We just spent a long week-end gateway, far from the tension of work, away from obligations.... a relaxing week-end in a coccoon, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing to do and almost nowhere to go.
The only appointment on our agendas was a glorious 80 minutes massage at a spa. It is still amazing to me how one can come out of a massage completely beat, after spending an hour doing absolutely nothing. I'll do it again...
The 'middle of nowhere' we were at happened to be situated a few miles away from Atlantic City. I have never visited AC before, or Las Vegas for that matter, so we thought it would be a good idea to spend some time out there and visit a casino.
I may be becoming too cynical..... we walked into the Trump Plaza with a feeling of ethnologists taking notes in the middle of a remote tribe. Rows after rows of blinking ligths, screaming machines, and sitting in front of them, an army of empty faces.
There was surprisingly very little happiness. Only people with glazed looks, feeding machines one coin after another. The most painful to watch were the poor and the old, half asleep in front of their screens, and yet feeding their machines with whatever money they had. Just trying to picture the amount of money collected by these machines at any time of the night was mind boggling.
My only experience with a casino before that was Monaco, where most people I saw there could afford to burn large amounts of money and walk away without a regret.
This was very different. It was like walking through a city of ghosts, of empty souls addicted to an illusion.
After seeing this, I am not sure I want to visit Las Vegas any more...