The Zoo

On Tuesday we went to the Zoo (another day of pre-school holiday) - yes we have everything here in Istanbul, though the zoo is a long trek out of the city on the Asian side. It's not the 'European' style zoo with lots of foliage for the animals to hide behind - it's the stark, iron bar type zoo - where you are less than a meter away from the animals and you can feed them! yes - can you imagine trying to feed a gorilla in the Brooklyn Zoo?

These guys have got it figured - there are iron tubes and they tell you to put the food in the top - the monkeys not the zoo keepers - and then they catch it..... now for 2 nearly 4 year olds this was stunning - trying to get a meaningful picture was hard, a lot of the glass was really grubby, but you could see the monkey hands down the feeding tubes.

This was the first time I've seen White Peacocks (they were a separate bread not albino) - this zoo started off as a bird place - so they have LOTS of birds - and then became a more encompassing zoo - they've made some good changes since my last visit a year ago - the lions have more space - the tigers have a new enclosure, I think the leopards have gone, but you can get SO close - it's worth the steep incline, random footpath widths and heights and strange smells.

The zebra is a bit off, the thing kept coming too close to get a good picture - he loved his carrots - though was the most confident Zebra about. We didn't see the Elephant or the Giraffe - they had one of each in my fuzzy memory, then again the entry fee has remained static for the last 3 years, perhaps this is why! - note to self - don't go on a day where it goes over 35 degrees - not nice, though there is a great kebab place near by, I need to figure out the recipe for eggplant with yogurt, not what I was expecting but so yummy......