Dec. 28: Return to the Flora Expo

Tuesday we returned to the Taipei International Flora Expo to see the exhibits we hadn't seen yet. This time we left ridiculously early and arrived at the expo nearly an hour before it opened. There were already people lining up, waiting to be the first ones into the expo, so we got in line as well.

For the indoor exhibits they only allow a certain number of people in at a time so they pass out separate tickets for entrance into these parts after you get into the expo. Dandrich and I were going to try to go see one or two of these indoor exhibits but gave up after the gates opened and I was overrun by some 70-year-old lady and her cane. As soon as the gates opened everybody ran in to get the tickets. It was crazy.

Instead we just looked at the flowers, which after all is supposed to be the purpose of the expo. Of course the flowers were really beautiful. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is situated in the grounds of the expo so we also visited a special exhibit held there on Paul Gauguin.  It was a nice exhibit although they only had a few of his later works.

While at the expo, we got some rose-flavored ice cream that they even made look like a rose in the cone. It was pretty delicious but unfortunately it's only a limited time flavor available at the expo. The place we got the ice cream from also had a flavor called 'Obama Chocolate Brownie.'

By the time we got out of the Fine Arts Museum the Flora Expo was inundated with visitors so we didn't stay very long after that. It is still unbelievable to me that so many people would visit the expo everyday. However,  Taiwan is considerably smaller than the United States so it is easy for people all over Taiwan to visit the expo. And since it is smaller and there are fewer things to do here I guess anything new is also pretty exciting.