If you didn’t know, Milan is currently hosting the World Expo (Alex was surprised that they still have those). Luckily, we had discussed this with some friends before leaving Copenhagen, so made a special point to stop in Milan for a few days. While this was Alex’s first Expo, Kristina actually went in Vancouver in the 1980s. So at least she had some vague idea of what to expect.
The theme this year was food and the United Nations sponsored a number of exhibitions looking at food safety and sustainability (maybe an opportunity for an EKF CSR Department excursion?). We saw various countries’ interpretations of the theme. Some were really great, some were really not. Our favorite country exhibitions included Poland, the UK and Bahrain. Interestingly, each of these 3 countries included different interpretations of gardens. The US exhibition had a really cool “waterfall wall” as well as a taped speech by Obama, but while impressive, it didn’t make our top 3.
We spent all day at the Expo but still didn’t manage to see it all. We were ultimately driven out around 22.00 by the mosquito invasion that started at dusk. In any case, it was a lot of fun but a bit cheerleading and nationalistic at times (yes we mean you Russia) and somewhat creepy at others (see Slovakian mannequins below).
Main entrance
Expo from afar
UN exhibition on food sustainability
This movie wall showing various short clips was particularly impressive
The main road of the Expo. The area was 1 million square meters in total
Our first country
Belarus
Malaysia
UK
Poland
This was the Dutch exhibition. Seriously
This wasn’t in operation unfortunately
China – a sea of LED lights
Clay figure making Peking duck
The French exhibition was only in French of course. But we did understand this animated film – fast food zapping people fat!
At the supermarket of the future a robot will pick up an apple and place it in a paper cup (!?)
Just touch the item you want to learn about and information is displayed above
USA
Waterfall wall and outdoor air conditioning. It was well over 30 degrees so nice to cool off
More cool waterfalls
The US exhibition had a vertical garden – all of these vegetables are also grown at the White House
Japan – Alex tasted 4 kinds of sake
We were given this empty bottle of sake as a gift. Nice gesture but it just ended up in the recycling bin
The public water fountains had sparkling as an option. Only in Italy
When in Laos, have iced coffee and sticky rice stick
Cheese snack. Mmm
Russia
Russian bar (from the future?)
A large serving at a large table in Slovakia
Spooky mannequins
Rooftop stage at Turkmenistan. Why not?
Oman
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