Once upon (last) December...

I went to the Belgrade Zoo.

It is one of those strange places that is all at once awe inspiring and tragic. I am not ashamed to say I loved every second of it. I think it perfectly encapsulates both Belgrade and Serbia in a weird, philosophical way. Its an eclectic mix of state of the art zoo-ness and sad, probably abusive caging. Having said that, the charm lies in the perfection it reaches by allowing you dangerously close to the animals and showing off some of the most bizarre exhibits possible. I went with Brooke and Connor and we had an absolute blast. Check out some awesome photos below and then if you're interested (which I know you are) you can see all of them here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2405564140499.2107402.1293000428&type=3&l=8aef8c8fa6

And we were off to a roaring start...pun intended. I would also like to point out that I have trained Connor to take any picture that strikes my fancy. Brooke I'm still working on.

They had animals randomly wandering. They had a million Peacocks. We had to go a different direction because the Peacocks and their babies were taking up an entire walkway.

So, the animals are dangerous. No big deal.

Except when you can literally put your hand in the mountain lion's cage.

This was the sad tiger cage off the walls of the fortress. That was pretty much it...tigers and rocks. Ironically, the lions and bears had equally terrible cages. Lions, tigers and bears...   You know who had an awesome cage? The mountain goats.

This is an explanation of the Christmas story. That back there is a manger quite like we imagined Christ to have been born in. You can't see it well in this photo but that stinky sheep has incredibly twisty horns. Brooke said, "Those horns are like sin." Connor scoffed. I chimed in with, "They're twisty just like how sin gets in our life and twists it all around, making it unrecognizable". Connor was left speechless.

Then we saw this giraffe making out with the pole. Kind of awkward after the Jesus discussion.

Then I put my face next to this frighteningly large and angry cat.

And then Connor refused to put his face by this ostrich. To be fair the ostrich could reach about five feet past this retaining wall. Connor was afraid it would attack his face. Valid concern, but still wimpy.

Then we found a pick axe that was just laying around near the monkey exhibit. Apparently for when the monkeys get out of hand...then you use it like this.

So...this is sideways. Still, look at that guinea pig colony. One of the best parts of the zoo.

They also had lots of dogs, at times I felt like I was in a pet shop.

We also got crazy close to a hippo. Who was in a very small dirty place.

Then we were amazed by this ridiculously long snake. See "amazed faces" for confirmation.

Then Brooke pretended to be a wallaby...and he looked at her like she was dumb.

AND we saw flamingos. No zoo is complete without them. These were in exile with only their tiny turtle pools for entertainment. 

Last, but not least, this is a video of Brooke and Connor making a new friend. On an unrelated note, Connor was trying to name the smells of every part of the zoo. I think this area was "heat and broccoli".