We arrived quite late and got the bus to Hostel Cat in downtown Vegas. Once we got there we went straight to sleep as we were exhausted! The next morning we'd slept in until 10:30am and missed breakfast, so we got showered and dressed, asked where to go from the hostel and just headed out. We took the deuce bus which runs the full way up and down the strip 24/7. It goes from just outside the hostel, so we jumped on that and got out at Planet Hollywood shopping centre. We refuelled with a sandwich, and then wandered around. We ended up having a great day! First of all we stumbled across rainfall indoors. We then went to the Bellagio, saw a massive water display outside on the man made lake. Indoors, we found waterfalls and some crazy forest setting with trees, a watermill and bridges. In Caesars Palace we found another indoor Greek temple with statues and a big aquarium with sting rays and all sorts of colourful fish. We walked all over the casinos. I think my favourite place was Caesars Palace, but the Venetian was pretty cool too.
We took the bus to the Las Vegas sign and had an obligatory photo taken. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be! We headed back, had a wander around the Venetian and saw gondolas along a river indoors. It was quite crazy. Other hotels & casinos along the strip include the Luxor, an Egyptian themed one the shape of a pyramid with a sphinx outside, New York New York, Treasure Island and a Paris themed one (all as you would imagine them).
The following day we went to the Grand Canyon. It was a long long day. We got picked up at 6am from the hostel. Our guide on the bus was really good and told us he had done this job for 9 years (3 days/week). We took regular stops, one of which was the Hoover Dam. We went across the state line from Nevada to Arizona, which means I've visited 3 states whilst here and then we went forward an hour in time. Bizarre! The Hoover Dam is massive! It was impressive from the side that is steep and faces downstream because you could see the depth of the dam. On the way back we saw it at night with all the lights on which was amazing as it looked a lot bigger. We spent about three hours at the Grand Canyon itself. From the building where they drop you off, we walked west around the South Rim. It was really cool and looked like a postcard. We hung of the edge (haha, not really, but we got fairly close) for some dramatic snaps. It just looked huge and that was all you could see for miles. The sun was setting at about 4:30pm so shadows were created on the rocks and gave us a sense of how big they were. The sunset was also lovely and the sky was blue and pink and orange, it was so pretty! I noticed how quiet is was at the Grand Canyon, which made a nice change to the noise of Las Vegas! We arrived back at the hostel at about 10pm and were so tired.
When we woke up we had some breakfast and got organised. We booked the hostel for San Francisco and megabuses for the next day. That was the cheapest option we could find and so had to book it regardless of the long day of travelling. We wanted to stay out the whole day too, so packed our bags and bought some breakfast for on the coach the next day. We then took the bus to Fremont street in downtown Vegas, where It all 'began'. It was older and wasnt high rise like the strip and stretched along one street for a few hundred metres. It was quite fun to see and there was a food competition going on so it smelt good! There were also women dressed in extravagant feather costumes and street entertainers. We then took the bus back in the direction of the strip and got off at the Stratosphere. It's at one end and we wanted to go up the top to see the view of the city as the sun was setting. Annoyingly we had been told by the hostel it was free, but discovered you had to pay $18 to get up there. We decided not to pay and go along the strip. We went to m&m world where you could buy any merchandise possible. There were loads of m&ms to choose from, it was a bit like wonka's factory. We then headed to the Bellagio to watch the water show again, but at night with all the lights illuminating the water. We applied some mascara (very unfamiliar after not wearing make up the entire trip) and took the bus from the strip one stop to Rio. We went in and got our tickets for the Penn and Teller show from the box office. We went to a bar in the casino and had a glass of wine before the show. Whilst we've been in America we've noticed a different kind of atmosphere when we've been in bars or out in the evenings, what with the drinking age being 21. I think it's better! They never use measurements here so the drinks are pretty strong, which is bad cause you don't know how much you're drinking, but good at the same time cause you get more for your money!
We headed into the Penn and Teller theatre. We'd been recommended numerous times to see a show whilst in Las Vegas as it's sort of the done thing, and glad we did as it was really entertaining! The show started at 9pm and went on until 10:30pm. It was amazing! I honestly don't know how they did a lot of the illusions. Some of the magic tricks get the audience involved and they show us how they do them, but leave the audience participant on stage in awe. My favourite bit was when they got a girl on stage, put here phone in a bucket and hung it above them, got her friend in the audience to call her number (1D themed ringtone) and the phone was in a sealed box underneath someone's seat. They passed the box forward, opened it, and there was a fish inside. They cut it open and there inside was her phone. How weird! They confirmed it was her phone again because of the crazy ringtone. Bizarre! Afterwards we got to meet both Penn and Teller, have photos with them and got their signatures.
We then headed to the VooDoo lounge. We had a voucher from our show tickets to get free entry into the club before 11pm. We were lucky because it was 10:58pm and we just made it in before paying 20 dollars. All we wanted to do was see the view from the top. We went up in the lift, which was glass and looked out over Vegas, all the way to the 52nd floor. We went out onto the rooftop club and some guy let us into the VIP area and we got to see an amazing view of the city at night. It was really cool and we stood there for a good 10 minutes, before we headed downstairs and to the 'ibar' where we got two for one cocktails (another perk from our show tickets) and so stayed there and chatted and drank cosmos. It was great soaking up the Vegas atmosphere and we stayed out until the early hours. We had about three hours sleep before we woke up again at 6am to catch our bus to San Francisco. Bye Las Vegas, it's been fabulous!
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