I had barely shut my eyes when the alarm went off this morning. I rolled out of bed and was hit with the rank smell of my hair and clothes from the night before. Smoking is still allowed in bars and clubs and my hair soaks it all up like a sponge. I tied my clothes in a bag and hopped in the shower. At least I was clean, but I felt so completely out of it and was so not ready to present anything. However, maybe because I was tired, my nerves couldn't take me over and I presented my slides somewhat coherently. I think everyone was so tired at this point, it didn't really matter anyway. People started leaving around 11 and we left at about 12 to go to the zoo. I decided to stay at least one more day and take Skylar somewhere because he really had been so patient this week and I hadn't gotten to take him anywhere outside of the set academic and social activities since we got there. He told me over breakfast that he had a really fun week already though.
The zoo was big, but not enormous. I think we got to see everything and take as many pictures as we could. Skylar is developing quite an eye for his pictures and he really took some great shots. It seemed many of the animals were in small, but open areas, not just cages, which was nice. When we walked in we saw monkeys swinging all over this play area. Then we walked along past some animals I had never heard of and can't seem to find the names for on the internet. We were able to pet a giant turtle and some adorable lemurs. The lemurs were apparently trained to stay in the area by use of electric fences and now the fences were turned off, so the only slightly timid creatures wander around and swing from trees. There were some very interactive gorillas in a cage that was way too small for my liking. They came right up to the glass and put their faces against it or tapped it. They were stunning. In the bird section we saw a great variety like macaws, parakeets, quail, owls, flamingos, pelicans, and a bunch that I can't remember. There was dozen different kinds of monkeys, baboons, pygmy marmosets, something like a sloth, squirrels, foxes, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my. There were wolves, bison, emus, elephants, giraffe, and zebras. In the aquarium there were a bunch of incredible fish I don't think I've seen before. There were frogs, turtles, lizards, and snakes too. All in all, a typical zoo, but there were a least a few that might not be seen in US zoos, so it was pretty neat. Skylar played on the playgrounds and we wandered around the entire thing until it closed. Unfortunately he lost his hat somewhere.
We got back to the Hostel and ran into a few of the group from the Masters class that were also staying for another day or two. They were just on their way to dinner and invited us along. We had very sore feet, but thought the idea of dinner was a great idea. Much better than my idea of sitting in the cafe with free internet. So we walked to this quaint little Indonesian and Tibetan place. They didn't have much variety for vegetarians, but we got the couple choices they did have and they were wonderful. Some of the guys shared a bunch of food they could hardly finish and some others seemed to be having trouble communicating what they wanted to the waitress who they decided was in a bad mood. A few of us got dessert that was also amazingly yummy. When the 260 euro check came around and people left only 7 euro, I got a little upset. I know they tip less in Europe, but that was barely 5% and 5 euro of it was mine. They said the waitress wasn't friendly and whatnot. It just made me so upset... being a waitress and bartender for so many years has ingrained some standards in me. The people from the US each threw in another euro or two to appease me and we left.
Most of the group went off to some more wandering, but it was late (nearly 11) and I wanted to get back so we could get up early tomorrow either to go home or to the beach. I finally decided I wanted to stay another day to go to the beach so I checked for a room and lied about Skylar's age (he had to be 12) so that we could stay in a mixed room. We checked into our tiny room and settled in for bed.
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