80 Days in America

If it was because I had I red wine with diner last night or that I was just very tired, I don’t know, but I slept better than I did in a long time. Completely rested I woke up just after sunset. I crossed the street to visit a nice breakfast-restaurant. They served superdelicous pancakes for breakfast, something I really like about America. 😉 After breakfast I went to the Kolob Canyon to see some more red rocks and then I drove in the direction of Las Vegas, a long road through the desert. Fortunately it was a highway with a speed limit of 75, so it didn’t take to long before Vegas rose up at the horizon in the middle of the desert.

When you arrive in Vegas for the first time you immediately realize that you entered a weird city. For me it was next to New Orleans the weirdest place I’ve visited so far. At first you see I think more hotels than in Manhattan, there are probably more hotels in Vegas than normal houses. Vegas is actually one big attraction park for adults. I texted a friend of mine: “This is a crazy city, they copied half of Europe here”. They have a replica of the Eiffel tower, a Greek palace, a copy of a part of Venice and more. There is also a small replica of the Statue of Liberty and there are multiple hotels with rollercoasters in the back yard. And as far you can see there are casino’s everywhere. I think it’s fair to summarize Las Vegas in five words: entertainment, money, gambling, girls and hotels. Some signs said ‘welcome to sin city’ and I can see why they call it like that.

I parked my car in a heigh parking lot which gave me a nice view over the city. I found my perfect hotel in the middle of the city, just for three bucks per night. 😉 Walking through Vegas is quite exhausting, everything screams for your attention and there is so much to see. From all the things I saw, I liked the big Via Bellagio casino/hotel with the famous fountains in front the most. Every hour the fountains turned on and they moved on music that was playing, a really nice show and lovely to watch. The Bellagio also looked very nice from the inside and so was the Greek building next to it. The Greek building had a round escalator, something I didn’t see before.

Many building in Las Vegas are quite impressive, but it’s a little sad when you realize that everything is fake. For example it was nice to see the copy of Venice, but it’s nothing compared to the real Venice! I think that’s the strongest impression I got from Vegas: fakeness. The buildings are fake, the promises of winning money in the casino’s are fake, the girls that dance around are fake. It’s just a fake place, but still interesting to walk through for one night.

In the evening I went to an Irish pub next to the New York, New York hotel. It’s called ‘Nine fine Irish men’ and my friend Dawn already let me listen to their Irish music a couple of weeks ago. This was really the best moment of the day. The Irish band was amazing and the whole atmosphere was great. What I like so much about some good English/Irish pubs is that it looks like everyone is friends with each other. It doesn’t matter where you come from or how you look like. Everyone was enjoying the music and some people started dancing, it was a lot of fun. It’s nice how I can really enjoy the simple things. A nice Irish band and a gold class of Guinness and I was completely happy. For a moment I forgot that I was in America and that was a nice thing for a change. The band played till late and it was after midnight when I returned to my hotel room in the top of the parking lot where I enjoyed another view over this crazy city called Vegas.