Istria

These photos were taken in Istria, in Croatia, on my last day there. I am now back in Venice for two days before heading home again :'( Though I'm sad about going back, I'm fantasising about winter weather and layering, and with being reunited with my wardrobe! I am getting pretty sick of the very small amount of clothes that I brought with me - if I were to pack again, I probably would have just brought two suitcases with me and a tonne more dresses, rather than a trying to do a "capsule wardrobe". These photos are from the tiny town we stayed in. While wandering, we found an old crumbling building, right near the farm that we trespassed to take backlit photos on. It was like an old castle, and too pretty not to explore. Only later did we realise that it wasn't as abandoned as we thought - people were actually living inside, the front of the building having been restored. I hope that they leave the back of the building as it is, though - it's pretty gorgeous in its dilapidated state. top - Sportsgirl dungarees - "Internet Shop" in Haymarket, Sydney shoes - Yeswalker socks - Tutuanna I'll leave you all with that. See you when I'm back in Sydney! Ashley Dy is coming to visit me and I'm very excited - hopefully we'll have some sweet collaborative posts for you guys :D Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

There Are Real Life Unicorns in Croatia!

See? Two of them, right there! Oh ho ho. I'm pretty funny. I hope I got you all with my hilarious title. There are a lot of goats here though. Really big goats - and some of the them have quite large horns on their heads and they just wander around the streets casually. I tried to get some pictures of them, but there was this big alpha-male goat who was walking towards me more quickly than I felt comfortable with, so I jumped on my bike and rode madly away, imagining the whole way that it was chasing me (are goats even that dangerous? I don't know. I didn't want to stick around to find out.) bodysuit - Asos (sold out - but here's another unicorn shirt) belt - Thrifted skirt - Paper Hearts shoes - c/o Yeswalker And here are some photos taken just a short time afterwards, on an Istrian marina. Sunset in Europe lasts for about 3 hours - bizarre for me, because in Sydney the sun sets extremely quickly! I love Croatia more than I can even describe. The night ended with cocktails at what is possibly the coolest bar I have ever been to, sitting on cushions on rocks right next to the crystal-clear sea water. It's pretty mad to think that I only learnt last year why the sky is blue (light of the entire visible spectrum - white light - comes to us from the sun, and the atmosphere of Earth scatters the blue light - the light with the shortest wavelengths - more than the other colours. And that's why the whole sky appears blue). But I never even questioned why the sky turns orange or red at sunset. Thanks to this fantastic video by "It's Okay to be Smart", I now know why sunsets are so pretty! Have a great day, p.s. I'm having an ad sale to help fund a slightly expensive hair-style change that I'll be getting in the next month ;) If you'd like a Large Ad Spot for August to promote your store or blog, use the promo code AUGUSTADSALE at the checkout for $5 off all Large Ad spaces. Use the promo code ANNIKANEEDSNEWHAIR for $1 off all Small Ad spaces. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Miniature Annika

Hello all! Yesterday Luci's family was having a day of "recovery" after meeting about 10348 Istrian relatives, so we didn't get up to much. I didn't want to spend the entire day merely relaxing beside the pool (I hate wasting my days, even on a holiday), so after reading one of my favourite photography/fashion blogs "Introvert's Introduction" (and in particular, this post) I was inspired to do a "miniature composite" outfit shoot. It was my first attempt ever at doing one of these so some of the shadows and lighting probably looks a little bit off, but you get the idea! I would like to try and do some more outfit posts in miniature version - I think they'll go well with my more doll-like outfits. The full version of the photo is below (see an enlarged version here). Let me know what you think! And if you'd like to suggest any miniature scenes that you think would suit my outfits, leave me a comment :) dress - c/o Sheinside belt - Thrifted shoes - c/o Yeswalker necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy I hope that you're all having a great day, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Hello from Croatia! (plus glowworms)

The last couple of days involved me (and Luci's family) travelling to the western coast of Croatia from Venice. Currently, we are in what is known as the "Italian" part of Croatia (Istria), where people are ethnically Italian and mainly still speak Italian as well. It is extremely beautiful here in Croatia. I feel a little bit like I am coming home, as my heritage is Eastern European, and every night we have been eating gnocchi and desert cakes not unlike the kind my Hungarian grandmother used to make. Wardrobe-wise, I am getting pretty frustrated with my very limited amount of travel clothing (and there are only so many outfits that I can wear because this summer heat doesn't allow layering at all) and I can't wait to do some proper thrifting when I get back to Sydney! OUTFIT 1 shirt - c/o Sheinside (sold out - similar) skirt - c/o Sheinside (sold out) necklace - Claire's OUTFIT 2 bikini - Asos (sold out - similar) On the way back from dinner yesterday night, we discovered this little glowing guy peeking out of some bricks (this is a terrible photo of it - the worm had cute little glowing eyes and everything - but bear with me): What makes glowworms, fireflies and jellyfish glow? A property known as bioluminescence, the glowing is created by special proteins in the animals (usually called luciferins). Luciferins undergo a chemical reaction with an enzyme called luciferase. Luciferase causes the luciferin to meet with oxygen, causing a reaction which releases light (there is a good diagram of this on How Stuff Works). Just a couple of days ago, scientists from Brazil and Japan discovered the evolutionary link between non-glowing enzymes and bioluminnescent enzymes. This is really important because bioluminescence is used a lot in scientific and medical research (making things glow makes them a lot easier to see), and means that researchers will be able to make luciferases which glow in different colours and are up to 1000 times brighter (read more). Image via Science Alert, by Doug Perrine And here is a photo of bioluminescent plankton lighting up a beach in the Maldives, just to prove how cool it is. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Firenze and Galileo

Florence must be one of the most beautiful cities in the world - it certainly is the most gorgeous city that I have ever been in (Tokyo comes close, but it is beautiful in an entirely different way). I regret not getting more photographs of Florence, but both me and my camera were melting in the heatwave that's been hitting Europe over the last couple of days - which is why I look so sweaty in these photos, by the way - and I spent the majority of my time either in air-conditioned museums or sipping on iced orange juice in the shade! Being the massive geek that I am, I wore this painting skirt to visit a bunch of Renaissance art museums (even though I don't have any idea what the painting on the skirt is - maybe I was hoping to find its original, haha. Can someone more art-literate than me help me out?) I got to see Michelangelo's David, a whole heap of Renaissance artworks and sculptures, and basically act like a hot, sweaty tourist all day. It was pretty great. shirt - Sportsgirl skirt - c/o Romwe shoes - Asos socks - c/o OASAP bag - Thrifted belt- Thrifted necklace - Claire's One of the most famous scientists of the Renaissance, from the Florence region of Italy is Galileo Galilei, who is probably more responsible for modern science as we know it than any other single person who has lived. The first person to point a telescope at the sky, he confirmed that the Earth revolved around the sun as well as discovering the moons of Jupiter and that the Milky Way was made up of stars. He set up the foundations for Issac Newton's laws of motion. He also came up with the concept of the modern experiment, featuring a hypothesis and the comparing of two conditions with controlled variables; in his time, the idea of "science" largely consisted of sitting around and thinking about things rather than conducting objective experiments. More recently, the Galileo spacecraft, launched by NASA in the 1980s, explored Jupiter and its moons, collecting evidence for water on Europa and exploring Io's volcanoes. And that's your little bit of science history for the day ;) I just arrived in a little town in Croatia, and am planning on walking around and taking photos all day! I can't wait to share them all with you. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr