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We knew Vegas was going to be hot, but we didn't quite realise the extent of the heat until we stepped off the bus. Having at first thought we were standing in the way of the hot air vent from the bus, we soon realised it was the desert breeze which, instead of cooling us down, only stood to worsen the 110+ temperatures.
Vegas is home to tens of casinos, each with hundreds, and some thousands of hotel rooms, which leads to cheap prices. Therefore, we were able to snag a pretty decent room at Circus Circus for less than we'd normally be paying elsewhere for a dorm bed. We liked the room so much that our first few hours were spent making up for the lack of sleep whilst on the bus.
We finally headed off down the strip at midnight which seemed to be when things got started rather than when they began to wind down. The temperature was more manageable by this time, which possibly explains the nocturnal nature of the city. We first passed The Wynn, the Strip's newest casino, which barely made an impression compared to the gaudy exteriors of Treasure Island, Caesars Palace, and the like. The main event, however, was the Bellagio, not only because it was the setting for Ocean's Eleven, but because it's definitely the most spectacular casino of the lot.
Arriving back at our hotel/casino at 4am, it was amazing to find just as many people throwing their money away as there had been the following evening. With no windows or clocks, there's no way of telling from the inside what time of day it is, and coupled with the fact that it's a real effort to find the way out, it's no wonder people spend most of their time gambling.
We started the following day with a buffet breakfast at Circus Circus, but even Kev became defeated by the huge amounts of food in the end. In order to escape the midday sun we joined the hoards of others tourists walking aimlessly around the casinos finding something to do. There was a fairly impressive circus show every hour, but apart from that we were at a bit of a loss. We settled for a Subway sandwich in the end, big mistake . . .
We headed out slightly earlier that evening, remembering that we had an extremely long bus journey to Santa Cruz the following day, and managed to catch the spectacular pirate show outside Treasure Island Casino. What was lacking in storyline was made up for in scantily clad men and women and explosions.
The Vegas Strip is much longer than we'd anticipated, and we'd only managed to explore half of it the previous night. This evening we were treated to New York New York, the MGM Grand and the Luxor, amongst others. The Luxor was where we made our one and only bet. It wasn't a success, so we decided to save the little money we have left for food and water instead. Plus, we weren't feeling that well all of a sudden, so swapped the casinos for our hotel room. It couldn't have been the Subway could it?
Rather than a buffet breakfast and a long bus journey, the following day was a mixture of sickness and fever, which meant staying another night in Vegas. Greyhound journeys are pretty bad at the best of times and probably not the best place for two people with food poisoning.
We didn't manage to make it to Santa Cruz in the end, as we'd already booked accommodation for San Francisco starting the following day, however, we did manage to rest and recuperate in preparation for the upcoming 4th of July weekend.
Rosa
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