Tuesday 2 September 2014

America part one; Vegas

I was somehow lucky enough this year to go on my dream holiday. That sounds strange but honestly if you'd asked me my dream trip I would have said a road trip around America, and while I probably would have said with friends, I wasn't going to turn down the trip with my family.

We basically did a West coast tour; visiting Vegas, Flagstaff (Arizona), Grand Canyon, Death Valley, San Fransisco and then flew to the East coast to visit New York.

I'd been looking forward to it for months, particularly as prior to this I've never left Europe!

I've decided to do one blog post on each of the places I visited as otherwise the post would be wayyyy too long. 

We left on the 15th August, the day after my AS results day. I was really, really pleased with my results and showed it that night... I spent the day of the 15th throwing up, and it was honestly the worst day of my life (a great start!). I spent the morning at home being sick, the 2 hour drive to Heathrow with my head in a bowl being sick, the 2 hours after checking in sat in a toilet cubicle being sick.. It was horrible. Fortunately I slept for the 10 hour flight but I felt awful and my family were not at all sympathetic. In a terrible consolation way a combination of me not being hungry during this and all the puking meant I lost a fair amount of weight (which I proceeded to gain back- plus some extra during the trip), though this form of weight loss was not at all worth it. 

We landed in Vegas at 5pm local time, though this felt like 3am to us which was strange. As we walked out of the airport a group of 20 ish year old women were behind us shouting about how 'great her ass looks' to me so my first impressions of Vegas were a little bizarre, and continued this way until we left.

Vegas was crazy. It was everything I expected but still shocking. Everything is larger than life and just ridiculous, and it is literally a city in the middle of a desert. 

The first night we checked in to our hotel and wandered down the strip. It was really really hot even though it was now around 10pm, and it was just crazy seeing everything. My parents went back but me and my brother went to Mcdonalds where everything is SO CHEAP! Like 2 apple pies for a dollar (around 65p- it's crazy!)

The next day we explored more and went to bigger hotels to look around, as this was our only day in Vegas. Here are some photos:

Our hotel! In retrospect it was actually quite nice!

You had to walk through the casino to get to the rooms haha


me and my brother at Starbucks


The Venetian hotel was crazy- look at the painted ceiling

and gondolas wtf







 I met Beth- my primary school best friend who moved away (I luckily still see her regularly) in Vegas! such a strange coincidence, but it was lovely to spend part of the day with her and her sister!


saw so many weddings and even got into an elevator which had a bride in

That evening we went out for dinner then walked around more. What I did not like in Vegas was the number of beggars, and also people giving men cards with prostitutes on as they passed, including dads with their families.. it was weird. The whole place feels kind of corrupt and bizarre but it was interesting to see..!  I think these photos make it look nicer than it was and I don't think I'd go back, but as I said, it was interesting!


I hope you enjoyed reading this and I'll continue with my posts about this trip over the next few days/weeks!

Laura x

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