VEGAS PART 1 Smoke, Illusions

So I'm back from Vegas, one week later. i have to admit, it was pretty fun but i wouldn't go again.

We stayed at the luxor, which is a pretty cool hotel in the shape of a pyramid and the elevators are on a slant so every time you travel you end up doing the Michael Jackson lean. criss angel performs there too :P

OK anyway. so I'm just gonna document what i did on each of the 5 days and say how i felt about each experience. this will be in separate blog posts

day one: settling in
we arrived at the city. when it came time to drive to the hotel the taxi driver demanded tip when he was just a really really BAD driver.
we got to the hotel and i remember it being really hot, and it was almost like we were in Egypt.
we took a while to settle in and we almost got lost... i then saw the titanic exhibition sign and i wanted to go. first thing was to look for him and tell him.
we had dinner after because the exhibition was closed, but the gift shop was still open so i went in and bought a replica of Rose's necklace and a limited edition piece of the titanic that was from the first excavation. anyway we ate at Rice&Co... and was pretty AMAZE-BALLS. the food was SO SO SOOO good. and the hostesses and servers were actually quite nice!
*commentary* the thing about people and tips.. if you do an excellent job of serving me and if i think you did an amazing job taking care of me, you WILL get a higher tip because you DESERVE tip.
if you DEMAND tip when you did absolutely nothing to garner or warrant a high tip, you don't fucking deserve it. such was the case with the taxi driver who fucking near gave me a heart attack when driving us from the airport to the hotel. but moving on. *end commentary*
When we reached the hotel room it was pretty cool looking. since the hotel is basically a pyramid shape, the windows were also on a slant. and the balcony looking down into the casinos and the lobby were also on a slant. whoever the architect was.. holy crap. they were genius.but we also kept getting lost. it was like a labyrinth. also i believe that was the idea. for the rest of the night we flipped through channels to see what channels were available, and then we flipped through the magazine to see which shows and exhibits i wanted to go to. the plans made were to go see criss angel's BeLIEve show, titanic exhibit, CSI: the experience, the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay *thankfully no dolphins*, KA, "O", and while we were at it, the gift shops for each place.

day two: wedding ceremony and exploring time
ok so we got ready for the wedding after we ate some breakfast at the pyramid cafe. oh my god. can i just say that i LOVE American breakfasts? so fatty, but so damn delicious. *commentary* the whole entire trip, we ate fatty food but for some reason i ended up being thinner according to my mom when i came home? hm..*end commentary* anyway the chapel inside the luxor was so pretty! wedding was short and sweet. the bride was super pretty :) anyway after the wedding stuff we decided to finally go explore the rest of the hotel. apparently the luxor was connected via tram, underground tunnels, bridges into the other neighbouring hotels - Mandalay Bay (obviously a modern palace themed hotel with a man-made beach and a pool) and Excalibur (A MEDIEVAL/CASTLE HOTEL). so we didn't have to go outside to see hobos and stuff.

first we went off to see the titanic exhibit. OH MY MOTHER. IT WAS SO AMAZING. photography want allowed in the exhibit, but honestly if you guys ever stop by Vegas from now until 2018 or something, GO THERE. its like walking onto the movie set of titanic. THERE WAS THIS SET OF STAIRS THAT WAS EXACTLY LIKE THE SET OF STAIRS THAT JACK WAITED FOR ROSE ON AND I WAS GONNA BURST OUT CRYING... *i have a souvenir pic of this that we had to purchase but that's OK. my money is going into a good cause :P* GUYS. SERIOUSLY. THERE IS JUST SO MUCH INSIDE THAT EXHIBIT that i cannot possibly explain every single detail how i felt or how amazing it was. but in short, it was an artifact/ titanic history exhibit blown out of the water. pun not intended. and all the gifts inside the gift shop are replicas of the original pieces of the titanic (serving glasses, tupperware, perfumes, silverware) and they even had stuff inspired by the titanic. and near the beginning you get these really cool titanic passenger tickets with a name of the passenger, and at the end of the exhibit you get to see if your passenger survived or died. mine survived. Steven's died.

afterwards our feet started hurting but i didn't care. i was having a BLAST. we had lunch, which was sub par but it was pretty OK for fast food. we rested in the hotel room and then we made an impromptu trip to the Mandalay to check out the aquarium. there was sufficient space for the sharks, and i had heard that they have a breeding program for the sharks they keep there to increase the shark population and then release them into the wild. but then i saw a tank of piranhas and then i really started questioning the ethics of the aquarium... piranhas are illegal in the state of Nevada but somehow they got permission to keep the piranhas recovered from other places where they were kept. why weren't they released into the wild again? anyway i realised the mistake i made and quickly went through the aquarium. EVERYTHING THEY SAID WAS A BIG FAT LIE.
we limped back to the hotel room and stayed there until dinner at the More Buffet in the lower levels of the pyramid. food there was pretty OK too. for a buffet it was pretty tasty! but our feet were killing us...

