Today I'd like to show you a place you can and have to visit, if you're in Transylvania. It's a unique place, that includes the largest and most popular zoological garden in Romania, a running track, several training areas, a huge playground equipped adequately for all ages, several barbecue areas. It is the favorite destination not only of the locals, but foreigners as well and attracts thousands of visitors daily.
This place has a special place in my heart and I'm trying to visit it once every year, to enjoy the shades offered by those really old and tall trees, the street food that means a huge temptation, but once a year it's ok and also, to see the animals. I know, there are many who are going to say better let the animals free and I agree with them, but when you think that for us, there are animals we can only see here, it's an unique opportunity. Plus, here the conditions are what is needed, they have proper care and space. But let's see what is expecting you, if you decide to visit.
The place is sitting on the top of a hill above the city of Marosvásárhely (Targu Mures) and pretty much taking up all the space. You can reach it by car, or there's a bus during summer (courtesy of the municipality), that you can take you right to the top. There's a big parking lot available, if you drive there.
Once you get to the top of the hill, the fun begins for all ages.
If you go with children, be prepared for a tantrum as soon as they see the cars. Kids love these and parents usually give up after a few minutes of screaming and kicking.
Then comes the Thomas train, which is also a trap for parents, but exciting for kids. Back when I was a kid, there used to be a real train. It was smaller than usual trains, but still closer to the real experience. For some reason, the old rail is not maintained anymore and this train on wheels took its place.
If you manage to get past these two obstacles, there comes the next one, which is a long row of street food that smells divine and costs two or three times what you pay in the city for the dishes they are offering.
Ice cream is a must for every age category, unless you're diabetic, of course.
They even had a polar bear holding a huge ice cream, that sure made everyone smile.
All kinds of desserts, that make you drool and empty your pocket as well :)
And there's no fair without lángos. I'm tagging @mers here, she knows why 😂 This is a dish I only have once or max two times per year. I love it, but it is deep fried, neither healthy, not recommended for my gallbladder. This time I opted for garlic, sour cream and cheese topping, which was really good, but towards the end it became uneatable due to too much garlic. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo as I was charmed by the lángos ☹️
The sweet corn booth was a huge slap on the face. You can buy it raw from the farmers market for 0.2 euro, yet they charge you 2 euro here. Well, I'm not willing to pay that much. That is sheer thievery.
Anyway, after a long and pleasant (not so cheap though) walk along the food stalls, you get to the entrance of the Zoo. On the right, there are the ticket ATMs, which I forgot to photograph as was focusing on buying tickets. This is a relatively new thing as it wasn't possible a couple of years ago. The bad thing is, if you pay with cash, you need to have the exact amount as the ATM doesn't give back change. This sucks, should not work like that, but ... it is what it is.
There's someone to greet you, right after the entrance, that is Buddy Bear, courtesy of Herlitz Romania. This bear may seem strange, but you need to know that is has been painted by students of the local art school. I find it very interesting as the architecture painted on Buddy Bear is featuring some of the iconic buildings of the city. It's an excellent initiative and a chance for the art school students to show their talent and creativity.
There's a gazebo with benches, that most likely is hosting some events from time to time. I can't imagine a better place for some zoo related, educative gatherings. The zoo is covering an area of 600-700 square meters and you mostly walk under the trees and a torrid day like we had on the 12th of August, can feel pleasant in the shades.
This giraffe is made of knitted scarves. One of the foundations had an initiative once, that attempted to break the world record of the longest knitted scarf, brining together people from all over the world. Those scarf pieces ended up displayed in different parts of the city in such funny projects.
Have you ever seen a bear proof trash bin? They have several, in fact this type is all you get on there as bears are roaming around the place. Bears in Romania are protected, the number of bears is four or five times more than the territory available, food is scarce therefore they come to the outskirts of the city, searching for food. This place is especially attracting them, due to the animals. The municipality is removing tens of bears from there every year.
And this is where monkeys live.
It's a huge greenhouse, I suppose this is the climate monkeys are used to, although they are outside too.
We were admiring the monkeys, they can be very funny when they are in the mood and often do some tricks for the visitors. Then we got to the last one, that was the one on the photo and that's when we had a shock.
This cutie was eating something white and slim. He was tearing long stripes off of it, that made a crunchy sound and we tried to figure out what it was as could not see it. Sliced cocos was one of our guesses, but we didn't know if you can tear cocos like he did. Then he turned the piece in his hand and we saw a big red logo on the white piece and realized it was paper. Shock, shock, shock. At that point we went outside to look for a caretaker to notify them about the incident, but could not find anyone around and the monkey ate the paper anyway.
How he was able to get his hands on that piece of paper, beats me. There are signs everywhere with "Do Not Feed The Animals", which is the right thing but so many people disregard it and feed the animals with food their stomach is not used to. I hope the paper didn't cause much damage, but it's still shocking.
I guess I'll stop here and there will be a final part of my journey coming soon as this post is becoming a novel shortly. So stay tuned.
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