We have finally set off and if the last 4 days (it seems so much longer) are anything to go by we are in for an amazing trip. Already I've been surprised by how much I liked Las Vegas and the slight disappointment I feel towards San Francisco. But I''ll start at the beginning.
At one point as the aeroplane flew from London to Las Vegas I lifted my blind to see white blobs surrounded by blue. Often when you are so high up it is difficult to distinguish what you are seeing below you, especially if there is no form of human settlement to act as a scale. In this case the appearance of a coastline confirmed our first suspicions. These were iceburgs. I asked the flight attendant about this at the end of the flight and he told me that we flew over the magnetic north pole (but didn't explain why we had taken this route).
As you approach Las Vegas the pilot tells you that the plane is starting its descent yet all you can see below is barren desert. The earth looks like a brown piece of paper that has been balled up and then flattened out again. There are the outlines of long dried up river beds. It seems impossible that any settlement could exist in such an inhospitable place. Then suddenly, very, very shortly before landing there appears the perfect grid of roads and houses that I now recognise as a US city. There are roads that traverse Las Vegas in a straight line and then continue, still in a straight line out into the desert as far as the eye can see. C told me on the plane that there are roads that go straight across the USA and that every so often they have a slight kink to take in the curvature of the Earth. As a European coming to the States you realise that the age of civilisation that you take for granted, especially for example in London or Paris, actually doesn't exist in many parts of the world. Everything looks uniform because it was built at roughly the same time and has never been bombed or had the chance to fall down.
When you step out of the plane in Las Vegas you are instantly aware that you're in the desert. The heat is intense and it's very dry.
We were staying at the MGM Grand and when we checked in I asked for a high floor so we were given the 27th with a spectacular view over... Hooters! If you've never heard of it the name kind of gives away the main theme of this hotel-casino. Unfortunately timing and the formidable freeway between the two hotels prevented us from visiting and getting a T-shirt for C.
Las Vegas Casinos are very strange. Obviously there is the large casino floor, shops, restaurants (including Starbucks and McD's as well as considerably more upmarket eateries) and all with absolutely no natural light. There is nothing whatsoever to indicate the time of day or night.
So why did we like Las Vegas so much? On Wednesday morning we woke up at 6am (jetlag) and were by the pool at 8am. For two daylight starved london students who have been tied to a desk for the past 9 months lying by the pool in Las Vegas, surrounded by palm trees, is, for a day or two at least, pure bliss. A stay in LV is a guarantee of pure sunshine and warmth.
Las Vegas has a monorail that goes between the main hotels, and also internaly linked bridges so that you never have to go down to the main road (the strip). We took the monorail to Bally's which is the nearest stop to the Bellagio where the modern Oceans Eleven was shot. Bally's is itself a casino. There are Casinos in Las Vegas for all pockets ranging from the Bellagio which has Chanel and Prada boutiques within it to "Bill's Steak House and Casino". Actually I didn't go into Bill's so can't judge. The Bellagio has the most incredible Baccarat glass flower roof in it's lobby and a display made of fresh flowers in the shapes of frogs, ladybirds and butterflies. The weirdest casino we decided was Paris. This casino famously has a giant faux Eiffel Tour actually built through it, so that when you go inside you see the tower's feet coming down from the ceiling, and a faux Arc de Triomphe in the parking circle. When you go inside the ceiling of the casino floor is painted with blue sky and clouds and around the edge are little shops like the winding roads of the 6th Arondisement.
After a mere 24hours we had to catch the plane to San Franciso. A lot of the time August in San Francisco feels like living in a cloud. However, at the moment the sun is shining so I'm going for a walk.
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