Ekaterina flew out early in the morning. I got up unhurriedly and set off in search of new adventures. For a start, I decided to figure out what that green blob was that we saw when we wrongfully occupied Arthur's Seat. On the map, it was marked as The Meadows. It turned out to be the central park. "A modest attempt" — that's what one article called it. Yeah, there's really nothing super special about the park. I just sat on a bench, wrote some posts, did some push-ups. Looked around, stared at the humans. Lots of kids, dogs, and one athlete was running with a giant, super heavy bag on his shoulders. I'd never seen that kind of sport live before. Andrey told me later that he used to do that too, but I can't remember what he had on his shoulders.
This is how old and new architectural styles coexist
On the way, I saw an eco-vegetarian store, and decided to pop in, in honor of all my friends who are obsessed with that stuff. The selection is gigantic, but I only care about protein stuff. Even their selection wasn't bad.
By the way, right now in Rimi there are some really good protein "noodles" made from beans or soy, Ekologisk Bönpasta Ica Gott Liv. The protein content is a whopping 50%, which is impressive. The price is pretty steep, but I don't have the strength to keep stuffing my face with bars (which are even more expensive) and chugging protein shakes. Our local noodles, Dobeles Hercules Protein Pasta, only have about 20%, and I didn't like the taste.
As I kept walking, I passed by a micro-park called Gardner's Crescent, where there's a whole info board with details. It says how crappy things used to be around here, and how everything fell into disrepair, but then it got good, and they even rubberized the asphalt so it's comfortable to walk and fall on.
Eventually, I made it to the Edinburgh Zoo. It costs 20 pounds, and they suggest donating another pound to make the zoo's life better. Usually, prices for these kinds of places in Great Britain are high. Twenty pounds is actually pretty reasonable. The donation part is a bit weird, feels like marketing. If you need more money — just include it in the price, and that's it. No, they have to beg, guilt-tripping you. On the other hand, the donation is tax-free.
Many of my readers will probably say that zoos are unnecessary and animals should live in the wild. That's generally true, of course. To adapt to modern realities, zoos are currently transforming into places where it's no longer just visitors gawking at exotic beasts. Now, zoos breed and study animals for the purpose of restoring populations, conduct educational work, and teach people to treat animals with care and compassion. If anyone is just dead set against zoos, then I think, to avoid hypocrisy, they should start by not keeping pets. There are arguments against that which are convincing enough for me. (I'm not urging you to throw out the ones you already have). I'm not exactly a huge fan of zoos myself, but I had to kill time somehow.
The zoo hosts a penguin parade, where they waddle along the path out of their enclosure and back.
The enclosures at the zoo are huge, and sometimes it feels like a forest park because it's so hard to spot the animals.
I don't know what kind of estate this is, but it's inside the zoo grounds.
The right motto
All sorts of clever primate research are conducted at the zoo, similar to economic and psychological experiments on humans.
I didn't bother taking pictures of the info boards, so as not to turn the blog into a bunch of infodumps. In short: monkeys are much more like us than people are willing to admit. Nowadays, of course, there are plenty of well-read folks who understand that higher animals possess altruism, cunning, a conscience, and god knows what else. In the past, all of this was considered strictly the prerogative of humans.
I periodically wear headphones. I was listening to educational science videos on YouTube and a few podcasts. While at it, I climbed to the very top of the hill where the zoo is located. Just like everywhere else in Edinburgh, the views are beautiful. It's a pity that, for obvious reasons, I was eaten up by melancholy, and I don't always enjoy them.
I wandered around the zoo for about three hours. When I was leaving, I failed to get on the right bus to the center, which meant I had to ride in circles and waste a ton of time. I decided, since I was waiting anyway, to pop into Subway for dinner. At least, thanks to the vegetarian trend, they have veggie patties there now. I don't remember if I wrote this already, but over at Burger King they're actually pranking customers. They give people a burger, but not with meat — with a fake created by Impossible Foods. Nobody can tell the difference. Rumor has it, things aren't quite as rosy with milk yet. It's a promising field, and several startups at once are working on either producing a protein blend that's very close to milk in composition, or getting bacteria to produce milk directly. We live in an age of miracles, what can I say. It's just a shame that these miracles are unevenly distributed among people.
