Las Vegas baby...

The Grand Canyon - one of them most amazing places I have ever been and so made up for the absurdity of Las Vegas...


Vegas by night


Clionadh, Kristie and I on Freemount street


Casinos everywhere!!!


Yum - best cheesecake ever


Jamie learns to gamble


The Irish pub in New York New York

It has seemed a bit absurd to me since the early days of the November that I was going to a geography conference in Las Vegas. The sense of absurdity never waned as the time approached ever more near. In fact the day of my departure took me almost completely by surprise as I had barely dried my clothes post Slovenia!
The flight was long and involved a stop in Atlanta Georgia, but I sat next to a very nice older American lady who quizzed me on Irish mythology and beer. I really have very little recollection of the first night and arrival in Vegas, as the jetlag had really set in by the time we got there. The bus from the airport seemed to be surrounded by lights and sounds – but again that really is Vegas for you.
I woke up my first day starving having not eaten in almost 24 hours, and so I made my way down to the hotel diner. The food tasted heavenly due to the hunger, but the bill was shocking – I thought the US was supposed to be cheap compared to Europe! In my jetlagged state I registered for the conference and attended two session which seemed to go by in a daze. I went to a really kitschy restaurant that evening where I was treated to 10 egg omelettes – it was no wonder I could only eat 1/3 of it!

I had decided earlier on Sunday that I needed to get out and see the desert and the area outside of Vegas as so far I just felt overwhelmed. So on Monday I set off on the Grand Canyon Skytours trip. It involved a drive out to Boulder, the city built purely for the workers who built the famous Hoover dam; and then from there we went by small aircraft across the desert to the Western part of the Grand Canyon. The landscape below was amazing, and the following 3 hours wandering around the edge of the Canyon cannot possibly be put into words. I sat on a rock for an hour and a half gazing across the Canyon and the desert beyond, feeling suddenly very insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I also had a brief vision of becoming a geologist or physical geographer as the landscape just dwarfed anything I had ever seen, but then I love labour markets too much ☺ That evening I had dinner in a Mexican restaurant in the famous Venetian hotel with Clionadh and some of her American friends.
Tuesday brought more sessions and a wander a short ways up Las Vegas Boulevard. I started to meet some people, and form a clearer picture of what the AAG was really about – extreme networking fever! On Tuesday night I went up with Jamie to see the absurd sophistication that was the Wynn hotel where she was staying. I say crazy sophistication for lack of a better description – it was plush, red with lights and velvet everywhere, but in any other city it would have been far too much.
Wednesday was D-day, and my presentation. I think the day went ok, but for the true impression you will have to ask an audience member. Wednesday night took myself, Clionadh and Kristie to Freemount street via the extremely high Stratosphere. Standing gazing out over the view from the 104 floor over the city was when I decided that I had to just take Vegas for what it was – a crazy alternative universe of lights and playtime.
Thursday was more sessions followed by an evening in a real genuine Japanese restaurant for sushi. I was in heaven as we dug into the largest plate of sushi rolls ever.
Clionadh left early Friday morning, and since the conference was almost at a close, Jamie and I decided to live it up in Vegas for a day. It was to Ceasers and the Forum shops for hours of admiring the fabulousness of the clothes while at the same time trying to understand the spatial structure of Vegas and its workers. Our meandering lead us into the Christian Lecouix designer shop where for some reason the British lady in charge decided to have a little fun and let us try on the dresses. I tried on the most amazing $7,860 dress and decided that if I ever got married this was the dress for me! Jamie tried on not one but three dresses, and for a brief 5 minutes we assumed to calculate what we might give up to own one of the dresses before returning to reality and waking from the haze of Vegas! I was also introduced to Anthropologie, the shop not the discipline and a new love affair has begun. I love that in the US I can ask for a size 6 and then say oh dear sorry too big can I have a 4!
Then for a high point of the afternoon – The Cheesecake Factory where a picture can only truly do the perfection of the product justice! New York New York, a rollercoaster, 2 dollars in the slot machines, a wander around ‘Paris’ and a study of the Mexican undocumented workers handing out ‘dancing girls’ shows ended the Vegas Day experience.
So for my general impression: I will never return to the city of lights and play (well unless of course its for the dress!) but I have to say I am glad in a crazy way to have seen it for myself. It exists on an alternative level of consciousness – one that you forget as soon as the plane takes off. I can only equate it to a gambling version of Dubai in terms of cultural and architectural absurdity.
It was interesting to be back in the US after an eight-year gap, and has enabled me to re-understand some of the ‘constructs’ that exist for the people of that nation. Not that Vegas is in any way the rest of the US, but the people you meet remind one of some of the elements, and in truth make me want to see more of the ‘real’ country outside the casinos of the 3100 Boulevard.