Concentrate on the friends -- and presumably since they are friends you have an idea what they'd like.

Folks who provide good service -- a tip and/or letter to their manager or boss is more appropriate than tchotchkes and little gifts . . .

"what sort of goodies to take to Europe as gifts for friends"

- They're your friends. How on earth do you imagine ANYONE else on a forum can have a better idea of what they'll like than you? Anyone telling you their sister in law liked a tub of Vegemite is giving you useless information. Anyone telling you their cousin really appreciated that picture book of Parramatta is simply deluding themselves.

By and large though - certainly in Britain - friends you're staying with are familiar enough with Down Under and with the practical complications of hauling heavy trinkets round the world not to expect ANY gifts from Antipodeans staying overnight. If you're staying for a few nights, taking them out to dinner works best.

Note that Australian wine is universally available, and taxes imposed on more than 1.5 litres of wine a traveller might bring in from outside the EU are crippling.

"also for those we might meet who are thoughtful or give great service"

- The words "thank you", or in some nakedly commercial relationships just possibly a tip - though generally Europeans are as contemptuous of the tipping culture as Australians. Virtually anything else is crass, though in some commercial relationships (like a B&B) a laudatory review on a website is even better than sincere thanks.

Opals are always acceptable?

Proper, locally-made, Fosters would be appreciated in this household (made under licence, badly, in Europe), but the difficulties are obvious...

Otherwise we're always surprised at how Italian kids seem to take to the cute little stuffed kangaroo someone once brought us!

Peter

Visitors we have usually take Tim-Tams back to Europe. Mint Slice are good too. I also have a German friend who has bought egg-rings for friends and family back home. I think it's a pretty ordinary gift but she thinks the whole concept is a scream, and points out that they are very light to send or carry, and unknown over there.

The Australia Post shop has a lot of stamps and coins and other light little bits and pieces, and the Australian Geographic ship has some good Australiana. I'm not into that whole thing, although I did buy two kookaburra puppets there once for a friend's daughters, which were a hit. Our guests often go to Paddy's Markets for the cheapest souvenirs (t-shirts, plastic roadsigns, keyrings).

I like Flanner's idea of taking people out to dinner, although only you know if that will work for you.

I don't think Vegemite is a good gift. Nice as a novelty to take back for European visitors, but you yourself would know that it's an acquired taste and you have to be brought up on it. If you gave it as a gift it would probably end up at the back of the condiments cupboard, or, sadly, in the bin.

Lavandula

OK, I'll take the bait. What the heck is an egg ring?

I was wondering the same thing Patrick.

janisj,
strange as it might seem, the friends I referred to are a few families i visited some 30 years ago & a few penfriends that I don't really know very well, so I was hoping for advice on something that may be Aussie but still of general interest in Europe.
i do appreciate the advice of a note or comment to the boss for good service by staff.
flanneruk, I'm sorry if my request sounded naive or really silly. I've mentioned that the 'friends' are not those I know intimately as I've mentioned to Janisj and for the others, I was hoping, that we might actually get to know people along the way (over 9 weeks) who we would like to give a little bit of Australia to. I'm not particularly into tipping either but the dinner out and/or a post or review idea is great, so thanks for that!
A Brit in Ischia, an opal might be just the thing for the friends I haven't seen for 30 years,will check out the stuffed animal range too! Thanks Peter.
lavandula, love the Mint slice too, but might eat them before we give any away! Egg rings huh? Sounds fun and novel!
Thanks for the other suggestions too, we usually end up parting with our Aussie coins when we travel so I should have thought of that. I'm not that keen on the bought souvenirs (most are made in China anyway) and generally souvenirs are only appreciated when you buy them from somewhere you've visited yourself. My daughter suggested Argyle pink diamonds and Broome pearls but I'm thinking more chocolate maccadamias! Oh, and we'll only be taking the 'vege' for our own use!! Thanks, JT

I had no idea egg rings weren't universally known. They are a thin metal circle, half an inch high and about 4 inches across. You put them in a frypan then crack an egg inside it. It prevents the egg from spreading all over the pan. I've never used one but you can buy them anywhere.

How about buying some nice Australian postcards - things like the Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, Opera House in Sydney etc and you could leave them as a thank you, with a few words written on the back. That would be cheap and light to carry as well.

If any of your friends are likely to wear light silky scarves you could try and find some with pictures of Australia flora on them.

Or some drink coasters with pictures of Australian scenes or Australian wildlife?

Don't weigh yourself down too much, people won't expect anything and I think the idea of shouting them a meal is a good one.

