World Expo - Day 2

Our 2nd day at the epxo started the same way as the first one, queuing! We were expecting less queues today since it was Monday, but turns out the expo is even busier on week days due to all the school trip!

Today, we decided to speed straight down to an exhibition we really wanted to see, hoping to beat the crowds. We decided to go for the Chinese pavillion - figuring that China at least would come up with something suitably impressive. Turns out that wasn't the case, we were a bit disappointed with their effort - maybe due to the fact that the pavillion wasn't yet completed. Oh well.

We then headed for the Italian pavillion - had to see that one at least ? We resigned ourselves to the fact that we would need to queue for a long time - and we did indeed queue for a long time (probably neatly 2 hours?). Was it worth it ? Not really. It's the biggest pavillion in the Expo, but not my preferred one. First thing - plenty of stuff is in Italian only? I mean that's just ridiculous - it's the World Expo! Plenty of foreign visitors coming along...? Apart from that, there were some quite interesting parts to the pavillion, but we didn't walk away overwhelmingly impressed. You also got the impression they'd skipped some corners to get the pavillion finished on time...

Next stop was Germany. We only visited the rooftop, as the queues for the exhibition were, erm, long. But we really enjoyed the rooftop. The views were spectacular, and there's also a presentation of each German state (with quite detailed information about their culinary specialities and so forth). So all quite nice and informative. The cooles thing was the band of oldies dressed up in German national dresses, playing German folk songs and rock n' roll classics. That rocked ;-)

Next up was USA. The pavillion itself was not as impressive as one might expect, lacking a bit of flair as far as the architecture was concerned. But I liked the exhibition itself, there was a lot of information about the use of technology to improve food productivity and so forth. There was even an introductory speech from Mr. Obama. So pretty good, down-to-earth effort from the Americans.

We also checked out Quatar's, Slovakia's and Chile's pavillions - all very good. Quatar came as a bit of a surprise - I wasn't expecting much contribution from them when it came to sustainable food production. But their exhibition quite interestingly highlighted the challenges a nation like theirs face (being a densly populated desert nation). Slovakia was a bit similar to Czech replublic from the day before, interesting innovation from anothe Eastern European country (on the whole, Eatern European countries had pretty strong efforts). Chile was excellent too - it was all kind of abstract, with videos showing life in Chile and impressive landscapes, but it all somehow worked (unlike Spain's effort, for example, which was in some ways similar).

Special mention needs to go to Turkmenistan. Now, the theme of the World Expo is "How to feed the planet", right? So what do they showcase in their imposing pavillion ? There's a dedicated section for their great leader (including a book which is titled such, I kid you not). Another section dedicated to their oil industry (hello - relevance?). And some stuff about horses, which I supposes comes closest to the theme. It was a bit like an Ed Wood movie - funny in a very unintentional way (or who knows, maybe it was all a practical joke?).

We still had a couple of hours to go, so rushed through a few more pavillions before it was time to hit the road. Indonesia was mostly about selling local products and handicraft, Israel was a rather unconvincing, with a tacky, strangely uninformative video (some might say the highlight is the actress/model Moran Atias - says something about the whole thing I suppose?) and finally, Angola.

We went to Angola's pavillion since, well, it was very big, and the queues on the previous day had been just ridiculous, and they were much shorter today, much to our surprise. Actually it seemed very impressive, they'd really put effort and money into their pavillion, unfortunately we really had to rush through it, though...

So, the final verdict then ? Is it worth going to Milan to check out the World Expo ? I would say, definitely go, it really is worth it. If you're an architecture buff, you should definitely go. Just be aware of the commerical side of it all, and most of all, be prepared to queue! We're even thinking of going back, since there are plenty of pavillions we still haven't seen!