Zooing it up a Notch

                Since we are still unemployed couch hobos we have to be productive, but we also have to get out of the flat once and awhile or else we will go crazy. What we tend to do is one day in and then one day out (for a few hours, at least). When we woke up today the sun was shining so we decided to visit the London Zoo (http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo). It ended up being the perfect day for it. The sun was out but it wasn’t too hot and a Wednesday in April means it’s not overly crowded.

                The zoo is massive and located inside Regent’s Park. We had taken the tube to Camden Town and got to walk through the area on our way to the entrance. There is so much to see at the zoo and we easily wasted several hours. We began with the aquarium, which I don’t really like because I am scared of fish. Then we moved on to the reptiles, which are awesome. Snakes are cool. It’s also where they shot the snake scene from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone! After that we saw some gorillas, which apparently freak Sarah out because they too closely resemble humans. Then we backtracked and saw some giant (and I mean giant) tortoises and the coolest thing ever: komodo dragons. Then we stopped by their Outback exhibit, which has kangaroos and emus. There were two kangaroos that went inside and were sleeping. They were super cute and funny. One of them was sleeping like a drunk.

                After that we went to the tiger area but there was only one sleeping tiger in the whole exhibit. That is because the female tiger just had cubs this week, so obviously they aren’t going to be on display yet. We stopped and grabbed an early lunch because if we waited until actual lunchtime we’d have to fight with the school groups and children. From lunch we went to the penguins, who are major famewhores. They want your attention so badly. After that we checked out some bugs (yes, there is an exhibit on bugs) and a butterfly tent. We got to walk around an open enclosure with some monkeys. We saw some lions. Then we saw the llamas. One of the llamas had babies on April 16^th and the babies were out. They were adorable and so cute! It’s probably the only time I will ever see a baby llama.

                Having conquered the main part of the zoo we went through the tunnel to the last few exhibits. Up first was Africa. We saw pygmy hippos which are actually kind of cute because they are little. I couldn’t help but laugh thinking of the lurking hippos during the Calgary flood. The giraffes and zebras and okapi (?) were all outside because the day was nice. From there we went to the rainforest exhibit. Supposedly there are sloths in there but I didn’t see any, which was disappointing. The chinchillas were adorable, though.

                The last exhibit of the day contained the cutest otters in the world, fruit bats, reindeer and meercats. Fortunately, the meercats were not having a bloodbath like the last time I was at the zoo. Having finished for the day we decided to walk through Regent’s Park and grab the tube from Baker Street rather than Camden Town. It would have been a more enjoyable walk had I not walked my feet off at the zoo. I don’t think proper footwear exists for me.