The Reason I Dressed
So picture it, we’re in Lisbon with a 5 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old. We’ve already done a few cultural attractions and we decide that the kids really need a day to do “kid’s things”….what do we do? What do ALL families do when they are in a Capital City and they need a sure fire kids day? They go to either the zoo or the aquarium. On this particular day we opted for the aquarium!
Technically, in Lisbon it is called the Oceanario, and it’s located further out of the city centre, along the waterfront in an area called Parque das Nações, which was where the Expo’ 98 was.
I’m going through a bit of a phase where I’m reflecting on how morally right aquariums and zoos are.
I know, I know.
I LOVE seeing animals too, and having my son learn about them and see them in person. But I just don’t know how right they are. It feels as though I’ve been to too many aquariums and zoos and I start to think…”wow those are a lot of caged animals”! To be perfectly honest, aquariums bother me less than zoos. Well, I’ll be precise.
Big sea turtles in an aquarium make me sad, they should be swimming through the ocean, the same goes for dolphins, sharks, penguins etc. For some reason I can handle fish in an aquarium, as long as they aren’t too big. I may also be able to handle sea horses, as long the tank is large.
What would happen if all of the space reserved for sharks was given to sea horses! Think about how happy the sea horses would be! They are normally in the smallest tanks in any exhibit so that they can be seen. Think about how great it would be if they had all the space, why they’d be in aquarium bound, sea horse heaven.
As for zoos. Ugh, I’ll get to zoos another day. I just don’t know if preservation is a good enough reason for the amount of zoos there are in the world. I keep thinking that countries should only be allowed to have animals that are naturally present in THAT climate and that all zoos should be reserves for only one type of species. And wouldn’t it be great to visit a reserve dedicated to one species only, but done REALLY WELL, as opposed to a 100 different species all done poorly?
But, I will say that one of my favourite things about visiting an aquarium are the beautiful pictures afterward. Even a totally amateur photographer (like me) can get a few decent shots because of the beautiful blue light provided by the tanks.
The aquarium in Lisbon is one of the nicest I’ve seen in a long time, and I’ve even been to the aquarium in Genoa! It is the largest in Europe and had a very cool glass floor that you could walk over. Underneath our feet was part of the sea turtle tank. Of course the sea turtle spent the whole time in the corner immobile, probably because the vibrations from the thousands of feet walking on top of its tank make it a little edgy…but what do I know?!
What I Wore
It’s official. Living in Italy has made me paranoid about entering into places with Air Conditioning! Italians fear air conditioning on their sweaty, just come in from a hot day, bodies like no one else! My husband caught pneumonia (aka a cold!) and passed it onto our son the last time we went into an aquarium with a tad bit of air conditioning. So, this time I was WELL PREPARED.
It was HOT on this day, but I decided to go with tights and a simple light cotton tunic. This tunic covered my shoulders, arms and neck pretty well (all areas that can be affected by air conditioning), but it was also light enough to wear outside without getting uncomfortable.
OBVIOUSLY I packed three light scarves (one for each of us) in my purse to protect our necks from the dreaded draft. Yes this is totally a theme in my blog! I’m not making it up, Italians hate drafts!!
I also had a light cotton tunic, wool vest and bandana for my son! Was he well protected from the air conditioning? Yes. Did he look chic? YES! Win and win.
If you remember my travel ensemble for this vacation, I had approximately 2 inches of suitcase space to myself. So my strategy (as outlined here) was to basically wear simple clothes updated with a few accessories.
My big chunky stone yellow necklace (this has a story, told here), was a pretty good match for my tunic, tights and sandals.
I swear I ironed this tunic before packing it…..#wishfulthinking
My purse, on the other hand, didn’t quite work with this outfit, but it was the only one I brought with me to Lisbon. It is a pick-pocketers nightmare (pickpocketing is something to watch out for in Lisbon) because it has two zippers and a flap to open! I bought it from a thrift store in Toronto a few years ago, real leather, Canadian made and extremely high quality. I think it is from the 70s, maybe 80s.
All in all we had a pretty great time at the Aquarium, even though I did spend quite a bit of time going through a personal crisis! The kids enjoyed seeing the fish…although, a part of me thinks that even if there were no fish, but just a lot of ramps, tanks of water with blue lights and hallways to run really really fast through, they would have had a good time anyway!
Have a great Wednesday and feel free to let me know what you really think of aquariums and zoos. you don’t need to agree with me, I’d love to just hear some of the arguments for/against.
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