Advent Calendar: 18th Decmber

This cute little guy is a Japanese macaques monkey who lives in an enclosure in the Launceston City Park (there are no monkeys in the wild in Tassy, everything that looks similar to a monkey is probably an Opossum). The enclosure is free to visit, it's in the middle of the park!

But be sure not to climb into the enclosure, the monkeys got Hepatitis B (which is not dangerous for them but for you if you hug them). And yes, I'm pretty serious about that you shouldn't climb in because I've heard a story about two drunken guys who climbed in, smashed the electric fence, which fell into the water that surrounds the enclosure and weren't able to get out anymore because every time they tried to get through the water, they got an electric shock. In the end they got rescued by a friend who had a ladder and lived nearby.

Don't think too much about it, I'm conscious about some logical issues with this story, but it was too funny not to share it. ;)

Advent Calendar: 17th December

A few days ago I've been in Launceston (the second biggest city in Tassy) to a farmer market and saw this sign there. Whenever you go on this island to a supermarket you read at least 500-times "Buy Tasmanian Products" or "Choose Tasmian!". So, they put a lot of effort into making people buy local food which is pretty good, I would love to see that in Austria.

But on this farmer market they sold not only the common stuff like vegetables and fruits but also furry of Wallabies and Kangaroos and home cooked jams (I tried an onion jam - no added sugar, but it was so sweet, unbelievable!) and home cooked convenient food (yeah, strange, isn't it?).

And after three weeks on this island I have to admit: I do not only love food, I love Tasmania too!