Shanghai World Expo 2010

Ahhhhh!! so we went to the Shanghai World Expo 2010! (as the post title suggests =P), little did we know when we set off on this adventure that the next world Expo was even in China! soo when we found out we decided we had to go and I’m totally glad that we did! First off, we got up early in the morning hoping to make the most of our Expo day and started researching how to get there using the computer downstairs. I found the right way using my ultra leet Google skills but then! as fate would have it we met another person who was going to the Expo as well and we invited her along. I forget her name completely but she sort of sucked anyway! for starters her directions disagreed with mine and seeing as I quickly Googled how to get there and wasn’t 100% confident in what I found we went along with her directions as she was positively sure! well well well, let’s just say I was right and my direction sense came through! (for once heh) — annnyway, long story short. We got there! Yes, we made it to the Shanghai World Expo 2010, we managed to use our expired Japanese student cards to save about 100 yuan each! which really, is weird cos the dates were written in Kanji which is no prob for the Chinese but I digress.

The first thing we saw as we got passed security! Worker drones!

We were on a high! we had ditched the weird faulty-direction-ridden traveler that we had taken along with us and it was just the two of us! yay epic day begin. =D but this elated feeling was doomed to disappear with the mystery of the lost German restaurant! basically, what happened was that since we left the dorms pretty early to go to the Expo we were pretty hungry and our little guidebook to the Expo said there was a German restaurant in a place where it exactly WASN’T! we even tasked the Expo volunteer drones to help us and they were flabbergasted as to why it wasn’t there as well! so we ate some weird food at a weird restaurant that wasn’t a really good restaurant at all! But after having food in our bellies we were eager to explore! and take pictures of course.

Lots of people everywhere! China china china!

We went to a load of pavilions! Nepal, Australia, China, bunch of Asian and Middle eastern countries and a looad of European ones minus some of the big ones! you’ve got to forgive us there, it’s not that we dislike the western world but the lines for some of the more popular pavilions were around 3 hours long. Annnd, I’m not really one to spend 3 hours or more in a queue.. so instead of one great hyped up pavilion we went into all the ones that didn’t even have a line to speak of and saw a bunch of random stuff! but of course! yes some of these were sooo small that we were learning about countries we never knew existed! at some point, somewhere in between visiting the North Korean pavilion and posing with South Korean children for photos, Ange managed to attract a very large audience of people who were watching her get her leg painted by this guy.

Last person he painted that day was Ange!

But what a mistake that turned out to be!! Ange’s leg painting seemed to rub off on everything it touched! me included. Til this day I have pants with a mix of green and yellow paint smeared into it! she defaced the seating at a Pizza place, some outdoor seating and her own clothes too! oh and our little microfiber towel that evening when she tried washing it off. >.< All the same we proceeded to some more pavilions doing posey shots inside and filling up the camera til in what seemed like a blur Ange attracted another friggen audience and had people literally queuing up to take a picture with her as if SHE were apart of the display!! silly Chinese folk. =P

As day turned to night we found our selves checking the Australian queue and deciding it was too long, buying some much needed Aussie snacks and a drink (stubbie of VB and a lamington!!) we proceeded to drink our cold Aussie beer in Europe! after some African pavilions where someone showed off their French language skills and an African show with multiple musical influences (blues, jazz, rap etc) we headed over to Berlin Square for a mini concert. ^^

Some random German DJ chick had the stage. German music.. tsssk!

As it was getting late-ish and we still hadn’t done the Australian or Chinese pavilions yet we headed off to the outback to see what Australia was all about.. ummmm, it was pretty good except for the main event inside the pavilion which turned out to be basically just a massive circular TV screen in a theatre. My only insult was that it was all in Chinese, no sub titles whatsoever. Sooo as a foreigner an Australian no less at the WORLD EXPO, I still had no idea what the hell was going on. All that aside, like I said it was alright and at that time the line was like 10 minutes long. Annnnnnyway! it was time for our last pavilion! the Chinese one. The structure itself was amazingly big! and we were sure as we approached it that it’d take ages, and in fact they had closed the entrance and stopped admitting people but we were able to just walk into one of the back entrances. Ummm.. so they had alot to show but the size of the structure makes you think that you will be able to go up to the top! well, you couldn’t. The entire Chinese display was on only one level and supposedly you could go up to the top if you got special tickets that are sold limitedly each day (only a few hundred) — the entrance to which was outside and really far away from the Chinese display. Soooo, yeah a LIL bit disappointed with the Chinese one but all the same it wasn’t a bad finish to the night.

Feeling completely tired and worn out, we headed home and caught the train at around midnight and crashed out in our dorm at around 1 in the morning. Oh what a day!