Wild Times at the Belgrade Zoo and Being a “Good Mommy”

Did I ever mention that I tried to duplicate my stay-at-home mommy lifestyle when I moved to Belgrade? Coffee shops, play-dates (okay play-dates for the kids and wine for the moms), enriching toddler activities, and more …

Did I mention that this plan worked like polka dots as camouflage on an elephant? If you want to hide a large animal, don’t dress it in colorful dots. If you want to move to a new country to simplify your lifestyle, don’t complicate things by expecting everything to be the same. Touché.

Helloooo little fingers, yes Danica is feeding the giraffe

One mildly transferable “enriching activity” is a morning at the city zoo. Close enough to get there, park (no easy feat in a crowded city with a large car and two chatty kids), do the requisite enriching at a slightly accelerated pace, and get back home in time for Maksim’s nap. Boo-ya. Now that’s good mommy-ing.

The Belgrade Zoo

“Laura, you and the kids go to the zoo more than locals,” my husband commented after my 3rd trip in during our first six weeks here.

Heck yes. The reality is, I mother better if I feel like I’m being a good mom. I know, I get it. It’s a selfish outlook. But, an honest admission, no?

Putting aside for a moment the animal rights issue of keeping animals in zoos in the first place, the Belgrade Zoo is a perfect outing to tackle with small children. It’s fairly small, so 80%+ can be covered at toddler pace. Plus, you can get really close to the animals, in relative safety. (Safe from a Balkan perspective, not an American one.)

For example, it was only recently that they put a roped barrier between visitors and the piranha tank. Yeah, I said piranhas. The tank is enclosed, but I guess someone realized there might be an albeit brief, but possibly terrible, feeding frenzy if the glass broke and the fish got out. Well, that’s my morbid guess.

Hippos, water, toddlers, Oh My! We’re approx. 10 feet away from a 3+ ton hippo. Totally safe, riiiiight …

Zoo history & The Tiger’s Wife

So when I read the NYT bestselling novel, The Tiger’s Wife, by Téa Obreht, I was like … that’s Belgrade, that’s our zoo! Founded in 1936, the Belgrade Zoo is one of the oldest in Europe. It’s situated in the Kalemegdan fortress, built originally by Romans on Celtic excavations.

Obreht was born in Belgrade in 1985, and emigrated to the US when she was twelve. Her bio says she’s Bosnak/Slovene. She says she was raised by her grandparents. Makes. Total. Sense. The first scene in the book is the description of a child’s walk up the long hill in Kalemegdan, and entering the zoo with her beloved grandfather.

The parts of this book I enjoyed the most were the magical realism á la Isabel Allende: calm, peaceful elephants strolling through a quiet, early morning wartime city. Mystic gypsies with strange nighttime rituals. It’s all there.

In Obreht’s words

Pretty early on in the writing I realized that mythmaking and storytelling are a way in which people deal with reality. They’re a coping mechanism. In Balkan culture, there’s almost a knowledge that reality will eventually become myth. In ten or twenty years you will be able to recount what happened today with more and more embellishments until you’ve completely altered that reality and funneled it into the world of myth.

Perhaps I don’t quite speak enough Serbian to have learned about myths and myth-making. I still have more to learn. But now, when I visit the Belgrade Zoo, I feel a little more connected to the history of the city, and my kids get to enjoy a fun, yet educational activity.

In the photo above, Danica had just bravely fed this elephant some peanut snacks called Smoki. She said his snout tickeled her hand.