Day 12: Vienna

Now if you didn't know, Mollie (and I) really like animals, and we always try to make a point of visiting a zoo when we can. Of course, when we learnt Vienna has one of the best zoos in the world, we knew we had to visit.

The zoo itself makes up about a quarter of the Schönbrunn Palace Gardens, a huge complex that holds one of Austrias most beautiful palaces. It was therefore a pleasure to walk through these gardens on the way in and out of the zoo, and in particular, the view from the Gloriette is a must see, much like the one from Prague Castle, offering sweeping views across the city.

But of course, that isn't the focus here. No. The focus is the zoo, and the fluffy animals within it. 

The first creatures you witness as you enter are the koalas and the kangaroos, both sweet Australian animals, that probably, like most things from Australia, could kill you or I with ease. However these were soon overshadowed by one of the stars of the show, the Giant Pandas. Although smaller than expected, they made up for this with their sheer glory and laziness, one even making the effort to flop over onto its side like an exhausted Mollie after a long day at Sainsburys. 

Now, to save myself a lot of writing (I swear I'm doing more than just write this blog, swearsies) I'm going to give a quick summary of some of the animals we saw:

-Red Panda, elusive and cute

-Rabbits, floppy, lazy and cute

-Guinea Pigs, scurried a lot, also cute (notice a theme?)

-Goats, 'precious', dumb and funny

-Leopard, surprisingly tame, looked fluffy, but wouldn't stroke

-Orangutang, angry, potentially because of the children screaming in the nearby cafe

-Lizards, scaly and scary

-Lion, chilled out

-Tiger, regal, fluffy and magnificent

-Polar Bears, liked to tussle, very fluffy

-Black Bear, cute and lazy and looked like it was having the time of its life in a swing

Right, with that done, I can move on to arguably the best part of the day, if not the holiday so far. This was the sea lion feeding. When we arrived, we immediately noticed something, namely the sea lion that seemed 3 times as big as the others. We called this one Big Poppa. We then noticed the overhanging rock, where the trainer was standing. Then, we saw Big Poppa climbing. Then, a fish was thrown. Splash, Big Poppa had jumped, more gracefully than Tom Daley off the 10m board, catching the fish in mid air, before landing, drowning approximately 7 children unfortunate enough to be in the splash zone. We were shocked, horrified even, was this 1 ton mound of blubber going to be okay? We watched in awe as he hauled himself from the water, like an Olympic swimmer might after winning the gold medal. We stood, jaws on the floor, as he once again hopped up the stairs, to the fish platform. We froze, as time may have, as the trainer threw another fish. As if in slow motion, it tumbled end over end, and he was in the air once more, breeze whistling through his whiskers, travelling at speed unparalleled by modern vehicles, majestically floating, as if on a cloud, or in a bubble before the illusion shattered. An earth booming splash erupted outwards, although the children were more wary, the only victim this time being a poor defenceless pram. And it was over. Big Poppa was full and it was time to go home.

Now nothing I write about the rest of the day can match that masterpiece, and so I'll wrap up briefly. We grabbed falafel, and watched arrested development in the apartment, forever changed by the beauty of Big Poppa and his aerial acrobatics.

Fin.