THEN after that we went to go see criss angel. Steven's always loved magic and it was technically a show from cirque du soleil so OK we both went to see it with the whole family. strange i didn't know about Steven's fascination with magic before, how am i only learning about it now? >.>
Steven's dad was sceptical of criss at first but then he became a closet fan. and then he stepped out of the closet and got to shake hands with him during the show when he materialised from nowhere in the audience. anyway. in order to get TO the show we had to pass through the casino. which was like a cesspool of lung cancer in the air. yeah. didn't like that so much.
AS FOR THE SHOW: near the beginning of the show there was an optical illusion in the middle of the entrance so i took a picture of it. it made you look like you were levitating ;P best illusion ever. then we took our seats. and the show began. on a humorous note. LOL. loved the non-pg13 penis and sex jokes. *clearly I'm not mature yet. moving on.* then criss appeared on-stage.
*commentary* HOW. WHY IS HE SO PRETTY. HOW IS HE NOT WRINKLY. HOW IS HE LIKE IN HIS 40s. WHY DOES HE HAVE STEVEN'S OLD HAIR FROM LIKE 2008. WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE RAMIN KARIMLOO *end commentary* then the real show began and we were in for a real treat.
OK so i have a pretty good idea how these tricks are done but the closer i look at the trick and the more i focus, the more confused i get and i wonder how they were done without the illusion being shattered- i suppose that's why they call it a magic 'trick' right? i also suppose that's why there's a LIE in the word BELIEVE- and then i get amazed because it just looked so seamless and effortless. the best part is figuring out how the trick was done because at the end of the day you know its a trick :P anyway. there are a few tricks that i don't know how they were done.. like when they stitched back his fake body parts together and they put a screen in front of it... and then he started moving. AND THEN HE APPEARED AGAIN. and when he put his assistant under the chainsaw thing... with no box covering. pretty gruesome and scary to watch. i know how the box version is done but when you're exposed under the chainsaw and you see the girl fully lie down on the table, ya kinda have to wonder where the rest of her body is at if she was just seen walking around perfectly intact in a mini skirt. >.>; some more penis jokes later, they did this other confusing trick ... where he appeared in the audience in a split second when he disappeared on stage. HOW? >.> and that's when he started greeting everyone and shaking hands with everyone in the audience and being awfully polite. like he told security to bring some alcoholic beverages to a few girls at the front. and lol so funny he backed away from a 16 year old after she told him her age. "whoa backing up now. you dad looks like he is gonna kill me" LOL. y'know. and I'm completely forgetting that he was just A METER away from my face.
AND THEN HE PUT RAZOR BLADES AND A STRING INTO HIS MOUTH AND IT ALL CAME OUT ATTACHED TO THE STRING... >.> that takes skill. and a lot of tongue movement. whoever sleeps with him at night must be REALLY lucky. JUST SAYING.

anyway i was thoroughly impressed at the slight of hand and the trickery. and i was pretty much ecstatic the entire time because he did the phantom of the opera trick where the puts a cover on the girl and she disappears from the chair... EEEK. also after that whole materialising from the audience in a second and seeing that chair trick, i am convinced that ramin karimloo and him were twins separated at birth. like they lived right across the border from each other, they're both performers and singers (criss was a musician before OK? he can sing. SING, I SAY), and they look exactly like each other except for the fact that criss was a total goth before and now he just looks like a white and better version of Gackt. also I'm pretty sure Iran and Greece had some sort of Greco-Persian relations thingy in the past. i think ramin is also currently living in new york aside from London and Toronto, but anyway, THERE ARE JUST TOO MANY COINCIDENCES.
anyway, sometime a little bit near the end of the show SOME IDIOT SAID HE SUCKED. and then criss made him disappear :P best trick ever. you know how? he called security to sic him. bitch deserved it. >.> if you don't like someone why would you even go to their show, let alone stay in it? fucking logic much?
when it was officially over he invited everyone to come down and take pics with him so he can retweet and do other social media stuff. i unfortunately had little to no memory left on my camera :'( sadface. anyway i left the show sad because i didn't get a picture. but i was OK. not a lot of people can afford to go to see his show so i was satisfied, and with that i went to bed at around 12am Vegas time, 4 am Toronto time.

but then i woke up at 4am Vegas time, 7am Toronto time. my internal alarm clock woke me up :( and it was onto the next day of adventure.