Bit by a pig, slipped on a slug, accosted by bats. . .

I have been wanting to go to the Prague Zoo for a while now. I am slightly obsessed with zoos and aquariums, and given that the Prague Zoo is the 6th best zoo in the world, according to Forbes Magazine, I was pretty excited.

So, Amanda and I braved the forecast of 80% chance of rain, paid our 100 czk (about 6 bucks) and entered the amazing world of the Prague Zoo.

First and foremost, it is a GREAT zoo. Very natural which I like - the animals had lots of room to run about, but they were totally accessible. I think there were probably only 3 or 4 exhibits that we had a hard time finding the animals.

I was beyond excited by the hippo exhibit - they are absolutely my favorite animal and this exhibit was the best I've ever seen. A family of three were moving, swimming, and lounging about, and we even caught pictures/video of one of the hippos yawning. Pretty cool.

I had three hilarious stories of the day though, as evidenced by my blog title, so here you go:

(1) I really did get bit by a pig. In the children's zoo area, there were pigs and goats that you could pet and feed. Humorously, Amanda and I had a long discussion about whether pigs could bite, and we decided it was unlikely. So, I made it my goal to feed the pig. The goats kept getting in the way and my indignation over this fact greatly humored the German tourists that were watching me attempt to feed the pig. I stuck my hand down there and a cute little pink porker gently ate some food off my hand, his little snout pretty cold and wet. His little black friend pushed his way past the huffy goats, trying to get some of the cereal. Unfortunately, he mistook my finger as a piece of cereal and fully chomped down on my pointer finger. If you have ever slammed your finger in a door, you now know what getting bit by a pig feels like. Pretty awesome. My hopping, teary-eyed cursing concerned the German tourists, who I think may have been concerned about botulism. Just kidding. Amanda on the other hand, thought this was absolutely hilarious, and we spent a good portion of the rest of the day recapping my idiocy as I bounced around screaming, "that damn pig bit me."

(2) Rain started in full-force when we'd made it through about a quarter of the zoo. When it rains in Prague, slugs follow. Lots of slugs. Slugs for miles. While walking down a path from the tiger exhibit, I managed to step, crush, and slip on a very large juicy slug, falling pretty hard to my knees. Now, given that Lukman, Russ, JD, and Tim have each seen me fall (hard) five or six times each - they will chalk this up to general Sara "lack-of-grace" and klutzy-ness. But I swear, it was entirely the slug's fault.

And finally (3) I am afraid of very few animals. I'm not fond of spiders, cockroaches or bugs in general - but I'll kill them without shrieking like a girl. I grew up with poisonous snakes and scorpions in my friends' backyards - so I like them and they interest me but leave them alone. The only true animal that freaks me out is the bat. They are dirty rats with wings, and the thought of one of them flying in my face or getting caught in my hair eeks me out. So, as we walked through the nocturnal area of the zoo, I prepared myself to see the big display of bats. Behind glass, I can look at them, though I generally feel a bit itchy and creeped out afterwards. As we rounded the corner, a small bird was fluttering back and forth across the ceiling and I felt really bad for it being stuck inside the exhibit. We looked at bushbabies and white tailed ferrets and laughed at these really cool springhares, which look sort of like a kangaroo and a bunny mated. Finally, I saw the bats, flying around in their cage, hanging from small branches and realized THERE WAS NO GLASS. Therefore, the small "bird" flying about 5 inches above my head was a BAT. Amanda said, "Wow, that thing flew really close to my head," and with that, I hightailed it out of there, shrilling saying "get me out, get me out" as Amanda again, laughed at my idiocy.

So - check out the pictures of our day at the zoo. Hope you all had a fabulous weekend!