*Author’s Note: Hello! This is Sienna, from the future! I underestimated how much time I would have each day to write my journal entries in Las Vegas, however I did manage to take plenty of photos. I am backdating the Vegas entries but it’s worth making a note to say that I am writing each entry now that I’m back home in the UK.
One of the consistent things across the whole of our Vegas trip was my body’s internal alarm clock telling me to get up at eight thirty every morning, no matter how late I went to bed. Sunday was just the same, so Alex and I got ready and set out to find some bubble tea. We had used lyft so much during our trip but I was really adamant about utilising public transport so it seemed like a good opportunity to test out the bus system in Vegas. It sort of goes without being said that public transport is way better in Europe and England than it is in America, although I still stand by it being a good and affordable way to get a different snapshot of a city. In order to catch our bus we first had to walk twenty minutes up the strip and cross over two different pedestrian bridges before we got to the stop. Luckily the weather was beautifully breezy and the desert heat wasn’t as unforgiving as it could have been!
The bus itself was fine, nothing particularly bad or good about it. Nearly everyone wore a mask and there was air conditioning, and it only cost us $10 for two day passes. It was interesting to see the shops and restaurants along the route, too. We were going to check out a kpop store before getting bubble tea but when we saw the line wrapping around the building we quickly dropped that plan and got off the bus to find our bubble tea spot.
Sometimes I forget how massive and largely unwalkable most American suburbs are, and when we got off in Vegas’s Chinatown I was reminded of just how many parking lots there are in the states. I got to practice my Korean a little bit as we walked past various restaurants, so that was really cool! Granted, I couldn’t actually translate the names of the restaurants but I could technically read them. I don’t usually get that opportunity in England so I tried to contain my excitement every time I found a new shop sign.
Eventually we found ourselves in a little bubble tea dessert so we ordered our drinks and had a nice time chilling out together before we had our next event. I find it difficult to be heard or to make time for the things I want to do when hanging out with a large group of people, so to be able to take some time to hang with just Alex was so lovely. During this trip I felt like we’d spent all of our one-on-one time in stressful situations at the airport and just hadn’t had the time to chill together.
After finishing our bubble teas, we grabbed a lyft and went to AREA15 for the BTS Pop-Up shop to meet up with my friends. It wasn’t until we got out and were waiting in line for everyone to meet up with us that I began to feel my stomach turning upside down. Boy, what an unfortunate situation! So what happened was that I had all of our tickets for the pop-up but everyone else was running a little late. The line for the pop-up kept moving really fast and Alex and I must have gone to the back of the line waiting for everyone like four times. By the time the rest of our group arrived I had zero chill left because I was in desperate need for the toilet. As soon as the guy scanned our tickets, Alex ran to find the toilets and then quickly escorted me to relieve myself. It wasn’t pretty, so I’ll spare the details, but I felt considerably better afterward.
We rejoined the queue with everyone and then we went through the pop-up. At first I thought there were only a certain amount of people allowed in at one time, but in actuality there were just lots of queues for pictures. Once we worked out that we didn’t need to queue up, we quickly made our way through the pop-up. It was really neat seeing all of the different BTS themed rooms! I do wish we’d had more time to spend in there, but we had about ten minutes left until our session at Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart was due to begin.
Alex and I finished the pop-up and jumped in the line for merch to see if we could grab something, and everyone else went over to Meow Wolf to see if we could reschedule our tickets. Once we secured a cute BTS In The Soop coin bank from the merch stand, we walked over to Meow Wolf and met up with everyone. I was feeling frustrated but now that I look back on it I’m glad we were able to move our tickets to a slightly later time slot so we could chill for a bit. Alex and I had a snack by ourselves and then we all got together to enter Omega Mart.
Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart is a really cool attraction that’s interactive and totally trippy. Basically you enter a supermarket called Omega Mart and you notice things are not what they seem: bizarre products, mutated produce, spontaneous power cuts. You walk through a refrigerator door and wind up in a whole other world filled with alien flowers, mysterious rooms, glittery canyons. Our group went in together but we quickly lost each other as we all got distracted by something different. Alex and I spent almost three hours wandering around Omega Mart, trying to understand the mystery and also trying to work out what was part of the experience and what wasn’t. We found our way back to the actual supermarket again and bought some “unicorn veins” (red licorice), “leprechaun kidneys” (wasabi peas), and “liquid death” (canned water). It was a wild time but we greatly enjoyed it! You could definitely get lost inside of Omega Mart, that’s for sure.
Once we met up again with the group we grabbed a lyft to head downtown for dinner at a place called Nacho Daddy before we would head over to the Neon Museum for our tour. While waiting for our table we wandered around Fremont Street and I was totally blown away by how much I liked the vibe of downtown compared to the Vegas strip. There was even a kiosk selling full size disco balls on necklaces and I couldn’t resist buying one to add to my collection at home. I wish we had more time to check out downtown because it seemed like there were more things our speed, but I guess that just gives us an excuse to visit Vegas again some day.
For dinner we had nachos and margaritas, and then we grabbed a lyft over to the Neon Museum for our tour. I didn’t know what to expect for the tour, but I was super impressed with our guide’s knowledge and demeanor. We learned a lot of the history of the Vegas strip and got to see a bunch of historic signs that the museum has collected and restored over the years. It was for sure a highlight of the entire trip and I’d recommend it to anyone going to Vegas! At the end of the tour we wandered around a little bit and came across a photo booth, so of course we had to try taking some group photos before making a stop in the giftshop before heading out. We hugged Rachel and Steven goodbye, then Liz, Alex and I climbed in our lyft back to the hotel.
It was a really full last day in Vegas and although there were some less-than-ideal moments, I’m really glad we were able to cross a lot of things off of the list! Once we got back to the hotel, Liz and Sophie went out and Alex and I packed all our things up before heading off to bed.
