The Beauty of Las Vegas

Las Vegas can be intimidating, dazzling, disorienting, and surreal. Neither Monkey nor I really enjoyed it the first trip there so we figured we'd never end up going back. Well, by a coincidence of fate, my job required me to attend a convention in Las Vegas this spring. I took a few extra days to chill out by myself and I found that Vegas can actually be quite pleasant. In particular, seeing the natural beauty of the surrounding desert and then looking down at the craziness of the Strip, literally cut down to size and put in its place, it just seemed a whole lot better.

Monkey and I thought the best place to do this would be at the Stratosphere Tower.


The Stratosphere Tower 

The Stratosphere Hotel and Casino is just about as far north as you can go on the Strip and it seems to have a lot more in common with the downtown casinos that the gaudy Disney-fied palaces on Las Vegas Blvd. Walking around on the casino floor, you might get the feeling that it was small potatoes or behind the times, but I liked that throwback aura. Plus, the folks gambling looked like serious old-time gamblers mixed with hopeful younger folks who were probably gambling with next month's rent money. It's nice to see there's still a place for people like that.

Monkey and I bought our tickets and got in line to go to the top of the tower. This is the view we were rewarded with:

Monkey at the Stratosphere 


View from the Tower - The Strip 


View from the Tower - Panorama 1 


View from the Tower - Panorama 2 


View from the Tower - Panorama 3 

More from the Statue Park

Workers Movement Monument 


Statue from Moszkva Ter 


Soviet Heroic Memorial 

Szobor Park - Communist Statue Park

To Arms 


Osztapenko 

The Hungarians are an exceptionally smart people. While under the thumb of a puppet Soviet regime, the people saw how the government would periodically purge itself. They would rewrite history and cast those out of favor as villains, completely obscuring the truth of history. So when Hungary was finally free, they didn't want to make the same mistake. Instead, they hauled a number of the state-commissioned propaganda statues just outside of town and created a memorial park.

The View from Erzsebet Hid

Varhegy - Castle Hill 


Kettes Villamos - 2 Tram 


Lanchid - Chain Bridge 

Jenny Monkey in Budapest

Jenny Monkey 

Monkey has never been across the pond, but his good friend Jenny Monkey has. So he (yes, Jenny Monkey is a he, is there a problem?) wanted to share these pictures to get Monkey excited for his upcoming trip.