Zootopia

We went to the zoo! And it was amazing! We hadn't been to the zoo in forever and it was so much fun! I was very excited so I was up at 10:00am making toast for breakfast. I only made us one piece each because the plan was to get donuts before we got to the train (because those donuts are amazing). We ate and got dressed which took 30 minutes. The plan was to leave at 11:30am. So we had some time on our hands. I spent some time doing my hair nicely while Jess returned to sleeping until 11:30am happened and we trotted off to the shop. But, to our horror, they were out of donuts! Hurt but not defeated we elected to get another chocolate croissant and return after the zoo to see if they were back in stock. With that we hit the train and headed to Sete Rios station where the zoo was a familiar 5 minute walk away! We're rather lucky we took that stroll when we bought the bus tickets because we never would have known how close the zoo was and never would have thought to visit it!

We meandered the Downtown-Disney-esque area outside the zoo to see if the carousel was open, having decided we needed to ride a double decker carousel at least once before leaving Europe, but we found it was still not open. We did find a cool flea-market type deal in the area though, with lots of tables and booths selling a variety of wares! We didn't purchase anything, but it was still fun to see the things people make and sell!

We were going to stop and have our croissant on one of the benches but we decided it'd be way better to eat it while checking out the whole zoo from the top of the gondola ride! So we stood in line and bought our tickets and made a bee-line right for the ride! There was hardly a wait, maybe 3 minutes, before we both scampered on to, as they call it at the zoo, the Cable Car. There are no seats on the ride, you just stand in a little cage that feels like a basket while it takes you around the whole park! We happily munched and crunched on our croissant as it took us around. It passed the aquatic show area first where nothing was going on but we still saw a few dolphins swimming about and heard at least one sea lion. Then it took us over the outside part of the park which we thought would be a good time to check if the carousel was up but it was hidden by trees so bang went that theory. Then it took us uphill all the way to the edge of the park! We passed over hippos, leopards, monkeys, antelopes, getting a view of a variety of animals the zoo offered before we hit the top and descended down over new exhibits of flamingos, elephants, giraffes and more! It was really a great way to start the day so we knew where things were and what the park looked like!

Following that ride we just wandered the left side of the park, seeing what we'd missed on the ride or what we wanted to see more of. We ended up in the Reptile Area, one of those buildings you go into to see small animals in small quarters and it's always really hot so it keeps a solid flow of people moving in and out. We saw a lot fo snakes and a whole pool in the center of the area just filled with turtles. We also saw an alligator who had a large pond area all to himself which took up half the building. A lot of the animals there weirded me out because I'm not a big reptile or amphibian fan. They don't scare me but they don't seem particularly exciting or attractive and I wouldn't want one as a pet ever. Still, it was fun to look around and see all the scaley things from a distance! We eventually exited into the cool refreshing air and it was around this time I decided we needed an ice cream. There were plenty of stands around and it seems to me no day at the zoo is complete without an ice cream. One feels ridiculous wandering about the zoo without an ice cream in hand. So we stopped and got a soft serve cone that's vanilla with a chocolate drizzle mixed in. Now, here in Portugal, they have an interesting way of doing soft serve, at least at ice cream places we went to. While in the US we fill a whole machine with the ice cream where you can tower your ice cream as high as you want, in Portugal there are containers with a porton of soft serve that they load into a machine that swirls it and puts it onto the cone! Totally cool!

Ice cream in hand (but not for long because it was delicious) we found snow leopards who looked super fluffy and wonderful and rhinos which have really funky looking skin, but we also found, weirdly enough, raccoons. Just like regular run-of-the-mill raccoons on display. I mean, I guess they don't have raccoons in Portugal or something but it was still a hoot to see! People were snapping pictures and ooing and ahing and it was great! We walked all the way up the length of the park into essentially the savanna area where all the animals look like variations of antelope and deer just larger but they were cool to see as we reached the very border of the park. We took a rest at the top of the hill and thought about having our sandwiches but decided it wasn't the right time for it. I'm not sure why we felt that way, but we did, so we just sat there until we realized the only way back was the path we'd come and revisited all the animals we'd just seen which was still nice.

