August 2023 - Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
I had the movie "The Hangover" in my head, where crazy things happen in the city that never sleeps.
I was driving from the airport to the hotel where we would spend the next 24 hours-not one more-and I was impressed by how overly IMMENSIVE everything seemed. Not that this was anything new for the United States, let's be clear, however, I was in the middle of the desert, a thousand degrees under the sun, and all I could think about was "how much is it going to cost to keep the whole city on?"
To get to the reception desk we went through an entire casino and the equivalent of a mall food hall. I could hear "beeps" of cards being swiped and everything was happening at an impressive speed.
We decided to go out at 7 p.m. armed with ice-cold Coke to avoid sugar drops, and began our "boulevard tour" in 38 degrees, very scorching. Games of lights, little Venice recreated with canals and gondolas (and complete with gondoliers and fake sky), luxury stores and hotels each with a different theme. And casinos, all immensely majestic in each hotel. Groups of people moved amusedly from lobby to lobby, some for an important occasion and some just for fun. Entertainers of all kinds enlivened and nurtured this realm of perdition before the eyes of its casual visitors and others.
On the roadsides, I noticed many homeless people rummaging through garbage cans, looking for a leftover sandwich or a few sips of soda. Unfortunately, you see them in all big cities, but the most jarring thing is just the contrast between the glitz and those who have lost everything in that glitz.
At one point we noticed a "Stranger things"-themed store and we darted inside to browse and mostly to breathe in some air conditioning. Absurd, many corners were recreated in our own image!
Back at the hotel we had dinner and looked up the rules of Black Jack to try to follow the game at some of the casino tables. All those tables with dealers, cards, balls and roulette spinning so fast...I felt like a fish out of water, so I paid attention to the expressions of the people at the tables. I saw eagerness, amusement, excitement, but also expressionless eyes of people who had probably been in front of that screen for almost a day and were pressing buttons with inertia.
Overall so much amazement and also a thread of sadness, what "the city that never sleeps" left me with.
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