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

The Flash & Forever a Geek

Apologies for my semi-absence from blogging lately! These photos sum up much of what I have been up to for the past two weeks - spending hot days in the pool trying not to get heatstroke. Because of this, my outfits haven't exactly seen much variation, apart from throwing on a t-shirt and skirt when "dressing up" to go out for dinner. I did, however, want to blog this Romwe swimsuit which I received a few months ago - and was never able to wear in Sydney because it was the middle of winter (oops). This swimsuit has sold out - so you can't buy it anymore (from Romwe, at least), but before you get grumpy at me about dangling some unobtainable treasure in front of you and then teasing you about it, I wouldn't recommend this swimsuit to anyone - it required far too much alteration with a sewing machine to become wearable. The top is actually pretty cool, however the measurements were a little off and it ended up too big for me. I fixed that easily with a bit of sewing, and it's become a great cropped summer camisole. The bottoms, however, were far from ideal. The elastic in the waistband was way too tight - meaning instant muffin-top territory for anyone with even the tiniest bit of tummy fat (I'm hiding this by putting my hands on my waist and sucking in my stomach in the top photo, haha). The elastic can be replaced, but again, it's something that you shouldn't have to do. I'm usually really happy with Romwe pieces, but this was a reminder to always double check your measurements, and a lesson in buying swimsuits online. Though I set myself up as a purveyor of online shopping, I think that when it comes to swimsuits and underwear, you are probably better off getting these things in a real-life store, unless the measurements are really detailed and you are super certain about your size. swimmer top - c/o Romwe swimmer bottoms - c/o Romwe skirt - Paper Hearts shoes - c/o Yeswalker necklace - Claire's My dad sent this to me this morning (via Unearthed Comics) and I thought it was a very appropriate thing to blog about right now - this is very, very true of me! Going to a whole other part of the world has sent my brain into science-geek-overdrive - the animals, clouds and climate are all so different to what I am used to, and hence super fascinating. In addition to below, I would also be wondering about the entire ecosystem that the crab is involved in (and everything that is hidden underneath the sand), and how its seashell was made (something I have already posted about after my last time on holiday, in fact!) Source: Unearthed Comics I hope that you're all having a wonderful day, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Velvet Feet & Supercooling

Aren't these shoes (sent to me by Sammydress) the best things you've ever seen!? I really wanted to wear them with a blue coat that I was going to turn into a cape - like the red one in these photos - but I ran out of time to do most of the sewing projects I had planned before my overseas trip! But I kind of like the clashing colours here anyway - I like it when there is something just slightly odd about an outfit. (Oh! And if you have a keen eye, you might have noticed that these photos were taken back when I was in Sydney). top - Cotton On skirt - c/o Sheinside (similar) cape - DIY necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises shoes - c/o Sammydress (sold out, but similar here, here, here and here) Firstly I should apologise to the (apparently) many arachnophobics who read my blog! I am also someone who is extremely uncomfortable around spiders (which is great for living in Australia when a giant one jumps out at you basically every day) but because the picture of the underwater diving bell spider I used in my last post didn't make me feel ill, I thought that (me being the most arachnophobic person I know), it would be okay for most people!  Anyway, I promise that there will be no more pictures of spiders on this blog without due warning. To make up for it, I will leave you with this video of supercooled water. Supercooled water is water which has been cooled below its freezing point (0°C), but remains in its liquid form (yup, what you learnt in school that water always freezes at 0°C (or 32°F) isn't always true!) To turn into a solid, liquid water needs "crystalisation" to occur, for more ice crystals to effectively "grow" on. However this process, called "nucleation", might not happen if there aren't any impurities in the water for the ice crystals to "grow" on. In fact, you can get down to temperatures of -41°C before the water freezes - if it is really pure. (Read more here). Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Venice & Underwater Arachnids

Venice being the city of Carnevale, and wanting to avoid the obvious horizontal-stripes à la the gondaliers, I thought it was appropriate to don my carnival-esque dress from Sheinside, featuring carousel horses, for my brief trip to the Venetian island the other day. I even wore some little gelato earrings (thanks to Freckles and Ginger), to honour the most popular product being sold at every second store that I pass (the other half are pizza/pasta joints). I'm so lucky to be here, and am loving Italy so far! Today we are going out on the Adriatic sea on two boats owned by Luciano's relatives, right next to Venice. I am super dooper lucky! dress - c/o Sheinside shoes - Asos socks - Tutuanna earrings - Gift from Freckles and Ginger bag - Thrifted necklace - Claire's (Japan) When we were staying at the Italian vineyard a few weeks ago, we were in awe of (and a little freaked out by) these spiders that seemed perfectly content living underneath the water at a nearby swimming pool. They moved around really quickly underneath the water, and never had to come up for air. I finally found out what they are, and they're really really cool. A particular type of spider called the Diving Bell spider is able to spin a web which it fills with air. They don't need to keep coming up to the surface to get more air, either, because the web acts like the gills of fish - taking oxygen from the water, and sending out carbon dioxide, so that the spider always has fresh air to breath. And they don't exist in Australia, either - which is why I had never seen them before. Image via IFLS These spiders can live out their entire lives basically underwater - mating, laying eggs and catching prey. I feel pretty bad for the spider that was in our pool, now. It was a pretty boring environment for it to end up in. I hope it found a new home in a pretty river or stream instead! Heaps of love! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Polar Bears and Telescopic Eyes

I looooove cropped tees! They're my favourite trend to come out of the whole 90s-revival that's been going on, because they're the easiest thing to wear. You can pretty much style them with anything - as long as it's not low-waisted pants. They look great with high-waisted-anything (shorts, skirts, jeans and leggings), layered over dresses and especially cute when worn underneath pinafores. Add a cute animal face, and you've definitely won me over. t-shirt - c/o Romwe skirt - Thrifted necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises belt - Thrifted shoes - Asos hat - c/o Wholesale Here's something amazing - have you ever used a zoom lens on a camera? Or thought about using coloured eye contacts?  Now imagine putting the two together. The world's first telescopic contact lenses have just been developed. Obviously, the lens has to be really thin to fit comfortably on your eye. This is where the technology has been hard to develop - making something this thin also have decent magnifying qualities is pretty difficult. The image has to bounce 4 times inside the lens, using mirrors, before being projected onto the back of the eye (the retina) where it is "read". Users can switch between normal and telescopic vision simply by putting on a pair of polarised 3D TV spectacles - the contact lens also has a polarising filter on its surface, and so can interact with the 3D glasses. Zoom vision through the contact lens. (Image source) The glasses are intended for people suffering from macular degeneration, who find it harder to make out fine details in their vision, however you could wear them if you have healthy vision, to give yourself super-human zoom vision. Read more here. I hope that you're all having the best of days! p.s. these photos were taken back in Sydney, if they are confusing you with their non-Italianness. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr