6th to 8th day and the days after, when I went back home
by Niklas Lindskog
Hi!
Here's a short report from my 6th to 8th day in Las Vegas and the days after, when I went back home. Wednesday, March 11th to Sunday, March 15th.
* Wednesday: Breakfast and then got out on the streets. I had noticed, while riding the bus between Downtown and The Strip on previous days, that there's quite a long stretch of city between these areas which is not as busy as I thought it would be. Many abandoned lots, with or without abandoned buildings on them. The Arts District is in this part of town too. Which is nice, but with a feel of a formerly abandoned industrial park about it. The day before I had the idea to explore this part of town. I realized not many people would be there, but at the end of the trip, I felt I needed to do something different. To fit the vast empty spaces, I put on my Zeiss Batis 25 mm lens instead of the 35 mm I had used during most of this trip. The photos in this blog were all shot during a 6 hour walk between the Plaza Hotel and the Stratosphere and back again.
* Thursday: Gym and tanning at the pool. The news that Trump had stopped all Europeans from entering the US came. My airline said flights would be cancelled, but not how many or which. Decided to wait out the information instead of buying a ticket to the UK, which was exempted from Trump's ban. I had planned to go streeting in The Strip again, but all energy for shooting left me when this news came. Packed my bags in the early evening.
* Friday: Woke early and checked the Scandinavian Airlines facebook and web pages immediately. The information was there. My flight from LA on the Sunday was cancelled. My original plan, to go by bus back to LA on this day and have another day of shooting there before going home would not work.
* I started looking at alternatives. I wanted to get home sooner rather than later, since the situation in the world was changing so rapidly, with new countries closing their borders almost every hour. I managed to get a new ticket back home through San Francisco, Copenhagen and Stockholm before landing in my home town Umeå. Taking the bus to SF from Vegas would be 14 and a half hours, so I decided to find a flight instead. Got one with United at 3.52 pm. Booked a hotel near San Francisco airport and unbooked the one in LA.
* While waiting at the gate, I checked some news again and saw that Denmark had closed its borders. Copenhagen is the capital of Denmark and I was worried that transfers wouldn't work either.
* After finding the SF hotel, I had a nice walk along the Bay waterfront and an even nicer dinner of ribs at the Elephant Bar, right across the parking lot from the hotel.
* Saturday: Woke early and checked the news. The Danish police had issued a message saying that all transfers at Copenhagen airport would be OK.
* Did a pretty good session at the hotel gym and took a nice, long shower. Breakfast was included in this place. I enjoyed it at a slow pace, since my flight wasn't until 6:30 pm.
* Sunday: Spent in planes and airports, got home at about 7 pm.
Take care, everybody!
Niklas
