Luckily, we both awoke early enough to get finished with breakfast before the first of the herd of youngsters started coming out. It was strange seeing kids line up for the cafe dispenser, totally ignoring the fruit juices, milk, and even sodas.
We easily jumped onto the Metro and were on our way, but there is a split in the rail path and we ended up going a stop past and having to go back and cross over to the other path.
It was the last stop, so it would have been real hard to miss. The exit dumps you out right at the entry gates to the fairgrounds. We arrived about 8:30, but it didn’t open until 10. So another game of “Let’s wait.”
The main layout of the pavilions is a large walkway with each lined up along the north and south sides, with smaller non-country pavilions spread out behind them or tucked into nooks between.
We started out thinking we could do 2 on one side then jump across and do 2 there, like a square wave pattern, but we realized that there was no reason to keep crossing the 100 yard or so of the main walkway, so we decided just to go down one side only and get the rest tomorrow. We made it all the way down the north side, but it was a long way back to the exit gate, over 2km according to our map.
Not much to say about any of the pavilions specifically, other than the US’s was idiotic. The lady directing everyone where to go pointed toward a long set of stairs. When mom groaned about how many there were, she took pity and asked if we wanted to use the elevator. Obviously, yes. The lift was right next to an escalator, which we took instead, making us wonder why the hell aren’t they using it for everyone? It is already running, no extra power needed. At the rooftop, there was nothing but a bar serving mixed drinks and cocktails, perfect for the hot day we had. The middle floor just had some sparse kiosks with generic information about US agriculture and a generic audio message from Obama welcoming everyone to the Expo. Not that many would understand it, you know, being that it is a foreign country.
I blame John Kerry. As Secretary of State, he is the head of the Expo pavilion committee.
As we headed toward the exit, darkness was falling. We didn’t get back to the hostel until about 11. We grabbed a couple of slices of pizza, knowing nothing else would be available.
Since most places have the food spread out cafeteria style, most of the pizza are rectangular, making best use of space. Because we said we wanted it to go, this place chopped it up into roughly inch sized pieces and gave us forks. I do have to admit, it might have been easier to eat that way, while walking.
We climbed the mountain of stairs to our room and found we had 2 more girls in with us. One was just leaving, but the other only spoke Spanish.
With me being the only guy and at least half of the room speaking Spanish, I feel like a minority. I’m tired enough, I am already asleep by lights out.
