Things that happened on EXPO (part 2)
What a Journey
Day two on EXPO was my favorite. Even if due to working duties I had time to explore it on my own only after 17:00, it was VERY good.
Obviously, on souch a big event, there are many things you want to see and do and that’s why you should make a plan. I don’t need much to be happy, so my plan looked like this: eat mexican food, have ecuadorian drink and turkish dessert. That’s it. Even if it sounds pretty simple, I struggled, even though in the end I was able to it. So here you can read how my second day on EXPO looked like.
Earlier in the morning I saw, that in Mexican pavilion, they are making tacos al pastor. If you are Mexican, you know that in Europe is it impossible to find this piece of heaven on a plate and that going to eat tacos al pastor is one of the first things Mexicans are doing when going back to their country after any trip. During last years I was almost living in Mexico and that’s why after I saw tacos here, my heardbeat increased. As I mentioned, working duties didn’t let me do to many things in the morning, but I had my lunch break. Almost running from the other end of exposition (it took me at least 15min) I arrived. Price for three small tacos was 12€, but after the waiter told me „Imagine, that the price is in mexican pesos.“ it didn’t hurt that much. I got my corn tortillas with delicous meat, onion, parsley, pineapple and hot sauce and couldn’t be more happier. It was absolutely worth it.
I was pretty happy as well when I finished my work and I could go and explore everything on my own. Well, that was at least the plan, to explore everything… But plans as well as rules are made to be broken and I didn’t get even close to „everything“, yeah, thats me.
I started with coffee pavilion. Guatemala was very nice, pictures, maquettes, coffee and nice and professional stuff. I really love El Salvador, but unfortunately can’t tell the same about this country’s exposition. Another country inside the coffee pavilion was Yemen. They took it really in their own way and made it all a big market with coffee, jewellery, scarfs, etc. I got my henna tattoo done and after I wanted to leave, but their arabic marketing spirit didn’t let me. Actually after one and half hour of chatting in (broken) arabic and drinking tea while sitting behind their table, I finally left with new necklace, scarf, old coin and my phone fully charged. (Thanks Emad)
I made a small stop in chocolate pavilion, because there was Cuba — my another home. I was looking forward for the cuban chocolate, that even if isn’t famous in the world is absolutely delicious. I entered and didn’t see anything else than rum bottles. Thinking about Cuba, I wasn’t even surprised about this. But a surprise was made when i saw who is standing behid the bar! It was José, waiter from Hotel Nacional in Havana where I usually go for my (best in the city) mojito. He recognized me immediately and we had little chat. He was choosen to go and represent Cuba for few months here and he can’t wait to go back home. The world is really small!
I really don’t remember if Sierra Leone was in chocolate or tea pavilion, but that was another very nice place. I bought an African dress and stayed to chat little bit with the girl that was selling it. After her brothers from Sierra Leone came and I was the only one person inside their exposition, they insisted that I’ll have a food with them. Little spicy, but delicious. And another hour was over…
Ok, I had very few time left and many things to see. Let’s go from the beginning, I thought, and see what I will have time to do. One of the first pavilions was Sudan. I think you wouldn’t expect that country like Sudan has its own pavilion, but they do. Entering it reminded me of my primary school when we tried to make pictures out of dry beans, corn, etc =) Compared to pavilions like Japan or Germany it was very humble, not interactive at all, but showed the culture and nature of this country in a complex way. Few years ago I traveled to Sudan, so it was a nice reminder for me. After I told to the Sudanese staff that I visited their country, they couldn’t believe it and after I showed them photos, they asked me if they can take a picture with me, so they can show it to their friends.
Next pavilion belonged to the organization “Save the children”. They are getting a big international support from people like Christiano Ronaldo and they are trying to help children all around the world. I got there my new identity, my name was Mary and I was a 7 years old girl from Liberia, my mother needed to get ebola treatment but thanks to this organization they were people who took care of me and my mother. Having back my “Petra” identity I made a donation and was happy to be able to do so =) Please, check out their webpage: www.savethechildren.org
Ok, as you can see, I still didn’t see a lot and I had half or maybe one hour until the exhibitions in pavilions will close (the bars and restaurants were open longer). So what to do now? South Korea? They are many people waiting. Korean hostesses are dancing to their loud pop music as their will finish soon and are looking forward, we have a little chat about their telenovelas and I decide to continue. At this time the music everywhere gets louder, the people more relaxed and whole EXPO is slowly changing to a big party on the streets and in open restaurants. In the front of Argentinian pavilion are people playing house music on some modern instruments and they invite everybody to get inside and have fun. I thought I will get inside later, because right next to it was Colombia and so many people waiting to enter again. At least i had my maracuya (or if you want to call it passion fruit). It is my most beloved fruit and I even told the Colombians how much I love maracuya and how hard is it to get in Europe. I was lucky, because they invited me to skip the line and see their pavilion. Honestly, I see Colombia like a perfect country to go on holidays. The food is amazing, the nature is beyond beautiful, the people are friendly and as they say „The only risk in Colombia is wanting to stay.“
Eating maracuya I remembered that on the list I made in the morning was drink from Ecuador and turkish dessert and I still didn’t have it. The pavilion of Ecuador was still open and there were again so many people waiting. I thought I will have my drink (maracuya juice, because as I told I love it), then wait in the line and later have eventually another one. That would work if I wouldn’t start AGAIN to talk to the people from Ecuador. Next to the restaurant was a flatscreen with animation teaching kids to dance. Alexandra from Quito that was working in the shop told me that she is really happy seeing how people from all around the world try to dance to Ecuadorian music.
It was already 22:00 and all the exposition closed. I still didn’t have my turkish dessert — baklava. I knew that there aren’t many things I can see at this time, so I walked to the very end of EXPO and found the perfect looking Turkish pavilion (that looked like turkish bath mixed with old ottoman houses) empty. I started to panic that I won’t have my baklava as I was planning the entire day, but I walked to the back thinking that maybe there still will be somebody. And there was! They were still cleaning the kitchen and when I asked them if they have some baklava left, they first laughed at how desperate I looked and after gave me some.
My conclusion is, that EXPO is a great event, where countries can show to the world little piece of them, but for me the most important are the people. People from all around the world that get together and are having a good time, while forgetting the borders and cultural differences.
Originally published at whatajourney.eu on August 23, 2015.
