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Published: September 26th 2011
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VEGAS BABY!! After a very turbulent 45min flight from L.A we finally arrived in Las Vegas. I normally freak out at turbulence but a nice Canadian guy we met called Bill (who was an entrepreneur in the meat and real estate business….in other words - wadded!! ) calmed me down on the plane as he was explaining that he goes every year to Vegas, and when we fly over the mountains it always gets turbulent and as soon as we fly past them it stops. Bill was spot on as I had a window seat and as soon as we flew past the last mountain, it stopped (thank god!)
Once we arrived in Vegas, we took a shuttle to the Hostel Cat (which is starred in the Hangover film). First impressions were really good, spacious and clean, and only $23 a night for our own en suite room with 6 bunk beds to choose from ha-ha. Once we unpacked, we headed off to Walgreens to stock up the 5litre water bottle, crisps, and bits n bobs we needed for the week.
When we arrived back there was a few people around the gathering area of the hostel, so we
sat down next to them and got chatting to a lovely Irish girl called Suzanna from Mayo in Ireland. We chatted for a bit about all sorts, then started drinking outside. Suzanna was a star! I was craving cider after not having a decent cider for 2 weeks (bad I know, doesn’t seem that long but it was) and when I said it Suzanna nipped to her car and brought me back some bottles of gorgeous woodchuck cider. As we were well on our way to being drunk now, we met some other nice people.. Scott from Blackpool, and Chris and Nick from South Africa. Chris and Nick were only 18, so couldn’t get beers themselves, so everyone helped out, including us to get them beers from the 7/11 shop.
After a few beers, Me, Jen, Suzanna, Scott, Chris and Nick all ended up going to Old town Vegas - Freemont street for a few hrs. Although we were on a budget we gambled 20 dollars and 3 hrs later left with 20 dollars..haha We walked through the Golden Nugget hotel which had a water slide through a shark pool, amazing! Also we went to see the largest golden nugget,
ever to be found weighing 16 oz’s I think?
Day 2, we were a little bit ropey in the morning, so we decided to take the advice of our new ‘hostel friends’ and go to the stratosphere pool. Its free to get in, during the week, and they supply you with towels when your there, so you don’t need to take one. We chilled out there and treated ourselves to a nice scran and a jug of raspberry mojito. Mmmm it sorted us right out! When we got back from the stratosphere, we were still tired after only getting 4 hrs kip the night before, so we decided to get some beers from the 7/11 and chill out with our new FRIENDDDDDDSSS (Inbetweeners) around the hostel.
Day 3, we woke up feeling better, so decided to take the advice of another lovely girl we met - Mags from Edinburgh who worked at the hostel. Mags told us the night before that you can also get in Caesars Palace for free as well, so we set off for the day and chilled by the pool all afternoon. The pool was amazing, (see pics) I cant believe you can get
in free during the week! Louisa and Gav are going to love getting married there next April.
When we finished round the pool, we headed back to the hostel, stopping off for a pizza from Albo’s, which was one of the nicest pizza’s I’ve ever had. When we were back at the hostel, a guy who works there called Dustin, told us about an offer at the stratosphere, where you can drink all the mojitos you can drink from 7pm till 10pm on the 108th floor of the tower, for 25 dollars each! BEST BARGAIN EVER! The views were spectacular, again see the pics. I think we managed to get 5 drinks each and they were freshly made every time! Jen was in 2 minds whether to do the rides, and eventually decided not to, due to the amount of cocktails she’d had ha-ha. All I can say is if your coming to Vegas, see if the offers still on. Even better for me, you could smoke outside on the terrace..108 floors up!!! Enough said. Around 10pm, we went down to the bar to get our last drink and this obnoxious Chinese bar manager, refused to serve us as he
said it was 10.03, so I asked for the manager, much to Jens embarrassment. I wasn’t having it, so when the manager came I explained I wanted 1 last drink and she authorised it, much to the annoyance of the bar manager, but I got my drink! Once we finished there, we walked back to the hostel, the long way round (about half a mile in the wrong direction!) because Jen was rather drunk and was convinced she was right the whole time, so I just laughed at her until she realised later on.
Day 4 - This was the day we couldn’t wait for. As we spent the first few days in a hostel, we decided to treat ourselves to 2 days of luxury in the signature apartments of the MGM Grand.(see pics)
Jen was still rough, so we went for a walk around the miracle mile shops, where Jen bought herself a dress to cheer her up (any excuse). Once Jen felt a little better we went to the Harley Davidson for an amazing lunch pulled pork sandwiches (Gav n Louisa will remember this). We wandered around the top part of the strip, to New York New
York, Tropicana, Excalibur and checked out the new Cosmopolitan hotel which was very classy! After walking around all day, we vegged out and watched crap American TV in bed.
Day 5 - chill day! We spent all afternoon lazing around the MGM pools, including the lazy river, where everyone was drinking frozen margaritas. It was ‘awesome’ as the Americans kept saying. Night time was my treat, as Jen let me go back to my beloved ‘Outback’ restaurant for my ribs I had tasted the year before (sorry to mention food again Phil/Christine), but they were immense! During the meal we had great seats, and watched the mirage volcano show, which was pretty cool, had a little flutter on the craps table in Casino Royale (lost $20 in 3 hrs…good going considering we got lots of drinks for $1 each) then got the monorail home.
Last Day - Struggled to get out of bed today, as we reminded ourselves that were going to be in hostels for the next 6 weeks in NZ, so ended up rushing around trying to pack. After checkout we chilled on the sofa’s outside and managed to skype some friends and family that were
online. Once the car was ready, we set off the see what car they had hired us….we couldn’t believe it when we realised they had given us a ‘Ford Mustang’ which was a dream to drive! It only took us 5 hrs to get to LAX, and was quite easy to find (we did have sat nav though.hehe) We are now sat at our gate waiting to board for NZ - THE NEXT ADVENTURE….
Miss y’all lots
TTFN xxxx
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Jess
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I need to stop reading this in work.....
.....its killing me!! All sounds so fab and I hope you enjoy NZ as much as America!! Lets try and Skype soon! Miss you guys, lots of love xxxxxx