Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas!: Tales of a Mancunian Lost in the City of Angels

By David Sustana, University of Southern California, United States

Hello hello hello again, from what may just be the sunniest place on the planet!

But not nearly the hottest: I’d have to give that title to Fabulous Las Vegas, where I had an absolutely surreal weekend that I thought I should share. (And, on a side note, I am aware that my adventures are beginning to exceed the scope of these blog titles.)

Las Vegas is probably the bucket-list destination for a student abroad because there are a lot of landmarks and opportunities (and, dare I say, vices?) that one can only experience in Las Vegas (besides a handful of somewhat more obscure places), and at such a grand scale. After all, it’s called Sin City for a reason! But rest assured, my weekend was much more tame than the city’s nickname might otherwise imply.
Anyway, once again, my friends and I had to hire a car since it was cheaper to split the money for it than purchase individual tickets for any of the few mass transit options that are available to get there (though a high-speed rail line is supposedly in the works to connect the two cities). And maybe this arrangement was for the best, because we ended up making many stops to enjoy and photograph the really unique landscapes and ambience of that famous slice of the American Southwest, which we would not have been able to do had we been travelling via bus.

The simultaneously most exciting and most dreaded parts, in my opinion, were the stretches of long, straight road dotted with roadside warnings telling drivers to turn off their aircon due to the strain that the extreme heat will place on your car.

I know this sounds like a really unpleasant part of the journey, and to some extent it is, but I believe what outweighs the negative aspects is the alien landscapes that you’ll be passing along the way. You truly feel like you’re on Mars in that part of the desert.

Some four and a half hours later, we arrived at our hotel, the Bellagio, which is the most iconic hotel in all of Las Vegas. One of the really interesting aspects of the city is how “cheap” even the nice hotels are, relative to what you’re getting … if you play your cards right and are flexible on dates, which we thankfully were. If I’m not mistaken, Vegas hotels are able to set these (comparatively) rock-bottom prices because they make it up (and then some) through the copious gambling that they lure their customers into. Each hotel in Vegas confronts you with extensive facilities for gambling the second you enter their massive buildings. I’d reckon there are more slot machines than beds in Las Vegas. The Bellagio is no exception.

What the Bellagio is uniquely known for is its palatial array of shopping and art installations (which are basically eye candy).

Anyway, once we checked in, the Las Vegas Strip immediately grabbed our attention from our window view.
What’s fascinating about the Strip is that it is seven-ish kilometres long (be wary of this; many people underestimate how long it takes to complete, especially under the scorching Vegas sun), has huge barriers and pedestrian bridges separating vehicles and people, and passes through various hotel lobbies, shopping centres, and other points of interest on the Strip. For example, there is no way to walk down the Strip without passing through the Bellagio. You’re constantly ascending and descending on escalators to get to the doors of the next hotel or shopping centre that you’ll be passing through on your way to the other end of the strip.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A staple and must-see of the Strip are the Fountains of Bellagio, which bring a daily, free-to-see fountain show to onlookers that is choreographed to America’s national anthem. It is rumoured by the Las Vegas Sun that the fountains cost the Bellagio $15,000 per day!

While you explore the rest of the Strip, you’ll soon learn where the city gets its nickname, but there are still plenty of other points of interest around other parts of the city to see as well!

Some of the off-Strip sights that we also explored included the Big Apple roller coaster of the famous New York New York Hotel (whose inside is designed to recreate the very place it’s named after), an indoor recreation of Venice — including its canals — in the Venetian, and two relatively new attractions by the Strat observation tower: Big Shot and X-Scream. (Yes, it does seem like a big part of Vegas’ identity is an amalgamation of other iconic locations and landmarks around the rest of the world.)

We didn’t have space on the itinerary this time to hit the Sphere, which was disappointing, but it’s always good to leave a few things in the bucket list so that you have a reason to return one day, I guess.

The drive back was uneventful, and it was nice to return to the much cooler temperatures of Los Angeles.

Heading Home

By the time of our return, things on campus had begun winding down as the academic year at USC began to come to a close. I suppose you could say that our Vegas trip was the “last hurrah” of the school year, because shortly after, exams were scheduled and coursework had been assigned.

I felt more confident going into exam season this time around since I already had that of the prior semester under my belt (see my 11 January post on the blog, where I share all of the tips and tricks that I gleaned from my test-taking experiences during my first term at USC!), although the added burden of an impending move-out date that comes with the close of a spring term always logistically and emotionally compounds the stresses of exam time. This semester was no exception, but like always, I have tried to stay in the moment and enjoy the remaining highlights of the year with my friends!