Heading into the glittering array of lights, we pondered the reasons a town built at a railroad junction in the middle of the desert could possibly have for becoming a beacon of showy capitalism, consumerism, and probably every other kind of ism. We couldn't think of any justification, and after a little while in Vegas you realise there isn't any - there's pretty much no reason for any of it, other than because it can. After a directionally challenged map tried to have us believe up was down and south was north, we figured out the way to our hostel was just a little matter of driving up Las Vegas Boulevard, past some of the most recognised, not to mention idiotic structures in America, through insane traffic, and then turning into an extremely unsavoury neighburhood, and
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