kinney Blvd (bars & nightlife) and also has a cool & friendly staff, clean rooms and even supplies some food in the morning and evening.
Here are also the sites of some people I met at the hostel: casualplaneswalker.com / trainstalker.co.uk / charlottecramer.co.uk
I especially like Charlotte‘s blog (@charlottecramer), because her posts are a nice collection of thought-provoking things!
Finally some stickers around Venice Beach.
Nope! It wasn’t sunny all the time…
We also came across many homeless people in this area, but you didn’t feel unsafe, they were rather friendly. When we left, there was this one guy saying “good bye” from the other side of the street. One also asked Charlotte to add him on Facebook.
So, our time in Venice was everything else but boring!
Oh, and notice this Tokyo-like crossing on this intersection right in front of our hostel along with the VENICE sign.
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
After we managed to get this bum juice ride, we finally could do some stuff, as the public transportation system really kinda sucks for the most part in L.A., so we hit the freeway to drive approximately 1 hour to Camarillo Premium Outles the second after we got the car. I was only interested in a few of these stores and the only store I got something from… you guessed it: NIKE.
Some more Hyperfuse (best shoes right now to play in for me right now!) for $69.99 along with some b-ball shorts ($19.99 each) and a shirt ($4.97). They also had some Hyperdunks for $37.something!!! Really nice deals for any European baller.
Of course I also looked around other stores and found some really nice bargains like this adidas Adi Firebird Jacket. FULL PRICE: $65.00 / OUR PRICE: $64.99: YOU SAVE EXACTLY 1 CENT. WOOOOOOOOOOW!!!
On Wednesday we decided to hit Six Flags, which is also about 1 hour away from L.A. and was thankfully kinda empty, so we didn’t have to wait any longer than I would say 15 minutes for any ride – some were even without a line at all.
Brought the RUN FFM swagerona with me.
Here’s only part of the story, but: There was a tower, so what should it be other than a free fall tower, right? That’s why I was so excited, because I haven’t been on one in a while. So that was the first thing we did, but something felt weird. Really weird. There was no line at all, not even people. Then, we found something like a elevator, that was operated by a guy. He closed the door and asked us if we were afraid of heights. “No!!!!!” And I thought for a while, that this elevator would get us to some kind of platform to get to the seats for the free fall tower. But we kept going, kept going, kept going. At some point I realized, that there wouldn’t be happening any free fall.
They had this viewing platform on top of the tower, so we were at least able to get a overview over the whole thing. Still, there were some folks that wanted to get down on a free fall… LOL!!!
As you can see, there is an ridiculous amount of rides, so even though the park was not crowded at all, we didn’t get to drive all of the ‘thrill’ rides (the most exciting rides).
Superhero status!!!
Didn’t notice, that this sucker Bugs Bunny was trying to step on my foot!!! Should’ve kicked him in his balls. Oh wait, he even doesn’t have any!!!!
But Olga & Tweetie are much more adorable anywayz, don’t you think??
That’s family right here!!! Big ups!
To end our adventures in Six Flags, we had some ice cream. Of course, I had to take this thing called Germanchökolätekäke!!!
But the size of it was American, so I couldn’t even finish it!
Back in Venice we got ourselves some groceries. Plus, the normal Venice sight to behold!!
More on the Venice Beach Freakshow in the next post!
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
So, here we go. Finally. But I also needed to get settled in Frankfurt again first.
Once we (meaning Olga, a good friend from our school days, and me) arrived at LAX, we took the “G” BUS, that took us directly to our final destination: Venice Beach Hostel.
Haha. I wish!!!!
Neither did this “A” BUS, so we had to take the “C” BUS, that took us on a looooooooong tour over the LAX parking lot! First sightseeing tour: check!!!
We had to get off at the “LAX City Bus Center“. What a name for this little stop, that you see in this picture.
To make a short story long: From there we took the Big Blue Bus, thinking that it would just be a big blue bus, but that was really the name of the bus company. We also had to transfer to another line, but the bus driver forgot about us, so we made a long way round! That way at least we already got to see Santa Monica Downtown and the Pacific Ocean on our way.
