Crowded! My main impression here at the Expo (for Americans: World Fair). We arrive at opening time (9:00) on a weekday and there was still nothing we could do to avoid the crowds. To get into the quite impressive Chinese Pavilion, you have to get a reservation at 4am. Most other pavilions had a wait of 2-5h, depending on popularity. I was nice just to wander around and see the different ways each nation represents itself. Some impressions:
Really Cool
- UAE (golden sand dunes)
- Nepal (temple/castle replica)
- Saudi Arabia (gigantic UFO/upside down hill with palms on top)
- Spain (some crescent shaped wood/straw thing)
Interesting
- Germany (weird shaped metal)
- France (some form of glass building behind what looked like bars)
- Sweden (white building with bike lane on top)
Bizarre
- North Korea (Slogan: Paradise for people)
- Iceland and Greece (amusingly both ran out of money midway, their buildings were metal frames with big posters)
- USA (a bland metal building without any interesting feature. The USA managed to be beaten by Iceland’s and Greece’s posters 😉 )
- Serbia (a lego building ?!)
My favorite: Spain.