Kay

Egg ring! Thanks for helping me identify one of the artifacts we found among my father's effects (many years ago) that mystified us. (We're still working on others, you never know when you might learn something new.)

KayF , all good ideas, thanks, and the post cards for a little thankyou note sounds nice and not over the top!
Nikki, glad you gained something educational from this thread! I've got to say, I don't use egg rings myself either, you have to have a very smooth pan for them to work well and the non-stick ones are best, not the old tin ones! Although the egg poaching cups are cool!

I'd agree with all of flanner's suggestions, e.g. taking your friends out to dinner & tipping / praising / recommending people you have commercial dealings with. Good wine (or rum) is always welcome to some of us, but obviously logistically difficult.

If you do want to take a few bits & pieces like chocolate, though, I have some experience of being on the receiving end as we used to get a lot of colleagues from Australia visiting our office and IMO :

- Tim Tams are like a less nice version of our Penguins and I wouldn't bother

- chocolate macadamia nuts are nice and I've never seen them anywhere else - also not too bulky !

- Australian soft liquorice (especially red) used to be a novelty : they sell it now in the UK in Lakeland shops but in other European countries or small places in the UK it may be seen as a fun idea (although not everyone likes liquorice).

We have egg rings here in the UK, although I didn't know they were called that and we don't actually use ours for eggs but when DH is being cheffy and wants to present food in towers I don't know about the rest of Europe. You never know what might be common in one place and unknown in another - I was amazed to discover from a past thread about gifts to take back to the US that most Americans apparently aren't familar with egg cups !

Vegemite as well as being a love it or hate it thing is fairly widely available in the UK.

<most Americans apparently aren't familar with egg cups>

Or toast racks, which are hilarious IMO.

Pawpaw ointment- something we take for granted but apparently a real hit overseas

I've never had an egg ring but my understanding is that they come into their own when making a hamburger - some people like to have a fried egg on their hamburger and this device keeps them nice and neat. And of course Australian hamburgers must have beetroot ...

I guess you are either a Penguins fan or a Tim-Tams fan. For me it's the Tim-Tam, no question!
;o)

Macadamia nuts - I think if you're from Hawaii this is no novelty (my mother-in-law has brought us back these a few times), but you're right, we can buy massive bags of macadamias here and I think they're not so easy to get elsewhere.

Lavandula

Steve Parish has some nice little soft covered books with flora and fauna photo's also does some nice calendars and book marks, I have seen these at Australia Post. Also check out Maxwell and Williams at a kitchen shop or Myer, they do a nice range of mugs, coasters and tea bag dishes with birds and flowers.

Actually just thought of something else - when I lived in Belgium I tried to buy some eucalyptus oil (great for cleaning sticky marks, good for colds too). All I could buy was a weak, icky blue-coloured liquid. Nothing compared to the very inexpensive and good quality oil you can just buy in the supermarket in Australia (is this Double D?). Just a thought.

Lavandula

I'm told we got the little roo - only 2 or 3 inches high - from the Australian author of our local LP guide, when he was here some years back...

Just the sort of thing a dozen of which would be easy to pack and carry, and nice because no one would throw it away?

Peter

Little vials of sunshine might be nice. Maybe also containers of temperate sea water and fine sand.

If someone is giving you great service they deserve a gift - in cash - not some random tschotke. This is a business relationship and should be treated s such. And the idea of giving beads to the indians went out when the Berlin Wall fell and the staff in russian/eastern european hotels could buy their own pantyhose at bargain prices.

If you are visiting friends you should bring them something substantial - a deluxe coffee table book - or wine or chocolatees you get on the spot - as well as taking thme out for a coupleo f nice dinners. If you will be meeting their children you might want to bring small tokens - otherwise this is inappropriate.

I'm not sure which city you are leaving from, but Sydney Airport has a surprisingly good range of small gifts. For example, one of the shops has contemporary Aboriginal art fridge magnets, notebooks, luggage labels, tea-towels etc. They had a quite beautiful, brilliantly coloured stubby holder. (I'm not sure if that mode of cooling beer has taken anywhere else but maybe someone could use it as a pencil holder instead?

Again in Sydney, the Australian Museum has a very good range of gifts for children: native animals (complete with sound effects), books. You could take Austraian children's classics like: Snugglepot and Cuddlepie, the Muddle-Headed Wombat, The Magic Pudding.

Museum of Sydney has a good range of Australian-themed items that are nicely designed: coasters for example.

I wouldn't take anyone in Europe either tim-tams (I find them far too sweet) or Vegemite.

Susan -

I don't know about Europe, but stubby holders are well entrenched in the US - we call them koozies.

What is a tschotke? How do you say it?

Kay