Thursday December 16th 2021 Dubai World Expo 2020.
Our adventure for the day was the Dubai 2020 World Expo. After breakfast we packed a backpack for our day's outing. We arrived there around 1pm and parked at the Sustainability Parking Lot. I had finally learned to navigate to a parking lot near a business or vent rather than the actual business itself.
We had purchase Annie's Multi-day Ticket online and while my Senior Ticket was free I had to go to a ticket booth to pick it up. As we were waiting in line Annie realized she had forgottenher Covid Vaccination Card. Luckily she had a photo of it on her phone which they accepted.
The first thing we did once we were inside was stop at the North Pole Pavilion where Annie wrote a letter to Santa. Next we found an official Expo Gift Shop and purchased a couple Expo 2020 Passports. One of the first Pavilions we visited was Brazil's. There was a gift shop there with a Filipino salesman. A very nice young man and of course he and Annie hit it off quite well. He tried his best to sell her a pair of Ipanema flip flops. Actually he tried to sell me a pair of Ipanema flip flops for Annie!
We spent the rest of the day checking out about a dozen Pavilions. Actually my Passport has 15 stamps. The weather was perfect and we had an amazing day. I especially like Slovenia, a place I had never researched but after checking out the Pavilion it is a place I definitely want to visit. I had planned to tour Europe in 2020 but the Pandemic changed all that. Hopefully Annie and I can make it there in the next couple of years and we will visit Slovenia if at all possible.
Around dark we wound up back at the Brazilian Pavilion and I decided that Annie should have the Ipanema flip flops. Then we walked a short distance and ordered some fast food from Al Farwania. It only offers outdoor dinning which was fine but all the tables were occupied. We finally sat at a table occupied by a young lady. It was the only option available but I'm not sure she appreciated us disturbing her privacy. She hardly acknowledged our presence, completely occupied with texting on her phone. At some point she left.
After eating we visited the Singapore and Czech Pavilions. In the Czech Pavilion we found the Pilsner Urquell. The original brewery of the first Pilsner beer. Of course I had to try one of their original concoctions while Annie sipped green tea. We split an apple strudel. The place had a great atmosphere which is often more important to me than the menu.
Next we went to the top of the Singapore Pavilion where there was a nice view of the Sustainability Area of the Expo.
From there we made our way back to the shuttle stop and luckily found the right bus to get us back to our stop at the parking lot. The organizers of the Expo did a great job of laying everything out. They had guides positioned at key locations that assisted you with any issue you might have. It was an awesome day!