I don’t know how long all of these bus rides took us, because I didn’t have any sense for time left, but it sure felt like another flight after two flights.
The other good thing about it was, that we also gained some insights. I never took the bus in the US before, so I was amazed at the cordial atmosphere and the fact, that it seemed like some passengers and the bus driver knew each other by their name. Before being dropped off it was the norm to thank the bus driver. Do that in Germany and you’ll get the looks.
Going by bus is really something for old and poor people over there. Something we had to laugh hardly at was this statement on getting to Downtown L.A. by bus from the guy we would later on rent a car from: “Hhhmmm, there should be a bus, but I really don’t know. I’ve never taken the bus in my entire life.”
I have to admit that I was also surprised at this neat way to transport bikes on the bus. Oh, and have your 1 Dollar bills ready. You won’t get any change.
Then, the next day, we faced the problem, that the power socket in the bathroom wasn’t working. Ask a blogger and he’ll always have a solution. :)
So it was the beach, once we were ready to go.
I love these big ass signs. This one is from a closed down car wash.
Hassssssssssssssssss!!!
Naked. Wow, always thought the US is prude.
Later on we also made our way to Santa Monica, where I spotted this sign. Something that I gladly would have administered some players of Eintracht Frankfurt a few days later, but that’s another story!
And on the third day our adventures could finally begin, as we got ourselves this bum juice ride right here for 30$ a day LOL. I’m pretty sure, that the right front wheel fell off by now. But at least it still worked for us.
So, check back [UPDATE: maybe] tomorrow for the real adventures.
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
Hey everybody,
wuddup? I was really not able to write anything more than a bunch of tweets out of L.A., because there is so much stuff to do out here. I think I might stay 4 weeks and it won’t get boring. Anywayz, I also didn’t feel like filming, because I also wanted & needed to relax for a bit
But I got many pics and lot of things to write about. Here’s this little video though, so you can get a first impression on what is going on here 24/7.
We’ll leave here in a few hours, so see you at FRA then. Please no paparazzi!!!
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
Hey everyone,
in a few I will be flying to L.A., where my main purpose is to chilLAX, but of course I will be giving you guys some updates here and there & I’ll also post all the stuff, that I intended to post in the last few days alreadyyy, but couldn’t due to all the things I had to take care of first before going on vacation, from some beautiful beach somewhere at the Pacific Ocean. :)
Cheers,
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
(photo by: AlphaProject)
Tachchen.
So I arrived in Berlin after having no sleep the night before, because we had to celebrate our first win of the season, and went with Simon, who now lives in Berlin, diiiiiirectly on the Touristenverarsche-Tour and to the Kurt Krömer Benefizgala in the evening.
On Monday, we made our way downtown again, but this time to check out some stores.
We got off at Alexanderplatz and there were some cool streetart pieces.
First stop was the WOOD WOOD store.
As you can see, you can get lots of different styles & items in there, while wood is also a large part of the store.
I really liked that scarf :)
WOOD WOOD, Rochstraße 4, 10178 Berlin, Germany – woodwood.de
open Mon – Sat 12:00-20:00
Down the street, we spotted the BBB Headquaters right next to the adidas Originals store. I’m actually also thinking about going to the next BBB in January. We’ll see…
We also went into the store…
… and I immediately got me a new hoodie. :)
NOOOT!!! I didn’t buy it, but Jeremy Scott is really going all out…! Do you like the look…??
adidas Originals, Münzstr. 13 -15, 10178 Berlin, Germany – www.adidas.de
Check out the sneaker wall at the KICKZ Store.
KICKZ, Münzstraße 20, 10178 Berlin, Germany – www.kickz.com
Next stop was STAB, where you have a good sneaker-to-clothing ratio in my eyes.
We loved this piece of art here. Also check out those little Jeremy Scott adidas sneaker for kids. :)
STAB, Gipsstraße 23, 10119 Berlin, Germany – www.stickabush.com
Mon – Fri 12:00-20:00 & Sat 11:00-19:00
Then, I was finally able to go to SOTO after I got me their SOpreme shirt earlier this year. By the way, you can really tell, when you are getting closer to the store. :)
That’s the front. Unfortunately, it was already dark.
