I think, it is good that we rented for the first three days an apartment in the outskirts of Las Vegas. There it was calm, empty of people, and there was a possibility to get a little used, to acclimatise. We were to move in three days to the centre of the city, to the hotel Venetia.
I write frankly, I do not feel joy living in a hotel. Autonomous living in an apartment room suits me better. But my Norwegian husband holds to his rules when travelling, and that is — booking a hotel room, obligatory breakfast only in the hotel, lunch in a restaurant. Of course, he always, before ordering a hotel or any tickets, «consults» with me, but does not stress prices and does not talk about money or coming expenses. He proposes — I choose.
The main thing for me on all trips is the pool. And only swimming and no more. I do not recognise any other gadgets — services. For me the most important is my inner comfort, which I create for myself. But how to cope with the rebuilding to local time?! And with the air conditioners, and with the curtained windows in the room?! The time difference with Oslo is 9 hours, i.e. when in Oslo it is 9 in the morning, in Las Vegas it is midnight.
I started wanting to sleep at 5 in the evening and so as not to torment myself I went to bed at 6 in the evening with the air conditioner on (I myself «switched off» at once) and slept soundly until 3 at night. At 3 at night I boiled water, drank coffee, switched off the air conditioner, sat on the sofa and knitted a cardigan and watched on the iPad what is happening in the world. So I sat until 8 o’clock, then went to the pool.
The husband in that time had scouted the nearest little shop at the petrol station. There he could buy drinking water, coffee in a pack, ground (I like to brew) and yoghurt, butter and bread. On Google he found the nearest supermarket 800 m from our dwelling. And in the daytime we went there to buy products for lunch. I decided to cook myself.
The supermarket turned out to be wholesale, huge, the main products from China, and also Ukrainian sweets, Polish pickled cucumbers. For myself I found packaged beef cut into pieces, onion, potatoes, oranges, biscuits. I cooked for lunch. The potatoes turned out very tasteless.
We decided to go to a supermarket in the city by UBER taxi — the most popular kind of transport in Las Vegas and inexpensive. There is in the English language such a word great, which means grandiose, great, big. In America everything is great. And the Supermarket too. We planned to buy a couple of bottles of wine, cheese and meat, to cook, and I also took a pack of spaghetti (I decided not to test potatoes any more). In this great variety I had to look for ordinary table salt and black pepper. It turned out a great quest even! but one dark-skinned customer recommended taking a ready seasoning instead of salt. I had to believe him — I took it (only two days remained to hold on with my own food).
Interesting moments I experienced at the till: the cashier — a young guy, started talking with Ivan (like, where are you from, ah, from Norway, and how did you get here and so on). And I at that time stand at the exit from the till and am ready to receive into my bag the goods which he has already registered. I look, and he puts each item into a thin grey cellophane bag, and all the bags hang on a spinning «carousel». I.e. I was ready to put the goods into my tote, and he puts each purchase into an opaque bag and a heap of identical bags formed on the «carousel». The first thing I thought was why use so much plastic if the goods are already packaged? We in Norway are used to «fighting» plastic and trying to use it minimally, so as not to pollute the environment. Well all right, I put this heap into my bag.
I wanted to get out of this great supermarket as soon as possible. We went out NOT into fresh air — there is nothing to breathe, in a word — desert climate. The husband proposes that I go back in, where the air conditioners are on, and wait 10 min for the UBER taxi. Aha. And there it is cold. And here it is hot. (note, this I only write, and there I did not caprice, but staunchly bore all the hardships of Las Vegas life. They too have their c’est la vie there. 😀 (they walk on foot, but rarely) The car is the means of getting about.
I waited for the taxi
