September 20

Day 9: September 20

Nature

Frankfurt Zoo- Nature

Lion at Frankfurt Zoo

Our bodies were still tired from the day before that was filled with walking. Everyone's eyes were heavy the next morning. Well, everyone's except Laurel's. She was ecstatic! She woke us up by barging in and jumping on our beds, yelling at us to get up because today we were going to the zoo. Since Laurel was the first up, she found a place for breakfast on the way and hurried us to get ready. I was laying in bed, trying to force my eyes open, when I heard a 'THUD' come from the room next to me. Soon after I heard Logan yelling at Laurel for pushing her out of her bed.

Soon enough, we made our way outside and prepared ourselves for the half hour taxi drive. In the blink of an eye, we arrived at the Zoo Frankfurt. There weren't many people at the zoo, since September isn't really the month most people go, but we didn't mind because that meant shorter lines. First, we found a map since this zoo wasn't anything like our NC Zoo. We learned that the exhibit labels and signs were all in German, and we ended up guessing where we were going and relying on the fact that at least one staff member would know English. Immediately, we were greeted by lovely ducks and flamingos. Because of Ellie's haunting fear of ducks, we left pretty quickly despite the flamingo's enticing pink feathers. Next, we walked along the lovely path towards the primate section. We observed the human-like animals in a beautiful pond filled area. After watching them dodder around for a while, we moved on to the reptile area. At this point Laurel's enthusiasm was quickly drained. We entered the moist and smelly reptile house. The glass ceiling allowed us to feel as though we were actually in the reptiles home. We were all very frightened of the beasts in their swampy enclosure, which caused us to leave quickly. We made our way to the other parts of the reptile area to see the phlegmatic tortoises, which Laurel adored, then the alligators. As soon as Ella saw their teeth, she was ready to leave. But we pushed through our fear and finally began to see them as beautiful creatures. To relieve our stress, we made our way to the largest part of the zoo, the African Savannah. Their collection of animals was marvelous and amazing to watch. Although some were menacing, they made us appreciate the greatness of animals. While we were watching them, everyone around us heard Logan's stomach growl, similar to the lions in the enclosure. That was our hint to hit the food court. After moving past the language barrier of ordering, we loaded up on a lunch of popcorn, fries, and bratwurst. Following our morning of observing the animals, we decided to make our way to Bethmann Park.


Bethan Park- Nature

Bethmann Park

Because it was only three minutes away, we decided to walk off all the calories we gained. We were met with an amazing architecture. After walking under the structure, we were now in the garden. We saw colorful trees, delicate flowers, and amazing greenery. It was all based around a pond, which made Laurel really happy because there were fish and turtles. The park was an urban oasis in all the busy buildings and a nice step back from reality.







Dialog Museum
Next, we caught a cab to the Dialog Museum. At the Dialog Museum, we experience what it's like to be blind for the ninety minutes of our tour, which is guided by a blind guide. Upon entering, we learned about what we would be doing and what we needed to do to stay safe. We would be guided through a pitch black area of the museum, led by our guide, with nothing but a stick to help us. We did everyday tasks, such as ordering a drink and crossing the street. It was really difficult, but overall an amazing experience to see what visually impaired people go through every day. Ellie fell over a couple of times, but other than that we all came out with a whole new learning experience.

Dialog Museum

After a day of seeing beautiful animals, gardens, and learning a completely different aspect of life, it was finally time to get a nice juicy bratwurst for dinner and head back to our apartment.