A world pub crawl
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| Visitors in front of a giant football outside the Brazil Pavilion. |
Russia's Snow Bar rocks on Wednesdays, Angola's mixologists make new shots on Thursdays and Ireland will get you feeling FIFA World Cup fever with "match platters", pies and pints inside the Expo Garden starting from Friday.
With the quadrennial soccer fest kicking off in South Africa on Friday night and the mercury hitting the 30 C as summer sets in, the Expo is a great place to try exotic cuisines, sink the world's best beers and chant for your team in between pavilion hopping.
Not that the beers are always cheap, with Crown Larger at Australia's Sand Bar going for 58 yuan a bottle, and many of the venues may not have screens for watching the World Cup.
Australia has built a strong following by offering live music during the evenings on an outdoor stage, with plenty of seating available at its rocking Sand Bar in the shadow of its ochre-colored pavilion.
"It's the best place in the Expo. You get live music and beer. It's open late, with friendly service, beautiful women and good-looking men. Just like a regular Aussie pub. It's culturally accurate, I'd say," joked Max Hay, bass guitarist with the bar's regular band, also called the Sand Bar.
Future World Cup host Brazil has said it will screen its country's matches on its outdoor screen, while current tournament host South Africa will make games available on smaller TV screens, said a spokesperson for the pavilion.
South Africa offers an extensive wine list at its slick bar, which is surrounded by African handicrafts and culture, plentiful seating and World Cup trivia. Images of the 2010 World Cup's 10 stadiums, which cost $1.3 billion to build or renovate, plaster the walls.
In case 91-year-old Nelson Mandela doesn't make the opening ceremony on Friday night at Johannesburg's Soccer City, as planned, his image covers the pavilion's facade to get you more in a celebratory mood.
Russia's Snow Bar is best visited on Wednesday nights, when the Expo staff head there to let off steam with cocktails and laser shows, a Russian DJ pumping out soft lounge beats and leggy blonds dancing on the bar tops. Like the multi-turreted pavilion, the honeycombed wooden bar was built by star Russian designer Boris Krasnov.
"Guests and staff tend to get tired midweek so it's a good day to party," said pavilion manager Tatiana Miroshnikova, who is hoping to get some plasma TV screens installed for the World Cup.
Original cocktails like the Moscow mojito, made with vodka instead of rum, and Siberian sunrise compete for attention with four brands of vodka. The most expensive of these is Imperia, which goes for 60 yuan a shot. The Russians seem less particular about their beer, with one only brand, Baltica, coming in light, dark and strong brews for 29 yuan a bottle.
Down the road, Malta's bar ranks as one of the Expo's best-kept secrets. It offers Malta's three most popular beers, including Cisk, on tap. The atmospheric wooden bar opens onto the street while remaining hidden from the crowds.
"It's basically an exact replica of the Jubilee caf-bars back in Malta. We devoted much of our space to building this after our commissioner general saw how popular it could be at the Aichi Expo in Japan in 2005," said bar manager Liliana Duda.
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