Hi Everybody!
Unfortunately my Saturday plans for the zoo got postponed because on the way there I tripped over a tram rail while crossing the street. Thankfully, it's just a sprained ankle, but it immediately started swelling so I hobbled to the pharmacy across the street and then back to the hotel room to rest. The closest thing I got to a zoo was watching Kung Fu Panda. I've learned that wherever I am in the world, cartoons are pretty universal, so even though I don't speak any Czech I knew what was going on lol. It also helps that children's film plotlines aren't too hard to follow lol.
I spent 99% of the day in bed resting, however yesterday we had already bought tickets to the concert with ballet and opera at the Municipal house next door. So I rallied; I put on my new charity shop dress from Jersey and earrings from Austria and made my way to across the street.
I will say that one benefit to being injured is that I got to ride this very cool glass elevator to the fourth floor whilst everyone else had to take the stairs. There was an attendant and everything, and he literally had to lock us into the elevator before having it go up! I felt like I was in an old Hollywood movie.
The Municipal House was built from 1905-1911 and used to be the King's Court royal residence. However that was eventually demolished, and this building was intentionally created instead to be the center of Czech social life and historical events. The Art Nouveau style was beautiful and mom and I had the best seats on the balcony. I can see why back in the day they would spy on others in the boxes to the sides or on the people below them, it was prime people watching territory. Next time I'll definitely need to bring binoculars.
We actually went to a show off season, so they only had a small chamber orchestra, a soprano opera singer, and four academy ballet dancers. They played a lot of Mozart and Dvorak and for the finale, they played a march where the conductor had us all clapping in time. It was nice to get out of the room for an hour and listen to live classical music.
Afterwards mom and I were a bit hungry since we skipped dinner. It was 9 pm and I had the entire municipal house cafe to myself! I felt like a princess and had to document the moment of course.
After the concert I went straight to bed and it looks like all that resting paid off because the next morning Mom and I made it to the zoo! The zoo here is the third best in the world and they have over 5,000 animals and over 130 threatened species. This zoo was built in 1931 with the goal to advance the study of zoology, protect the wildlife, and educate the public. They did a great job because they had some of the most well taken care of animals I've ever seen.
Also, something really crazy is how many enclosures you could walk into. As you can imagine I walked through every single one of them. Even the one with the vultures who where more than half my size and feasting on carrion. Here I am with some kangaroos and pelicans.
The lion and the tiger were both really showing off for the cameras! I'd like to think it was because I kept calling them by saying "here kitty, kitty" and therefore have special feline superpowers. However, I think the more accurate assessment is that it was getting close to mealtime lol.
The zoo also had these huge tortoises and the only Western Santa Cruz tortoise in Czechia. Apparently the higher a tortoise can stretch its neck out, the higher it is in the hierarchy. We think this guy was probably the tortoise mob boss despite being the smallest one there because she could stretch her neck the highest of them all!
The elephants were at the top of a very large hill so mom and I stopped for ice cream along the way. While this isn't Jersey soft serve, the chocolate was a true dark chocolate soft serve and it was so yummy!
The elephants will always be my very favorite and we spent the most time enjoying watching them.
Although these bat eared foxes were quite cute too!
And I had quite a laugh at the Turkmenian kulans who were literally labeled as "Asiatic wild ass" lol! You and me both kulans.
Something I totally didn't expect to find was this giant triceratops skeleton, which is a model of a real skull named Trick's who ironically was found in Montana but lives here in Prague at their dinosaur museum. Wonder how that trade occurred.
Even trying to keep the walking to a minimum we still managed to hit 6 miles, which my ankle didn't love. But this Ferrero Rocher cake was great incentive to leaving the zoo and getting back to the hotel to rest more!
And just like that our time in Prague has ended. While it was more resting than I intended to do, I really did enjoy my time here.
One more week before I'm home.
Missing you all!
Lots of love,
Carolyn
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