Mission complete!

Oh yes, one more day at the Expo! Linda and I wanted to visit one more time together, and Kathleen tagged along. We all had a few different things we wanted to see and do, but also visited a few pavilions together. I had two pavilions left I needed to see - Egypt and Austria.
Our plan was to go see Egypt first thing, but when we arrived it turned out they had the pavilion closed for sanitation until 1pm, so plan B - start with Austria:

I really liked Austria, both inside and out. Their pavilion was inspired by the burjeels of the UAE, the wind towers, but constructed as cones in three different heights:

Then we took on the Vision Pavilion, a pavilion we all wanted to see. It tells the story of the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It was beautifully made, really poetic:

Time for a coffee break - and a raspberry croissant!

Linda wanted to see the ENOC pavilion (=Emirates National Oil Company), and it was surprisingly nice. I haven't actually bothered much about the "extra" pavilions, I have concentrated on the country pavilions; but the ones I have visited have all been really interesting. This was all about energy:

We also managed to find the piece of the Eiffel Tower displayed in one of the parks. I find these connections to previous World Expos really nice. Did you know that the Eiffel Tower was constructed for the Paris Expo in 1889, and was actually never supposed to be a permanent structure?

Then 1pm came and I queued up one last time, to get into my very last country pavilion - Egypt.

It was extremely hot, and wearing jeans really wasn't my best idea, but luckily we didn't have to queue for more than about 45 minutes. And the pavilion was fantastic!

I know, I know, the theme of the Expo2020 is 'Connecting minds - Creating future'; but for me, personally, my favourite pavilions have certainly been those who focus more on presenting all that each country has to offer, both culture, history, adventures, nature etc. Like Egypt did!

And there we have it - 9 visits and 192 pavilions later, I picked up my very last country pavilion stamp here at the Egypt Pavilion! Mission complete!

It feels really great to have "seen it all", but most of all - it has been such a great pleasure to "travel the world" these past six months. Especially after those dreary Covid-years we have just been through.
I am so grateful to have been able to experience a World Expo in this way - when will I ever get the chance to do that again? It really has been the most amazing event! The "Worlds Biggest Show" for sure!

I have one more visit left, with the family. Although that will be during Spring Break, and during the last week of Expo... so I guess we will just be wandering around to soak up the atmosphere, as we surely won't be the only ones there...
But I really want to go - just one more time!