Back from Vegas, baby!
Well well well, what am I supposed to write here about my weekend in the middle of the desert or better in Las Vegas? That it was awesome? That I want to come back there? Sorry, but I can’t do it. To describe it in one single sentence: Las Vegas is fake. Sure I knew that before but I expected something else then I expirienced during my time over there.
I think Americans really believe that they enjoy a little part of Europe and are totally into it. The best example is a proposal of marriage. A guy asked his girlfriend in a gondola on a artificial sewer in the middle of the artificial Venetian Hotel (inlcuding a fake gondolier, fake blue skye and so on) and guess what, the whole crowd standing around the sewer was screaming, applauding and was totally amazed by the sooo fucking romantic proposal in this unique moment. Excuse me but how stupid is that? But she said yes and immediately began to cry, i think she was American as well.
But this is only one of the very American experiences from Las Vegas. I don’t want to complain again but if you know how Europe really is then you’re not very amazed or excited about all these fake Hotels with fake “European flair”. On the other hand I’ve to say that it was actually very nice to see all these hotels by day and by night with my own eyes. One of the best things I’ve seen over there was the nice view from the rooftop of the Stratosphere Hotel at the end of “The Strip”. Unfortunately almost all the photos I shot over there are a bit wiggly (for mom & dad: verwackelt). All pictures are already uploaded to my Picasa account on Google. The videos of three free shows are following in the next days I guess. Here is the link to the website again: http://picasaweb.google.de/kenolino
But enough of complaining, some stories please: The first day we took a Taxi to our hostel, checked us in and went downtown to the old, original Las Vegas. Actually there is nothing different (Hotels and Casinos, too). After that we went to The Strip and took some pictures of all these Hotels over there and grabbed some Itailian food after our exhausting walking tour in Vegas. After a bit relaxing in the Hostel we had to refresh and get ready for the pub crawl (for mom & dad: Kneipentour). Some bars and drinks later we went to a nice light show and after that to the Gold Nugget, one of the oldest Hotels and Casinos over here and joined the crowd in their night club. After we spent some time in the local McDonalds to rehab we went to bed.
Ah, of course, we that is Marc, Tobi and I, switched after the first night in the USA Hostel in Vegas (not-so-)downtown to a real hotel on The Strip: the Monte Carlo. Not really the best Hotel on The Strip but definitely better than the USA Hostel which was actually really far away from the strip (15 min by walking to the bus stop plus additionally min. 20 to 30 min driving by public transportation). Good decision though. After checking in there we went to another walking tour up and down The Strip, checked some Hotels from the inside only to be sure that really everything was fake. And guess what, even the magican show we went to in the evening was fake. What a shame. The name of the magican is Lance Burton and he received allegedly (for mom & dad: angeblich) $10,000,000 for three years of performing on stage in Vegas. But hey, it’s Vegas. Fuck, we got money here.
After the magic show it became dark outside and we decided to go to the end of The Strip to the Stratosphere Hotel, the highest building in Las Vegas, I guess. And we went, as mentioned earlier, to the rooftop and enjoyed the nice view over the sea of lights. Marc and Tobi rode some of the rides on the top of the building and I waited for them by enjoying my view. Back in the hotel we grabbed some rest and went to the bathroom just to leave the hotelroom at almost 2 o’clock in the night. Just to let you know: in San Francisco almost all the bars are closing at this time. We went to a night club called Privé and paid $20 each for entry and $13 again for a Vodka with Coke. As we arrived in our hotelroom at round about 5 o’clock we had some nice chats (for mom & dad: Gespräch, Plauderei) with a hooker and a pusher or something like that who wanted to bring us to another night or strip club - of course for free. Sure. Everything is free in Vegas.
Waking up on Sunday morning was quite heavy and we decided to start the day at the local Starbucks in the Casino of our hotel. After that we went to the Circus Circus, another hotel over there, rode some rollercoaster and enjoyed one and a half free(!) acrobatic show. And you know what? I rode the free fall tower over there. And guess what I enjoyed it. Amazing. Of course we visited the place-name sign (for mom & dad: Ortsschild, aber das habt ihr euch sicher schon gedacht) of Las Vegas after we finished our stay at the Circus Circus Hotel. After that we slowly went back to our hotel to get our luggage, hopped on the bus and drove to the airport were we almost missed our flight, again. But tell me what is more important: a well stuffed stomach or a missed flight? Exactly and so we decided to grab something to eat before going onboard of the plane. Two minutes before the gate was closed. Phew!
Yap yap yap and now I’m back in San Francisco and understand why everybody is telling me that San Francisco is probably the most European city in the States. Let’s see how European Los Angeles is. I’ll let you know soon, I promise. I’ll try not to complain so hard, I promise, too.
