Hello everyone! My dear adventurers, how are you today? It’s time to introduce you to the most unusual zoo in the world, it’s not an ordinary zoo, it’s a real animal kingdom. Korkeasaari, a word that I still do not know how to say, but I was happy to read it on a little board of bus no 16 that can take you directly from the central train station – the heart of the city of Helsinki to the island where the zoo is located .
I think that morning at the station I was the oldest child on the bus, I honestly did not care about that, I just wanted to get to my goal. Sometimes is very hard to think almost about everything, but this time I forgot that the zoo was on the island, I completely distracted myself from the mind that it was windy there and that I should take my cap that I forgot in the apartment. My friends from My Helsinki were so good and they gave me an interesting brown cap as a gift, but I just forgot this time to bring it with me!
The Helsinki Zoo is located around 30 minutes of drive from the centre of the city and in a just 30 minutes you can leave the urban part of Helsinki and enjoy the beauty of the natural and wildlife. Due to the strength of the wind I was not able to take some photos of the approach to the island, the view was absolutely amazing. The picture above was created when we crossed the bridge, at the very entrance to the zoo. The view is enchanting, I was totally speechless!
This island paradise is home to more than 150 animal species and a rich vegetation world that has over 1000 species of plants. There are only few zoo’s on the world that are located on the islands, which is why the zoo in Helsinki is special. It is also one of the oldest zoos in the world, opened its doors in 1889. The zoo works all year round, only the approach of the island depending on the season and weather conditions is different. During the spring, summer and early autumn you can reach the Korkeasaari Zoo with special ferries, while during the late autumn and winter period you arrive by bus number 16, as we did this time.
The Korkeasaari Zoo is divided into several parts. Each part is a special story for itself and it is not important whether you are a child or a child “trapped” in the body of an adult man I am convinced that you will enjoy. There are special facilities throughout the zoo where you can feel the way of life in Finland. Wooden huts by the water, a camp fireplace and facilities built for the purpose of educating children and adults makes this zoo unique in Europe and the world as well.
It was a little harder to get to the monkeys this time because the children of school and preschool age were simply fascinated by the charisma and positivity of these pretty animals. In those days when we were in Helsinki, there was a special holiday for children in Finland that lasted for a week and is special because it is an active holiday for children. Children have planned activities every day, to get to know the world around them much better and learn something new. I really think that we need something similar to do in Serbian education system for preschool and elementary school age children.
This zoo is a great place for all lovers of nature, except that you will be able to spend time and see some of your favorite animals, you can also enjoy in all beauties of the nature. Fashion experts have said that the gold color is in the trend this season, it seems that nature in Finland follows the latest trends! ?
It was interesting to see how trainers and people who care about animal feeding animals. The bears were not in the mood for some photo shooting, since we came to them when it was time for the afternoon nap, so maybe they did not want to cooperate with us this time… Well that is one of the reason why I should come back to Helsinki again!
The reason I wanted to visit this zoo is White Owl. The White Winter Owl always appealed to the famous Hollywood films about the boy wizard Harry Potter. I do not know how familiar you are with this unusual movie hero, but I’m sure that you at least hear about him or some of your younger members of family are usually people who love this magical hero.
Since the main topic in Harry Potter movies are related to paranormal things like magic, they do not use “normal” mail services. All shipments – letters and parcels are sent with the help of white big owls. In Europe I have not noticed that zoos have theses species of owl, but when I saw a white owl on an advertising flyer of Helsinki Zoo, I had to go and see it. If they had let me take her home, I would gladly have it and imagine that I was Harry Potter every day! ?
Due to weather conditions that are slightly colder than in other parts of Europe, the Zoo in Helsinki has made efforts to have only animals that can live in these conditions in their small animal kingdom, there are not many tropical animals here, maybe a small number of bird species from Africa, but they are located in separate indoor buildings that are adapted to their special needs.
In this small animal kingdom you can find various polar mammals that are characteristic of this part of Europe. Deers, Reindeers and other species are the inhabitants of this unusual zoo. I was fascinated by the natural beauty of this paradise. My heart was full, because I had the opportunity to feel at least a couple of hours of all the natural beauty and magic of this natural oasis located not so far from the center of Helsinki.
This guy was not in the mood for photo shooting, but we tried to “capture” him in the best possible pose since we waited him almost 15 minutes to turn! He’s very stubborn! In the end, we somehow managed to capture this beauty on the photo. 🙂
On the other hand, we have this interesting gentle lady, which all those years could not do anything to her, so she is quite fast and very active for her age. In less than 10 minutes, she made full 3 laps without pausing, she greeted us and continued her daily activities.
My dear travellers once again we have come to the end of this second special travel post from Helsinki. Time just flies so fast when you are having a good time! Don’t worry in a couple of days I will publish a new post where we will continue together to enjoy the charms of traveling and we will continue our adventure.
At the end of the post, I would like to thank the friendly staff from Aallonkotti Hotel Apartmentsthat made our stay pleasant and we felt like we were at home. The concept of hotel is to stay in apartments of different sizes. The size of apartments depends on your needs. The apartment in which we had the opportunity to stay was specially decorated by the well-known Finnish brand Marimekko, which besides its basic activity – making clothes has its own special line for home decoration.
How do you like this post? Have you ever visited Finland? Did you have chance to enjoy in the magic of the Helsinki? I would like to share with me your experience! If you have a question, comment, suggestion or message for me, you can write me down in the comments. Of course, as always you can contact me via mail or social media, which you can find on the CONTACT page.
As I promised we’ll see again in a couple of days, so if something new and interesting happens to me, I promise, I will write to you!
Best,
Mr.M
