"Mother-something"

Monkey week continues: today we got some more info about what we'll be doing here the next few weeks, basically well be working with different animals each week, so this week it's monkeys, the next week; who knows...

To day we met the other monkey keeper ( this one spoke a bit more English ). Nonetheless we kinda grew fond of the older one that was with us the first days so we miss her... a lot ;( But the other one is nice too

We helped with some new decorations for two White-faced Saki Monkeys ( they were the monkey keepers favorite monkeys ). We hung up some branches and tied dried sunflowers to hang from them. The monkeys loved them <3
We also saw a baby crested porcupine and two baby-somethings ( we don't remember the name of the species but we'll look it up for tomorrow ). The mother-something was curious looking to say the least; we've never seen anything like it before ( that we can remember ) it was so ugly that it was cute, you know? Totally adorable ( we'll try to post pictures of it tomorrow ). And we got to hand feed the mother <3

Food was ( still ) excellent!

The first thing we do each morning is cleaning capuchin monkey's cage ( the dude in the picture )

Our second day of work

Every time we pass this cage ( which is every morning and afternoon at least ) this dude races us across his cage, this morning he won ( yay! )

Today we returned to the monkeys, doing all the same jobs as the day before. In addition to the primates, we also cared for porcupines, a fennec fox, some chipmunks and some other strange animals ( we don't even remember the names of the species... ). Again we had some trouble understanding the monkey keeper, but we're getting used to it and today it was certainly easier to understand her than the other day
( progress! )

We also got a new friend today ;) ( as you can see from the picture )

While feeding the orangutans, we certainly got our fair share of Tigu's spit ( he has obviously practiced on his spitting skills; the record was about three meters or
more ).

After hard day of work ( NOT! ), we got the chance to feed the Indian Elephants ( totally amazing beyond words )

So in the end of the day, ( at least one of us ) was over the moon ( =overjoyed ) despite the orangutan and elephant spit and snot everywhere

Ain't they adorable?!

A day at Nyíregyháza

So today we had a day off and we went to the city center. Window shopping and just wondering around taking pictures like proper tourists XD
We got some prepaids for our cellphones and had some ice-cream ( really tasty and looked awsome!! ). We think Finns could learn something about layouts from the Hungarians.
We just marvel at the cheapness of things here ( you could get 4 ice-creams in Hungary for the price of one in Finland ), but we ain't complaining... seriously!

As we wondered around looking for nothing in particular, we came across a local pet store. It was a bit different than back in Finland, the place was tiny and the animals were packed quite tightly but they looked healthy and well cared for. The shop assistant was nice ( thankfully she spoke English ) and let us take pictures of the shop ( which of course we had to do since we're animal attendant students ).

The amazing thing about the day was that we didn't get lost and found our way back to the buss stop without any problems ( since neither of us possesses a great sense of direction ).

Over all a nice day, great weather and again, GOOD FOOD from the Irish Pub Restaurant ( we'll definitely become regulars
there )!

The first day of work

This morning, March 28th, at eight o'clock we went to the office to get some info about our day. Whilst one of us was taking care of all sorts of primates, the other one took a stroll into town and got us monthly buss-tickets.

The morning in town was interesting, the thing to remember is "8A; bad for you, use only 8". So maybe you can guess that buss number 8 goes into town from the zoo and back again. The town was certainly more colorful than back home; the buildings were painted things like bright yellow or green... And there was vegetation and trees everywhere and everything was blooming in the colors of spring.

In the afternoon we met up again after lunch and continued with the monkeys together. The monkey-keeper spoke very little English ( the only words she spoke in English were "male", "female", "baby", "child", "family", "feed" and "clean" she also used numbers 1-10 using her fingers to demonstrate ), so body language proved valuable. The woman explained much about different species and their names in Hungarian, but as you can guess, we understood none of it. So what we actually did was feeding and cleaning the enclosures of monkeys. The most memorable moments were hand feeding ring-tailed lemurs ( mom carrying two babies in the picture ) and orangutans; named Tigu ( in the picture ), Bunga and Damai.

The first days of our travels

Yesterday, March 26th 2014, we arrived at Budapest and everything went perfectly smoothly... Almost... Anyway, after a bit of a disaster, we finally found ourselves at Hotel Dzungel right next to the zoo. The weather was nice and sunny and the food was great ( except that there was way too much of it ), the people here are very friendly although the we are having a bit of a language barrier ( not everyone speaks English ).

Today, March 27th, we finally got the wifi password and so were able to start this blog

 ( HURRAY! ). We spent the day circling around the zoo and taking photos of the animals until our cameras batteries wore out. ( No wonder, since there is about 5000 animals, 500 different species and 300 000 square meters to cover... ). We already clearly had our own favorites among the animals; the "Timons" ( the meerkats ), the "Sherekhan" ( the bengal tiger ), the "Tantors and Dumbos" ( the african and indian elephants ),  the "King Julians" ( the ring-tailed lemurs ) and of course the "Ghost" ( the arctic wolves ), sadly, we couldn't find any "Pumbaas" ;(

After about 4 hours of staring in wonder at everything, we met some of the workers for lunch ( again, way too much food in one portion ) and had some info about what we'll be doing the following weeks. We also arranged a "tour" to the local grocery store with one of the workers for later. She also pointed out some other good places to visit for us during the short car ride. The rest of the day we just enjoyed each others company and well, wrote this for you all to see of course ;) ( as if anyone's even gonna read this )