Not too long after I decided I wanted another ice cream so I got a Cookies n Cream cone and Jess got a strawberry soft-serve (because we realized we didn't have to share) and we promptly got lost in some kind of monkey exhibit which was the exact opposite of where we wanted to be because we hate monkeys. I think I saw too many Monkey Mauling stories on the news growing up but those creatures legitimately do freak me out and I prefer not to be around them. Jess feels the same so we attempted to go somewhere away from the monkeys but ended up going further towards more monkeys. Ew. Finally we managed to escape, heading over to see the Big Cats. We were experts at spotting the animals that where hidden up in trees or behind bushes. The lynx was the trickiest to find (except the ocelot who we couldn't find at all) and the lions were the easiest because they live in a kind of savanna area where there weren't many places to hide. We resaw the snow leopard we'd passed before but also saw tigers and cheetahs, both of which were very pretty and soft looking.

We reached the beginning of the park again and decided to take another gondola ride! We drank some water and chillaxed that time, just taking a sweet ride around the park. We saw as we began the ride though, that the aquatic show was about to start. After getting off the gondola ride we could still hear it going and decided to just get back on and watch the show from the ride! We only saw part of it, since the ride takes you away from the aquatic area eventually, but we saw some tricks from the sea lions and some flips from the dolphins from the best seats in the house by far! When we got off that time we could tell the show had gotten out because the park was filled with people once again! Not just that, but the line for the gondola had grown from nothing to filling the whole queue! We certainly got on just in time!

We finally decided it was time for our sandwiches so we relaxed on a bench and people watched as everyone found their bearings post-show to figure out their next move. We also checked out the mini gift shop near us but nothing spoke to us so we moved on for a final sweep of the park. We came across a bird area we hadn't seen before that was slightly removed from the flamingo area. There was a sections for large emu-looking birds called rhea's, an encagement for a weird medium sized bird who looked perpetually angry, and a whole open building complete with fountains and a statue of Dionysus for the swans. A literal Swan Lake. I dunno why the swans got so much prestige but their house is better than mine. We also found, of all things, a pet cemetery but not one for zoo animals. instead the cemetery holds the remains and tombstones for beloved pets. Yes, you can pay to have your pet buried at the zoo. I'm not sure why they offer this service, but there are several hundred pets buried there and the tombstones are quite ornate so these people totally had the money for this sort of thing.

Having seen everything in the park we decided it we were ready to head out and see about that carousel ride! And what luck, the ride was open and operating and basically waiting for us! We paid the 2.25 each, which is a bit steep but the ride went on for quite some time as far as we could tell (way longer than the one in Paris that went for like 1 minute) and we might never have another chance to ride a double decker carousel so we went for it! We got the whole top floor to ourselves as there was only one other family on the ride and it was way cool! It was a slow ride and we're totally too old for carousels and stuff but it was too cool to skip and we had a grand time! When the ride finished we poked into the official gift shop one last time before formally exiting the park grounds and heading towards the train station.

The train took forever to show up because some other train headed to Evora needed to stop at the station even though it usually doesn't so while we waited that 25 minutes we went down to the metro station to figure out our route back to the airport so we'd know it. We found a map and both recalled the way we'd come initially when we arrived so we were all set for the eventual return journey! Our train finally arrived and we took the short and very familiar ride back to Corroios followed by a slightly less familiar walk towards the MiniPreco instead of home in search of our favourite donuts. They were, sadly, still out of donuts, but we grabbed a few goodies (not wanting to waste a trip) and headed home to relax after a fun filled day at the zoo! We both chilled out for a bit before I made us pizza for dinner that I only burned a little because I'm really figuring out this whole 'only using the stove top to cook' thing! We watched Dracula: Untold in the living room while we ate and decided the day had been a rousing success!