Berlin Zoo!

Today we visited the Berlin zoo and aquarium! It is apparently one of the biggest zoos in the world, and has the most animals out of any other zoo! It was absolutely massive! 

We got there at 11:30am and only left at 5:30, just before closing time! Today was just as hot as yesterday, but there was a cool breeze which made it slightly more bearable. It was a really nice day to go to the zoo. My favourite part of the day was getting the opportunity to watch the wolves be fed. It was a really cool experience! The wolves they had there were pure white and absolutely beautiful. 

I loved them, and so did Harrison! We got to see lions, tigers, bears (oh my!) (sorry), elephants, hippos, seals, leopards and so many more!

 And that was just in the zoo section! There were even more creatures in the aquarium! 

We also got to see the lions being fed! Which was cool (and pretty gruesome). The zoo is also set out so beautifully. It's huge, so all of the animals have very large and open enclosures. There were none that looked too cramped or unhappy, which I was really happy to see. There were also lots of ponds and gardens with benches that you could sit around on and see some of Berlin's native birds and small animals! That was something else that we really loved about the zoo. Whilst it held all of the zoo animals, they also had places like the gardens and open enclosures for native wildlife to use! It was such a beautiful place. 

There was also a petting zoo, where you could pet cute goats and sheep and things! I loved it! 

The aquarium was 3 storeys, but wasn't nearly as big as the zoo. They had all sorts of awesome looking fish and sea creatures, as well as amphibians and insects! 

It was really great! And provided a nice relief from the sun! 

Once we had finished wandering around the zoo (or more so that they were closing so we had to leave), 6 hours in total, we headed out to explore the area the zoo is in and find some dinner. Near the zoo train station is an old church that was bombed and severely damaged during WW2. They have left the church in ruins as a reminder, and hopefully a deterrent, to future generations about the war. It was a morbidly beautiful thing to see. Unfortunately it was closed for the day so we couldn't actually go inside.

Whilst walking around we stumbled across a small Sunday market. There was a little stage set up in the middle that had people playing traditional German music! There weren't too many stalls as most had probably closed up for the day, but it was really nice to see family's sitting around, listening to music together, eating, laughing, just enjoying each other's company. 

We wandered back towards the train station in search of dinner. We came across a kebab stall. We had been told that kebabs in Berlin are absolutely brilliant, so we decided to give it a go. We were sadly disappointed. There was more potato than meat, and I found what looked like a facial hair in mine! Yuck! However we will not base our opinions on the kebabs of Berlin on this one experience, I'm sure they are great. 

Tonight we have been blessed with a brilliant storm! It has cooled everything down quite a lot, and has just been beautiful.

Tomorrow we are leaving Berlin! We are going to a place in Germany called Dresden, where my friend Marie lives! We were both on exchange in Duluth when I did my USA exchange, and became very close friends! I haven't seen her in almost 3 years, so I am really excited!