Slainte Mhath

So this was the first year I ever went to Mosaic, and it was an experience and a half. There were 19 different cultural pavilions to visit, but there was no way to visit them all in just three short days. Chris and I managed to go see 12 though, and they were all awesome in their own way. We bought our passports, and originally there were only a few places I wanted to check out, but having that passport (which also doubled as a buspass to each pavilion) stamped at each location was kind of addictive, I just wanted to see everything there was. I admit that after the end of each day, though, I was pretty tired from all of the travelling around!

• the Carribean pavilion was our eighth stop, and had the hugest line that we waited in, and was also the most disappointing stop for me. It was very overcrowded and I thought it had more good hype than it was worth. The steel drums were pretty sweet though.


• The Chinese pavilion was our seventh stop, and was one of my favourites. It had a beautiful bonzai tree garden (I had no idea there were so many different types) and I got my name written in Chinese (they took the sounds of my name and reinterpreted them into their writing system. It turns out I'm 'flower-root' which is pretty sweet). They also had a Chinese Yo-yo demonstration, which was pretty amazing. I almost tried it out, but then I got all weirded out because we had to be on stage and then there were only little kids trying so then I was all like "Yeah, NO!"
  
  
  

• Ethiopia was our ninth stop, it was really close to the Caribbean pavilion and in my opinion much better. They had belly-dancers performing and we ate some tasty sambosas.

• the German pavilion was stop number ten, and was the only stop where we saw any rain (and even then it was only for about a minute). We stepped inside and I instantly had a flashback memory of Disneyland in California, where my family stopped at a German-themed restaurant (odd, I know). It was all big wooden tables and traditional clothing, and was quite lovely. Chris ordered a bratwurst but I was still happily sated from the sambosa.

• the Irish pavilion was our very first (official, but actually second) stop, and I must say that it was very hard to top it. They had a traditional celtic-folk band on stage, and we also saw some irish dancing. There were lots of interesting kiosks for food and displays (including a money display, which was totally super awesome).


• Laos was the third place we visited, and my favourite part of that was the display of common phrases (Laotion-->English) and I got to see Chris' inner linguist. We spent a little bit of time analyzing the words and phrases and making hypotheses, which is more fun that I'm willing to admit here! haha

• The Greek pavilion was stop number four, and it was interesting. Chris bought some chamomile flowers for tea and some olive oil soap, and I was tempted by a pretty perfume bottle but ended up saying nay


• our fifth stop was the Kyiv Ukrainian pavilion, where Chris got his precious shishliki. There were lots of cool things to see, including a sheep carved out of butter

• the Indian pavilion was where we bought our passports, and admittedly we didn't actually go fully inside. There wasn't enough time before the bus was supposed to arrive and we decided there were other places we'd rather go.


• the Filipinas pavilion was our sixth stop, and inside they were doing some traditional dancing onstage. We browsed the jewelry and watched some dancing but ultimately didn't stay very long .
  

• the Scottish pavilion was our eleventh stop, and it was pretty sweet. The front was all decked out like a castle, and there was bagpipe music everywhere (a weakness of mine). I ended up buying a pewter flask with a beautiful knot design (below). The only trouble was at the entrance, where we had to check Chris' backpack. No other pavilion had this policy and it was unfortunate that we had to leave it at the front because it had lots of Chris' important stuff inside it.


• our twelfth and final stop was at Chile, and it was one of my favourites because they had awesome enchiladas. I'm a sucker for food.

There were seven pavilions we didn't have enough time to get to:

1. Aboriginal Peoples


2. Miorita Romanian


3. Italian


4. Balaton Hungarian


5. Poltava Ukrainian


6. Latin American


7. Austrian Edelweiss

My one regret all weekend was the bus, or rather, how much I complained about the bus. It was loud, crowded, and always late, but really I could've just manned up about it :) live and learn.