part 2 (end of Expo Day 1)

Part of our plan for seeing as many pavilions as possible was relying on the fact that the Chinese folks in attendance were known for going home around 8pm. With this in mind we lazily strolled around looking for the pavilion with the shortest line. All the attendees were pretty motivated to stand in every line that they could and no line was short. We happened upon the weather pavilion, an exhibit dealing exclusively with meteoroligical phenomena and decided to give it a shot. The wait was about an hour (side note: the idea of "skipping" in line does not exist like it does in the US, or Korea and if you are not vigilant you will get passed repeatedly in line) and it was a somewhat interesting exhibit. If you have ever watched the weather on television or seen any weather-related show on the Discovery Channel then you have already seen all the content. At this point, it was just nice to get out of the sun.

We got in an incredibly short, non-moving line for the joint pavilion of small Pacific Island nations. After about 15 minutes we learned that the reason for the stationary line is that the exhibit was closed for another 45 minutes. Instead of waiting to wait some more we walked around and looked for something else.

We walked right into a lineless building without even bothering to see what it was. What we entered was a building of bland commerce. It was a mix of goods from many countries whose only connecting element was that they were all for sale. Other than that it was a mix of completely unrelated goods. There were Manchester United jerseys next to Japanese animation dolls which were both next to high efficiency refrigerators.

We came across Estonia, the country that was in my mind famous for one thing: being the country that Sean Astin tells his parents that Brendan Fraser is from in the 1992 movie Encino Man. Apparently, Estonia is famous for much more than that...or at least that's what they want you to think. Just look at all of the amazing facts about Estonia, printed next to the entrance to the pavilion! I will say that I have used Skype and despite it being usurped by gmail's chat it is a really cool idea. I just hope that Estonia can find some cool stuff to brag about in the future or at least get a better PR person. Estonia's wikipedia page is far more interesting by comparison.

Just before we got into Estonia, we saw two signs on the door. The top one didn't make sense. Did it mean no piggyback riding? Is that something that tired Expo-goers had been doing? Is it really that much of a problem that Estonia needed to tell us not to do it? Apparently it was.

Apparently it wasn't. I was completely wrong.


I was legitimately excited to see what was inside this former Soviet Bloc country. What would they have? What was the culture like? After all, they were just across the Baltic Sea (and the Sea of Finland) from Finland. Would this be a lost an endemic Scandinavian culture? It was so exciting!

The inside looked great! There was a tiered sloping area made from recycled hardwood. On each tier sat several shiny plastic pigs. Pigs that would be perfect to ride, or at least sit on. They were gorgeous and each one had a slot in the back to make it resemble a massive piggy bank. Instead of money, Estonia was asking for ideas. Perhaps innovation is the new currency. Maybe Estonia was just out of new ideas. Who knew--there was little explanation.




Behind the pigs was a video area that showcased some of Estonia's unique cultural specialties. Unbeknown to me was the fact that Estonia prides itself in stop-motion animation. The video kept letting us know that they were the world leader in this field. It did look interesting, but it looked like something from 30 years ago. I don't know if they are aware that CGI is quickly making their art form redundant.

One of the themes of the Expo was global warming. Estonia may just become a paradise in the near future if temperatures keep rising. Right now it isn't an incredibly interesting or progressive place. Before you think that I am just trashing poor little Estonia, relax. I think that they are just fine. They aren't a big country, a populous country or even a moderately wealthy country. The medium sized Korean city I live in that you never even heard of until I moved here has more people than all of Estonia. I suppose there was a reason for the short line...



The thing that drew me to Serbia's pavilion in the first place was its outside. It was housed in a simple cube shape, but instead of keeping it simple, they used brightly colored plastic decorative building blocks similar to a macro lego all over the outside of the building. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was far more interesting than what was being shown inside of the building.

It essentially let us know that Serbia was the centerpoint of Europe and the crossroads between Asia, the Middle East and Europe. It's focus was time. It didn't make much sense, at least in the context of the Expo. I (and I am sure I wasn't alone) wanted to see Serbia. I wanted to taste its food and be excited about it. I wanted them to let me know that Serbia was the place to be, it was where my next vacation would be if I was smart. Instead we got a lightshow about time. I will try to focus on the positive: the lightshow was awesome.




