Hot, crowded and always unique

About 25 deg C in the early morning! Haven't had it all summer in Augsburg! Well, in the room we didn't have any idea about temp outside, just saw it on the tablet on the nightstand. The window wall, which, of course, can't be opened, just showed a beautiful sunrise and clouds in the morning. Slept restlessly, in short intervals, struggling with 9 hour time difference and not being used to A/C and the blinking billboard outside. So much light around! 

 

After our unsuccessful hunt for coffee in the morning (long lines/high prices), we walked all the way to the Convention Center - passing all the famous "old" casino hotels like the Caesar's (pic below), where the emperor was dressed in a Las Vegas Raiders shirt - to register for IPW (International Powwow) and - hurrah! - they had coffee and pastries in the press room! Not too much going on there otherwise, didn't meet any interesting people like usually, and, therefore decided to take the buss (DEUCE) to the downtown area and on to the LV North Outlet Center. 

This shopping mall offers really good deals and we bought some clothing at Columbia's for a fraction of the price we would have paid in Germany. Also, checked out Levis, Jockey, Sketchers and a couple other stores before we left for Fremont Street and the Arts District, where crowds were dense and a street festival "Live is beautiful" with several music stages and vendors took place. 

 

Bus traffic in LV isn't really trustworthy, and, it took us quite a bit of time to get back to the Strip. Grabbed a burger at "Fatburger" ("Since 1952") and bought a sixpack of beer at Walgreens before we returned to the Aria Hotel and joined the German media group (only about a dozen this year) in the Lobby Bar for small talk and a drink. Feet tired after about 10 miles of walking!

Las Vegas is a crazy city. New developments are taking over and uniformity is dominating. New casino hotels all look the same in contrast to the old "theme hotels". Downtown is currently more interesting and innovative! Big crowds everywhere, again, mostly "country people" on a trip for a special occasion, or, Los Angelinos. Not too much difference anymore to "pre-Covid times"! Mask mandate is "officially" pretty strict (though FFP2 masks are rather unknown), but people don't seem to be really conscious about the danger. We were wearing FFP2 mask most of the day - which are a pain in the a.. in temps over 30 deg C/90 deg F during the day.