2013 was a year filled with ups, downs, controversies and above all, surprise. While we say that at the end of every year, here are sixty surprising photos to help illustrate our point. Example number one? This brave man runs up a greasy pole known as a “gostra” during the feast of St. Julian, near Valletta, Malta.

Taken moments before this Sumatran tiger killed the swine, here it is featured playing with it.

A Filipino zoo owner reads a bedtime story to his pet snakes in Manila.

Poodles perform at the Ukrainian National Circus.

All Children’s Hospital admit Sao Doan watches as Spider Man washes her window in Florida.

A lost dog wanders about the polluted waters of Ahmedabad on World Earth Day.

An ursine employee at China’s Harbin International Ice and Snow World Festival dons a panda costume.

A fly lands between Barack Obama’s eyes while giving a speech at the White House.

A pig uses a dead sow as “land” amid floods in Chongqing, China.

A penguin at the Prague Zoo took a moment to observe the city’s flooding commercial zones this past summer.