Warsaw, Day 3

The original plan was to alternate sad and fun, but I saw that tomorrow's forecast is for thunderstorms, so I thought today would be better for the zoo instead of tomorrow. So, we get two fun in a row. I have yet to figure out the public transportation system. There is one metro line which is nowhere near us. There is a tram that's not too far, but I can't find a map of it anywhere. There is a square by our hotel with multiple bus stops, but I can't figure out where to get the tickets. The books say I can get them at a tobacco shop or at a little ticket machine, but we don't have any tobacco shops near us, and I have yet to see a ticket machine. Plus, I don't have a map. So, while I know what buses we could take to get back to the hotel, I wouldn't know what buses to take to get where we want to go. So, taxi it was.

I recently read "The Zookeeper's Wife" by Diane Ackerman. Before WWII, the Warsaw Zoo was run by Jan and Antonina, who lived in a villa on the zoo grounds. During the war, Jan was active with the Polish Underground, the secret organization that worked against the Nazis. The zoo was used as a storage and meeting place. But, early on in the war, almost all of the animals were either taken by the Nazis for zoos in Germany or killed.  So, Jan was no longer needed. But, he convinced the Nazis that the grounds should be used as a pig farm to feed the Germans (but he was able to get some meat out to Poles, as well) and later as a fur farm for fur to line German uniforms. Both meant that it was necessary for people to work there, so it served many purposes. He was able to keep his job and house and keep the zoo grounds open, and he was able to have Underground people there in the guise of workers. It also meant that it was normal to have people coming and going and living on the grounds. In this way, he was able to still have the zoo be a storage and meeting place for the Underground. It was also important in another way. Jan and the Underground would smuggle Jews out of the Ghetto, and they would live temporarily at the zoo, either in the villa or in the former animal houses, while awaiting papers and places to live outside of Warsaw. Once the Jews were there, it was up to Antonina to keep them safe and fed. She kept a diary, and it became the basis for "The Zookeeper's Wife" Jan and Antonina saved 300 Jews. Of those, only two died in the war after they left the zoo. The villa is still there. It meant a lot to me to get to see it.

The zoo isn't great, but it isn't horrible. Some of the enclosures are nice and natural, and some are still old wire cages. They had some animals we had never seen before.

The otters (the first animals we saw) were very friendly. There were two of them, and they kept swimming over to us and popping their heads out, as if to say hi.

We got to the penguins just in time to see the feeding. It was pretty funny. They knew it was time, but the keeper wasn't there yet. They had gathered in a little group at the front of the enclosure, just staring at us. Then, when the keeper came with the bucket of fish, they moved as a mass to her.

Much like Czech, plurals end in y. It makes the words all seem cute

There  were a lot of baby animals in the zoo

European Bison

Yak

We could see the baby moving around in the pouch, and the mama kept putting her face in there

The babies born so far this year

Madagascar 3 comes out there in August, so there were also signs pointing out the animals from the movies.

Alex

Julian

In the reptile house, one lizard was particularly interested in Emma

When we stopped to get ice cream, I saw that they had Mt. Dew. It's a special kind that is only available in Poland and Romania. I had some. It tasted like watermelon smarties. 

We had another rest & Buffy afternoon. At dinner, we walked to the location of one of the WWII Scout Post locations. We didn't see anything marking it, so we just took a picture of the place.

I wanted to find a place for dinner near there, so we went to  place I found on a review site (not my beloved TripAdvisor, a different one). It was called Beirut, and it was wonderful. We had hummus with lamb stew in the middle, couscous, and falafel. It was delicious. The whole place is decorated in a war motif, so the counter is made of sandbags, and there is blood painted on the front door. The funny thing is that it's across the street from a place called Tel Aviv.

"blood" on the door

Sandbag counter

Emma says - Zoo! Zoos make me happy as wildlife things and science museums. The otters kept popping up to say hi to us. It was funny to see the penguins hope we had food. I love Buffy time, I needed a rest. Dinner was sooo good, even though I had to share a chair with mom, because there were no other places to sit. The menu said hot mint tea, but it was mint sunshine, meaning that it was both delicious and REALLY,  REALLY hot!