So, after many months of Spring flirting with us in Bydgoszcz, with a constantly changing combination of warm sunshine and torrential rain, it seems we’ve finally evened out into what can really be called summer over here now. And with the milder season have come a few things of note.
First of all, right next to where I live, in Kochanowskiego park, there is a new water fountain installation which has a dancing water show with music and lights, three times a week. I happened upon it when walking by last Friday evening and was rather impressed. As you can see in the video below, it’s a nice thing and really brightens the place up. Previously, the fountain had been out of order for more than a year and in the last 6 months had been surrounded by corrugated steel fences during renovation, so this is definitely a positive. Shows are on Wednesday and Friday evenings.
Friday was also my first evening of this year sitting outside until a late hour in the fading sunshine. It’s amazing how many bars & restaurants have outdoor areas this year: Merlin, Strefa (of course), Widzimisie and more besides, as well as the usual suspects in the Rynek, Barka, Kubryk and so on.
Saturday saw me volunteering with a friend as a stooge for my school’s treasure hunt. We readied ourselves at our station just before the scheduled 3pm start only to see this appear over the horizon.
Within 5 minutes of this photo, the blazing sun from the right had been replaced with torrents of water and all of Thor’s rage in the form of a terrific to watch thunder and lightning storm. This is what happens when British people organise an outdoor event of any kind. Fortunately, with our wealth of experience, the indoor alternative activities were well received and the afternoon and evening that followed were excellent.
Sunday arrived with a jolt – thanks to 5 hours’ sleep – and soon after I awoke, I was greeted by the information that Myślęcinek’s zoo had acquired some llamas. Generally speaking, I don’t need much encouragement to spend a sunny afternoon at a zoo, so the presence of llamas made it a certainty.
While the llamas were a bit timid and stayed quite far from the fence, in spite of my calls of “hey, Mr Llama!” the general zoo experience was pretty positive. The cages for the Japanese Macaques are a bit small and the birds of prey could do with some space, but generally the animals seem well looked after and quite jolly. I was cheerfully able to pet the goats.
Hey Mr Llama! Really though – come here!
Such a bloody showoff, this guy. His cage is bigger than it looks, by the way.
Goats are soooooo delicious, errr… cute! 🙂
At the end of my zoo trip, I was to witness a bit of a surprise. In a huge enclosure in Myślęcinek, you can find a small pack of wolves. They seem quite laid back and disinterested at the gawping masses, such as myself. But this time it was different. Some crows, sitting amongst the trees above the really quite hot and bothered wolves, decided this would be a good place to have a squabble. The culmination of this was a crow wrapping his feet around another one and tossing him to the ground. The wolves, usually unperturbed by intruding birds, were obviously a bit sick of this whole kerfuffle and took decisive and murderous action. With one swipe of a lupine paw, there was a distinctly former crow lying on its back. The crows in the trees were mortified and began shouting at the crows, like a cacophony of disgruntled politicians (all bluster and absolutely no chance of anything approaching action). The wolf, having made his point, simply toddled off and sat down somewhere else.
I heartily recommend to other crows not to tick wolves off. Doesn’t end well one bit!
I took that as my queue to do the same. So begins my last summer in Bydgoszcz.
A City Called Bydgoszcz 