Location: Vienna, Austria

Meaghan: Savanna has been plotting which zoo we will visit since day one, and today was the day! She chose the Vienna Zoo, Tiergarten Schönbrunn, the oldest zoo in the world. It’s on the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace and is unlike any zoo I’ve seen at home. It was beautiful.

Once she was fully awake this morning she was like a little kid on Christmas. She was easily as excited as the other children around us. We arrived shortly after the zoo opened, grabbed a coffee and she mapped out our path to see every single exhibit. It was a day filled with excited hand flapping and gasps of “OH MY GOD MEAGHAN LOOK LOOK!” There was also a lot of “Ohah!” and scurrying over to the next exhibit.

The one animal that I just don’t get is the anteater. Have you ever really looked at one? They are just the weirdest. They remind me of Mulefas from “The Amber Spyglass”. The anteaters were taking a snooze when we went by and they were arguably even more weird all curled up like that, with their tails draped over them as blankets. I wouldn’t mind having a blanket attached to me all the time!

Sav: GUYS GUYS THIS WAS THE BEST DAY. I had to literally stop myself from running around the zoo, and I don’t like to run. Ever. Everything was so beautiful and I was just excited every minute, trying not to freak out. I even got Meaghan to take a picture of me on top of the Rhino statue… Which may or may not have been meant for children. I was excited that the zoo was partially conservation oriented and that the panels included vital information on this, which zoos so often do not.

My first favourite exhibit was the polar bears. There were two playing around together in the water and with their toys but in such an animated way that Meaghan and I rapturously watched it for almost half an hour. I’ve never seen bears, or any animal play this way. They would dive around, in and out of the pool and bat barrels and soccer balls back and forth at each other and spiral swim around like they were just having the best time. It was so fast paced and fun to watch.

M: The polar bears were amazing! They were like puppies. We watched underwater mostly, so they were fast and graceful.

I also loved the bats. They were so big and SO CLOSE. It looks like they’re wearing fur sweater vests. We went in to a little dark bat cave and tiny bats were whizzing around in every direction. This is probably the one exhibit Savanna was ready to leave before me. She waited just at the edge of the bat cave and I stood inside covering my mouth to stop the squeals as they zipped by two inches from my face. It was amazing.

S: They were literally ruffling our hair it was so creepy!! The other exhibit I loved was the squirrel monkeys. There were two of them cuddling under a heat lamp and Meags got a photo of me almost in tears about the whole thing cause I was so happy. She patiently waited for me to stop blubbering about it all, and we moved on from the zoo after a glorious 6 hours. BUT LUCKY US IT WASN’T OVER YET. We still had the Palm house and the Desert house to go to!

M: That sounds like sarcasm, but it’s not! The Palm House had a ton of interesting tropical plants and cute little places to sit and soak it all in. (S: and it was really warm, which was nice for a change!) Our last stop was the Desert House, where they have a tank of Doctor fish for some reason. I stuck my hand in the tank and it felt so cool – like hundreds of little fish kisses. Savanna went next and almost jumped out of her skin when the first fish touched her.

S: It was the best/worst feeling! Like sure, clean off my hands, creepy little sucky fish! But not just one of you! Please, all 47 of you at once sounds better! It was cool once I got used to it. After all the zoo fun we went out to explore the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace, and it was extravagant. So many alleys of huge hedges, all lined with statues and benches and each ending with something impressive, whether it be a huge recreation of a Roman ruin, or a golden eagle topped obelisk.

M: By this point we were starving, so we grabbed some noodle bowls at the train station. I almost asked for the chilli sauce, but when Savanna said 20 minutes later that her mouth was still on fire I realized I made the right choice in going with soya sauce. We ate the noodles and an ice cream bar while watching a Trevor Noah comedy show and playing cards.

S: It was a great end to a long day.

S&M