Haus des Meeres

This week in Vienna started to get rainy and cold on Wednesday-at the exact moment I was walking to the aquarium. It sleeted as I hurried into the u-bahn, but it wasn't so bad since I was going to see fun animals. I went with a friend between classes, and we had a blast. In Vienna it is called the Haus des Meeres. It has 11 floors of exhibits, but the building gets narrower as you reach the top, so the exhibits slowly decrease as well. In Austria, the floor you walk into is not considered the first floor, but the ground floor, and what we would call the second floor, is just the first floor for them--so, on the first floor (according to Austrians) there were tons of snakes. Huge snakes. Some were earth tons, but some were neon yellow. The size of some of them was almost gross; their bodies could easily have been as thick as an adults thigh.

One the sides of the building there are 2 glass rooms that jut out. They are a tropical house area, and hold many different types of animals. You can walk all through it, there are bridges so you can go up the entire height of the building, and all the animals roam free. In the crocidles however are on the ground floor, and you walk on floor level above them. Other wise the animals can go anywhere, and the do. Many of them will walk along the hand railings.

While we were looking at a bird, this little guy came up right where my friend had his hand on the railing...

We saw so many animals it would be hard to tell about them all, but my favorite were the monkeys. The Haus des Meeres was not just an aquarium, but half sea/water animals, and half land animals. Once you get to the top, and have seen all the exhibits through, you can go outside on the roof and see the city for miles. It was cold and rainy at first, then it cleared up for a little bit on one side of Vienna.

Tomorrow morning I leave Austria for Hvar Island, Croatia--I am so excited to spend a week at the beach...which also means, no computer. So, I will be back in a week, with one new passport stamp!