The atmosphere in the store was cool and very laid-back, so you can feel really comfortable there.
We’ll go back there on Thursday to check out the opening of the Alastair Philip Wiper exhibition.
SOTO, Torstraße 72, 10119 Berlin, Germany – blog.sotostore.com
open Mon – Fri 12:00-20:00 & Sat 11:00-20:00
Right next door is No.74. The carry exclusive adidas items, but unfortunately I was not allowed to take any pics.
No.74, Torstraße 74, 10119 Berlin, Germany – www.no74-berlin.com
open Mon – Sat 12:00-20:00
After that it was time to eat and we found something dope on Torstraße: Shawarma, Hummus & Haloumi…!
Two corners away you’ll find the Firmament store in their new location. They got really exclusive stuff by OriginaFake, Head Porter Plus, Acronym, Visvim and so on.
In the entrance area they are showcasing the new Nike x Undercover Gyakusou International Running Association collection.
You can also get some Japanese magazines there, while I got myself a new Stüssy beanie. And no, they don’t make ‘Gas-/Wasserinstallationen’, if some krayzie person on the street should tell you that LOL.
Simon also found this book called ‘Take Ivy’ that contains photographs of men and their clothes shot on the Ivy campuses. It was originally published in Japan in 1965 and started the “Ivy Style” fashion among students in Tokyo. And as Simon told me not much has changed on the campuses fashionwise in all those years. And if somebody should know about that, it’s him, but I won’t drop the H-bomb now. :)
Firmament, Linienstrasse 40, 10119 Berlin, Germany – www.am-firmament.com
open Mon – Sat 12:00-20:00
Last visit was at the Civilist store.
They also carry a wide range of different brands and I also found a shirt by Australian brand PAM that I had to get.
Civilist, Brunnenstraße 13, 10119 Berlin, Germany – www.civilistberlin.com
open Mon – Sat 12:00-20:00
If you happen to be in Berlin, I can only advice you to check out these stores, also because in that area you’ll find some cool other things while you are walking around.
Anywayz, I’m still here for a while, so more love from Berlin soon, when I show you what we are doing today.
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
This is another one of my vacation posts. The last few days I was mostly occupied with basketball practice, our RUN FFM shirts & also our new twitter account @RUNFFM. Make sure to follow us there and you’ll receive also more content than our post updates.
Allright, this is a short one, but one day we went to Marbella to check out the spot of the rich and the beautiful. In the city center there were some expensive stores in the narrow alleys, but the rich & beautiful people were missing.
So, if you wanna discover a historic city center all by yourself, go to Marbella on Sundays during siesta.
I thought this Marriott hotel was cute.
A few kilometers outside of Marbella we found Puerto Banús and that’s where the action is going down and we saw some rich & so called beatiful people! It is a marina and offers all the shops you thought of having in this location. But I found some fake LV bags even in one of the stores, so fake LV is really all over.
If only it was a real yacht to have some amazing parties on it. :)
That’s me in front of Puerto Banús.
If you are interested, you can check also the posts about Gibraltar & the first one about Málaga/Butibamba and all the pics in my flickr set. My next post will be about a bullfight & the Feria, a big festival in Málaga.
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
When it turned out that we were going to Málaga in Spain, the second thing that came to my mind – after bullfighting – was Gibraltar, not really knowing what to expect exactly to be honest. But it was a super interesting trip. Not only has the Rock of Gibraltar an interesting past as a strategically important location, this place is also not the usual today, because it is still somehow British territory. We were in the queue of cars into Gibraltar for one hour, even though they didn’t really look at the passports and only checked that the number of passports corresponded to the number of people in the car.
I also read about Spain and Gibraltar getting closer to each other in recent years after the border was even closed from 1969 until 1985, but there are still some funny things going on: Last year, Spanish coast guards were going after a boat of some drug dealers and eventually arrested them, but had to entered the port of Gibraltar in order to get them – only to be arrested themselves by the Police of Gibraltar. LMFAO!!
