When I was a little girl in the early years of elementary school, I travelled from the village where I lived to the zoo in Zagreb, sometimes with the school and sometimes with my parents. Those visits are etched in my memory and the happiness I felt then I still remember today. Later in life, I was happy to return there, and I have wonderful memories from the time when my daughter was little, and we walked around the zoo with her grandfather. And now, years later, whenever I go to Zagreb, I make sure to visit the Zoo. As soon as I buy a ticket and step inside, a feeling of peace and happiness overwhelms me. Sometimes I wonder if the happiness I feel is the memory of wonderful memories from the past or the beauty of Zagreb's Maksimir Park, where the Zoo is located, brings me to a state of joy and calm. It's probably a combination of those two feelings. The zoo itself is not big and the number of animals and their variety cannot be compared to other zoos I have visited during my life. For example, there have been no elephants in the Zagreb Zoo for many years, as it was when I was little. I later saw elephants around the world, and the elephants from the Colchester Zoo in England, where I even saw a baby elephant, stuck in my memory the most. In the Zagreb Zoo from my childhood, you could feed the elephants, and later I experienced this in a zoo in Singapore as well. There, the elephant even splashed me with water, we were so close to him.
I saw a large number of different animals on a safari in England. There we drove through the premises with a herd of giraffes. Lions were walking half a meter from our car, and a Bengal tiger also walked by. Monkeys were climbing on the roof of our car and begging for food through the half-open windows. Such an animal experience is, of course, incomparable to the humble Zagreb Zoo. Although very small in terms of the beauty of the landscape, this zoo has nothing to be ashamed of.
On this occasion, I recommend to all my friends from Croatia and abroad that when they visit Zagreb, they must go to the Zoo. Even if you do not have children as an "excuse", even if you have already seen large zoos and safari parks, you will enjoy the walk and the beauty of the zoo in Maksimir Park.
Kristina
Monday, May 8th, 2023
Zagrebački zoološki vrt
Kad sam bila mala djevojčica u ranim godinama osnovne škole putovala sam iz sela u kojem sam živjela u zoološki vrt u Zagrebu, neki put sa školom, a neki put sa roditeljima. Te posjete su se urezale u moje pamćenje i sreću koju sam tada osjećala pamtim i danas. Kasnije tokom života rado sam se tamo vraćala i imam divna sjećanja iz vremena kad je moja kćer bila mala i kad smo zoološkim vrtom šetale sa njezinim dedom. A sada, godinama kasnije, kad god odem u Zagreb obavezno posjetm Zoološki vrt. Čim kupim ulaznicu i zakoračim u njega preplavi me osjećaj mira i sreće. Ponekad se preispitujem dali je sreća koju osjetim sjećanje na divne uspomene iz prošlosti ili me ljepota zagrebačkog parka Maksimir, u kojem se nalazi Zoološki vrt, dovodi u stanje veselja i smirenosti. Vjerovatno se radi o kombinaciji ta dva osjećaja. Sam zoološki vrt nije velik i broj životinja kao i njihova raznolikost se ne može mjeriti sa zološkim vrtovima koje sam posjetila tokom života. Na primjer u Zagrebačkom zoološkom vrtu nema slonova već dugo godina, kao što je to bio slučaj kad sam bila mala. Slonove sam kasnije viđala po svijetu, a najviše su mi se usjekli u sjećanje slonovi iz Zoološkog vrta Colchester u Engleskoj u kojem sam čak vidjela mladunče slona. U Zagrebačkom zoološkom vrtu iz doba mog djetinjstva su se mogli hraniti slonovi, a kasnije sam to doživjela u zološkom vrtu u Singapuru. Tamo me slon čak poprskao vodom, toliko smo mu bili blizo.
Veliki broj različitih životinja vidjela sam u jednom safariju u Engleskoj. Tamo smo se vozili kroz prostore uz krdo žirafa. Lavovi su se šetali na pola metra od našeg auta, a bengalski je tigar isto prošetao u prolazu. Majmuni su nam se penjali na krov auta i kroz poluotvorene prozore žicali hranu. Takav doživljaj životinja je naravno neusporediv sa skromnim Zagrebačkim zoološkim vrtom. Premda, iako vrlo mali po ljepoti krajolika taj se zološki vrt nema čega sramiti.
Ovom prilikom preporučam svim svojim prijateljima iz Hrvatske i izvan nje da kod posjete Zagreba obavezno odu u Zoološki vrt. Čak iako nemate djecu kao “ispriku”, čak i ako ste već vidjeli velike zološke vrtove i safari parkove, uživat ćete u šetnji i ljepoti zološkog vrta u parku Maksimir.
Kristina
Ponedeljak, 8. svibnja 2023.
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