At this point we were getting tired. Our drive to stand in long lines was waning. What were we to do? The "big" countries seemed impossible to get into. Even the smaller countries that had beautiful architecture had long lines. We started feeling like it was going to be hopeless to get into where we wanted to see. Well we got an ice cream cone and instantly powered up. We had all the energy we needed to push on. The cheap soft serve made me think of one thing: Ikea. Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark were all on our list, so we decided to go for it. We walked across the Baltic Sea and decided to see what Sweden was all about.

Sweden's line was about 90 minutes: the longest line we'd encountered so far. The sun was setting and we were feeling a little cooler. Once we got in, however, we were instantly energized. An escalator took us to the second floor through a sweeping, spacious glass entryway. Sweden's theme was a mix of "Before and After" and "Better Living Through Technology".
They used simple pictures to illustrate problems and what they were like a few decades ago and when viewed from another angle, you could see a modern scene from clean, beautiful Sweden.
Sweden's pavilion also served to show what an amazing company they think Ikea is. They actually had a spacious Ikea kitchen set up just like in its stores, complete with an impossibly sleek and efficient ultra-modern look. They set up a few more rooms upside down on the ceiling.




Sweden left us feeling really happy. We both started thinking of how we could relocate there. We rode the wave of good feelings into the gift shop where I got a rum ball almost the size of my fist and Minnie got cheese cake topped with blueberry. I forgot that she isn't used to eating that sort of food and it was a huge treat for her. We both left with smiles and walked to the nearby joint building of smaller European nations. These are the nations that you may know the name of but really don't know anything about them or even where they are besides "Europe...".





The highlight of this joint pavilion was easily Malta. Malta is a tiny island nation next to Sicily. When I went to the pavilion, I didn't know anything about it. After I was inside, I learned that they had a bar.


Many of you might be thinking, "Here we go...just some drinking. Real cool guys. Real cool." But remember, I am in Korea now, a country that proudly produces beer akin to Milwaukee's Best and like the U.S. macro brews, relies on marketing rather than beer recipes for its financial success.

This was the first time I got to taste a delicious beer since I was in Portland in February. It was then that she explained that this was the first time that she had tasted a delicious beer in her entire life! She immediately proclaimed that she loved it and we shared some pints of amazing Malta-brewed Cisk.
By this point we were tired, hungry and dehydrated. The beers were in the 9% abv range and they did the trick in no time. We still had some time left so we hustled over to see where else we could go.

We got into Norway without waiting in line and checked it out. It showcased its snowiness more than anything. There wasn't much substance to it and it felt rather empty and aimless compared to Sweden. It looked nice, though.




Turkey was closing and we got in with the last group. Both outside and inside were really cool. This was a country that neither of us expected to be able to see. It was great. As we got through the exhibit, we came to the end where the bottleneck began. There was a clunking bell sound around the corner. We couldn't tell what was going on. As we moved with the mass of people we could see what the holdup was: There was a fat Turkish man in a Fez serving ice cream with a arms-length spoon. He wasn't just serving the ice cream...he had flair! Minnie and I couldn't pass up more ice cream so we got in line. It turned out that the actual line was short and the mass of people were just gawking at the show.

The server happily messed with the slightly tipsy Minnie and gave her the cone multiple times before swiftly plucking it out of her hand before she knew it was gone. The ice cream was something that I hadn't tasted before. The flavor was vanilla but the consistency was less creamy and more like cold, delicious strings of melted cheese from a hot pizza. As per wikipedia, this treat is called Dondurma and gets its consistency from actual flour and resin added to it.
After our ice cream we walked over to the Netherlands. It had a long line all day and was closing as we approached so we got inside before they closed the doors. Actually, we didn't get inside. The whole pavilion was an outside attraction that consisted of a figure-8 shaped ramp that led us upward and then back down at the end. It was easily the most bizarre place we'd seen. It was fantastic. It was clear that it didn't take itself too seriously and it looked as if it had been constructed with a healthy dose of whimsy. This looked like a fun country to actually visit, although I think living there would be a bit too maddening for me.










That was the Netherlands. It was fun. We were getting tired. We thought that since the park stayed open until midnight all of the pavilions would be closing then too. It turned out that they closed at 10:30. That meant that we'd have from 8pm to 10:30pm to do the bulk of our viewing of the expo. That was our new plan.

We left and took the efficient subway and then a cab back to the Koala. It was easy and awesome. We quickly fell asleep.

Here are some exterior shots of buildings that we didn't get to go into or that looked so good that I wanted to show them again.

Spain

Serbia

Belgium

Romania
You can read.
Latvia
France

Guess