The first thing that you have to go across when entering Gibraltar is the runway of the Gibraltar airport. Yes, the runway itself.
Had to take a pic of me. Where else can you WALK over a runway that is in regular operation?!?
First, we ended up at the Europe Point – more by chance, but it was a good way to start off, because I wanted to go to Gibraltar mostly because you can SEE Africa from that spot. On that day I only could see the top of a mountain in Africa and you can also see it on the picture – a little bit left of the ship.
OMG is that photo lopsided!!! But if Chicago and Wellington are the Windy Cities, this spot has to be the Windy Coast.
I’d really like to know how it is when there is actually a storm going on in the area.
After that, we went up the Upper Rock to check out the nice view of the Bay of Gibraltar and all the big ass containerships. In person it is really impressive.
On the following pic you’ll see that African mountain again in the horizon, plus some of the abandoned military facilities, that are now populated by Barbary Macaques, the only wild monkeys found in Europe.
Barbary Malaga 1.
Barbary Malaga 2.
Barbary Malaga 3.
Our final stop was the city, where you can shop for a variety of tax free goods. But advice from me: know the prices at home!!! Not everything seemed to be cheaper.
Don’t know. Had to laugh out loud, when I saw that outfit.
And I’ve also seen that shirt design somewhere… somewhere before!!! Fucking biters! :)
I also bought a hat there, since I was looking for a cool black hat all the time. And I’ll make sure to keep that bad boy away from fire. Thanks for the advice. :) Maybe we should add that as well on the tag of our next shirts LOL.
RUN FFM Sticker, Main Street, Gibraltar.
HELLO KITTY & BOB ESPONJA!!! Obviously a poster in the town of La Línea de la Concepción, the border town on the Spanish side.
And here is one final look at the Rock of Gibraltar.
Next up this week are posts on Marbella & Málaga respectively. You can find all the pics in my flickr set and the first post on Málaga/Butibamba here.
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
… and now I’m back. It was great to just chill & relax and having weather, food and some smack about other people as nearly the only topic of conversation for a little over a week. And now I’m hungry for some new exicting stuff to happen. But let my first hit you with some random thoughts about my vacation near Málaga, Spain:
First off, the pics of the view from my room (Muchas Graçias to Daniel!!!).
I’m already apologizing, if I should keep it up to put ‘Buti’ in front of other words, because the neighborhood of our hotel was called Butbamba and it was so much fun to me to play with it. My three favorite creations: Butimama, Butiplaya, Buticar. It was really everywhere.
I also noticed some weird store names. Third place goes out to SUPER ALI. Second place is BABCHIC. And the winner is EROSKI!!! Wonder, what all the broskis are buying in that kind of supermarket.
And now my Instax pics!! Some you may expect from a summer holiday – others maybe not.
The first thing I saw at the hotel was this! These bad boy cats are everywhere right now.
This was on a wall at a store right around the corner.
In front of the Plaza de Toros in Málaga.
I liked that, because you can insert what you want.
There was a campfire every evening at the seafront.
This was some cool streetart in Fuengirola, the next bigger “city” or whatever.
I took this in Gibraltar, while having a great sandwich!! To me it also looks a little bit like the photo is painted.
I used to go for a run every other day and I always passed that backboard. But I didn’t notice it until the last time. NEW BOOM ACTION!
This right here was the reason for this vacation. I just wanted to go to the beach. I wouldn’t have cared, if that beach would have been in Greenland. Even better it was BUTIPLAYA!
There is also one pigeon on the pic, if you look closely, but there were a whole lot more!!!
It doesn’t look like it on the Instax pic, but the water was very clear!!!
I’m happy to be here again, especially after a super turbulent approach for landing!! I will have three more posts in the next few days of our trips to Marbella, Gibraltar & Málaga (including bullfight). But if you are curious enough, you can check out the pics on my flickr alreadyyy.
Andi / @IAMGANDINO
P.S.: Also worth noting is my bus ride from the aiport to home, where I was – again – all by myself & special shout outs to the bus driver, who dropped me off in front of my front door, on his way to the bus depot :)
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