Month: March 2020

Traditional Austrian dishes – Jause

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Austrian Jause platterAustria is well known for many different types of food – some you will definitely have heard of: strudel, schnitzel, goulash etc. Each region also has specialities they call their own. Though consider that Austria has nine states in a total of 84,000km² (compare that to Australia’s 8 in 7.7million km²) – this means that a dish ‘local’ to one area is very often found in other places too.

I live in the state of Carinthia (Kärnten) and I work in the state of Steiermark (Styria), so I’m familiar with quite a few.

We’ve already talked about Kärntner Nudeln and Glundner Käse and this week I’m focusing on Jause.

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Shutting down and staying home

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Closed playground coronavirus
Playground in my street… closed

It’s been 10 days since I had close contact with anyone apart from my hubby, visited a shop or left the house for anything but exercise. With Coronavirus’s alleged 5-7 day average for symptoms to show, right now I am fairly comfortable in assuming that we are in the clear. That means we’ve kept ourselves safe, and haven’t contributed to spreading it around

Which is good, because since my post last week we now have reported cases here in my little town. The latest nationwide update brings the total to over 4000.

A lot of people in Australia have been asking me what’s going on here in Austria. Well here’s the latest.

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There is a weird vibe in the air – but hopefully nothing actually in the air

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Coronavirus
Ready for lock-down

Is it just me or does anyone else out there feel like today is the first day of a really weird holiday? We’re in the midst of a worldwide crisis, united in a mutual fascination and fear of COVID-19.

Here in Austria the government announced this week that from Monday more extreme measures will be put in place to help contain the spread – inessential shops will be closed along with schools and universities, restaurants must close at 3pm, visits to hospitals and elderly homes are off the cards, medicine can be prescribed over the phone, and certain areas and towns are locked in quarantine. Along with that are the strong recommendations that social contact should be kept to a minimum and anyone who can work from home should.

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Short Trips – Halls Gap – The Grampians – Gariwerd

debbiekaye19803 Comments

Grampians The PinnacleDuring our recent trip to Australia, hubby suggested we take some time out for ourselves to see a little bit of the country. When you use up a big holiday period to visit home, it’s often hard to see it as a holiday, as opposed to hopping between the same places and people each time.

The place that came to mind instantly (remembering that we have to be practical, we can’t venture too far from Melbourne), was Halls Gap, a place where I used to go camping with the family as a kid.

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