American in Cyprus: Animal House

We had been told about the Melios animal park outside of Nicosia and decided to check it out today. Our expectations were fairly low but we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. They have hundreds of different varieties of birds and the colors on them were spectacular. I was impressed and I'm not easily impressed by birds. They had everything from flamingos and parrots to ducks and chickens. We even saw an ostrich lay an egg. They also had farm animals, lots of deer, foxes, hyenas, kangaroos, and even raccoons. Guess raccoons are a novelty in Cyprus. While we were there the sky got very dark and we heard lots of thunder. Eventually some large raindrops started to fall and we quickly ran into the concession area for a snack. The rain lasted for about a minute and then the sun came out again. Once it cleared up we spent some time at the playground. Actually, more like a long time. The kids had a blast and I did my best to ignore all the safety violations. We spent most of the afternoon there and still had to convince the kids to leave. On the way home I asked everyone to name his/her favorite animal. Here's the answers:
Sofia: horse
Alex: everything
Demetris: hyena
Lori: peacocks
The price of admission was three euros (less than $5) for the whole family. Now that is a deal.