When I was asked whether I want to go to Las Vegas for a weekend, I could say nothing but of course! When you think all those movies and tv series that are made in Las Vegas, the place seems so far away and distant. Couldn't imagine yourself there walking in the streets, going to casinos and hotels. But that's excatly what we did last weekend, we went to Vegas! Two cars of exchange students, from Austria, Spain, Germany and of course Finland ;) The age limit in US for drinking is btw 21, so quite many of the exchange students are actually not allowed to consume alcohol and therefore couldn't even go to Vegas.. Well, I don't have that kind of problems..
Las Vegas group ready to go
We rented two cars and headed off to Vegas, about 11 hours to drive. Lukily I had made some long car rides in Finland and Norway before so it wasn't too bad to drive there. And we had many drivers, so it was just fine. We left on Friday afternoon and arrived to Vegas around 3 am on Saturday. It was quite extreme that nothing had really stopped there, people were just gambling all over and didn't care about the time. But I think that's what they say, that Vegas never sleeps. And it's really true.
The way to Vegas was full of excitement (view from the front)
Some landscape from the way
Welcome to Las Vegas!
When we arrived everybody was really tired and I would have just wanted to go to sleep.. Instead we just parked in one of the hotels and went to the casino. We were told that we could get our hotel room only about noon in Saturday and it was early morning still. We stayed at the casino about two hours and decided to try to get to the hotel anyway because everybody was so tired. Luckily we got in and managed to rest a bit. During the day we were walking a lot, just going in to all the casinos, taking insane amounts of pictures and also me and a German girl, Caroline, went shopping. There was a huge outlet mall just near the strip (the main street where the hotels and casinos are). Wow, we could have spent days there :D
Me, Saara and Ansgar (from Germany)
In Vegas everything is bigger... or was it smaller?
My camera's battery died three times during the trip and eventually I couldn't even take any more pictures. I think I was all the time holding my camera, being the Japanese tourist or paparazzi, taking pictures of everything that moves. It seemed so surreal to be there. One car of people left already on Sunday afternoon, but rest of us stayed until Monday, and it was really worth it! I think there was still so many things to see, didn't even go to all of the hotels. We went to ride in a roller coaster in New York New York, went all the way up the "Eiffel tower" in Paris, went partying in Palms and Hard Rock Cafe, just enjoyed walking in the streets, with the breathtaking view of the insanely huge hotels. One thing was a surprise for me though, I thought Vegas would be much bigger. Instead it's basically only the strip with the hotels. If you go a bit further, there's really nothing to see.
View from the Eiffel tower, Paris
The Bellagio
The Paris
The hotels had the most amazing attractions, lions, roller coasters, shopping centers, gondolas from Venice, Trojan horses and much more. And everything in a huge scale, everything massive.
Inside the Venetian, people can take the gondola and go along the river
Needless to say that Las Vegas during the night was breath taking. The way they illuminated the hotels and everything was amazing. The same buildings that looked not sooo special during the day, were coming to life during the night. Everywhere huge lights, advertisement for the casinos and night clubs, streets full of people walking, drinking.. I didn't really want to gamble not to loose all my money but just for saying that I went to Vegas to gamble, I put some 2 dollars and of course lost them :P But hey, I went to Vegas and gambled!!
New York New York
Me losing my money in the Palms
MGM, propaganda
On the way back we stopped at the Hoover dam, which was amazing! Sooo huge that you can't imagine! I wonder how much power they generate with it. I think the dam is also the border for Arizona and Nevada. At least there were two huge clocks indicating the time for both states..
All together, the trip was really amazing! I still can't believe that I was really there. I had so much fun, could see so many amazing things and enjoy. The hotel was also quite nice, just in the strip. We shared on suite with 5 people, so eventually we were sleeping like 4 people in the same bed, but we didn't go there to sleep! hehe :D
All together, the trip was really amazing! I still can't believe that I was really there. I had so much fun, could see so many amazing things and enjoy. The hotel was also quite nice, just in the strip. We shared on suite with 5 people, so eventually we were sleeping like 4 people in the same bed, but we didn't go there to sleep! hehe :D
From the Hoover dam
View from the way back
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