Day 53: Milan: Expo 2015

September 12, 2015

Today was our first of two planned days at Expo 2015. It's kind of a mixed story. On the one hand there were parts we really enjoyed, and we'll get to those. But the headline story has got to be the crowds.

It started when we got on to the subway headed out to the site - an hour before opening time. The train was packed - like the scenes we have seen from Toyko, where officials sometimes have to push the patrons onto the cars. At the site, a river of people lined up for the lineup for entry. A fairly cursory screening was in effect, mainly for metal. They had 60 screening lines, and this was just the entrance by the metro. It seemed about the same near the trains. Once in, the river of people flowed into the main midway - a broad and dense movement of people. We found that at first we were able to see a few of the smaller things, and even to buy an item or two of food. But by 2:30 there was really no rational way to see or buy anything. That's why I am typing this at 3:30 on the site - we did manage to find a place to sit.

The arrangement of the expo is basically linear, with this main midway. It was convenient but maybe a km long

So what attracted this many people? The theme concerns food - nominally production, scarcity, types, etc. In practice there are opportunities to taste food of many nations - except that there are no giveaways, and even with money you have to reach the front of a line.

Many countries have set up independent pavilions, and many of these are large and feature the futuristic architecture that we enjoy at a World Exposition. In other cases, there are clusters of small country pavilions grouped around a food type, like rice or chocolate. In these cases, outdoor displays may tell the story of the production and distribution of the food type, while the country pavilions are more like gift shops for the countries.

Gift shops from various countries (and next two shots too)

Now Grampies like gift shops, and the chance to magically walk from Kenya to Benin, to Uzbekistan, etc., gift shop wise, was one of the best parts of the day. An aspect of this was that the shops are staffed by people from the specific country, often wearing national dress. So that made it feel like a mini visit to the country. Often there would be a small offering (for sale) of the food of the country. That way, we got a really nice plate of food from Ethiopia, and a sample of items from one of the "stans" - let's call it Turkmenistan. The "stans" are always a problem for world cyclists, so this was our chance!

Along the lines of getting to feel like we were in the country for just a minute, by meeting the pavilion staff, two stand out. The first was Kenya, where the fellow who stamped our program with the country stamp (like a passport) asked if we had ever been to Kenya, and then spontaneously gave us two tee shirts. A fellow standing just to one side spoke to me as well. He turned out to be someone who had been born in India but moved to Kenya 30 years ago. He was in Milan for a leather goods convention. He said he felt really at home in Kenya, and had stopped by the pavilion just to see some or any of his countrymen.

In the Kenya kiosk, Dodie has a new friend

The second stand out event was a music and dance performance from Benin. We just happened by an outdoor stage when it was starting, and so actually got a seat. The musicians and dancers were extremely professional, and authentic as can be. There were groups of both male and female dancers, both extremely energetic. So if you look at the photos, you may wonder about Dodie up there. They chose her from the crowd - I guess they can tell a good sport and energetic dancer!

The Benin musicians and dancers (and next four shots)

We are gathering strength here at this table, for walking back through the throngs to the entrance. We really have little hope of being able to see or try anything further - not without a 30-60 minute wait for whatever we might try. Too bad the thing is a victim if its own massive success. Tomorrow rain is forecast - that may help. And we have a scheme to zoom to the end of the basically linear layout, and then to work our way back, while the human tide may be flowing the other way.

The German pavilion - we had no chance of getting any closer than this

The Holy See even had a pavilion. The message was not to pollute God's earth, to not waste, and to share with the poor. We liked that.

This Scottish marching band cut a swath through the crowd. It would be good to rent them out to get anywhere on the site.

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