Travel | Hvar, Croatia

A view of Hvar marina from the ancient castle above

Last week my family, as well as the family of one of my best friends, was part of a large flotilla (group of boats) on a sailing route around some of the Croatian islands. Being enthusiastic but amateur sailors, we weren't quite ready to take such a big (53-foot) Sunsail yacht into our own hands, so we hired a young skipper to help. This unfortunately meant that I learned literally nothing new about any of the procedures of the boat (I can tie a bowline knot, hook on a fender and that's about it) however it did give me loads of time - in between numerous swims and a lot of reading - to take photos.

Almost all of these are from the island of Hvar, as that one was my favourite and by far the most picturesque, but a couple are from a village called Trogir which I also really liked.

The cobbled streets (which reminded me a little of Italy):

An adorable street market:

I would absolutely recommend Croatia as a summer destination for people like me who always go to the same places on a loop (Italy, Greece, France etc.) and are looking for somewhere new, but not too expensive and exotic as that can be quite overwhelming. It's similar enough to Italy and Greece that you'll feel at home, but different enough (especially the language, which sounds to me like a mixture of Polish and Russian) that you get a bit of fresh change as well which can be interesting.

I can very safely say that every single Croatian we encountered did everything they could to make our vacation as comfortable and easy as possible - some people going very much out of their way to help (for example, one night I carelessly left my sunglasses in a taxi, and not only did the driver fish them out from wedged underneath the seats, he came all the way back to where he had dropped us to return them to me without protesting or asking for any money in return). 

The food there is sort of a cross between Greek taverna food and Italian food, mainly veering towards Italian; very pizza-pasta-gelato dominated (the pizzas there are great). Obviously as we were mostly on the coasts of islands and in fishing marinas, fresh seafood took up a big chunk of the menus as well. They had some specialities, but not that well advertised, so we didn't get the chance to try any.

As for the sailing, we'd been going to Greece and Turkey as obvious sailing hotspots in previous years, so weren't too sure if Croatia would match up. Actually I thought it was even better than both - a lot windier which obviously was a plus. It was also noticeably hotter and more humid (good for those who love mediterranean weather - I don't), but maybe that's just because of the season we went in. You don't really notice the heat when you're out on the water though.

Oh, and the views are spectacular - here's proof:

xoxo

Accounts I (shamelessly) stalk

Instagram is my absolute favourite social media. Obviously Facebook is the go-to for contacting people and catching up with friends, but when you're into photography, there's something very satisfying in having an all-matching, interesting collection of photos laid out perfectly on one page.

I always (too often) change who I'm following - I get bored of seeing the same things on my feed every day - but here are a few of the accounts I like at the moment.

I have a feeling this post is going to be super long ...sorry.


ravivora 
los angeles - 572k followers
This account gives me so much travel inspiration and genuinely makes me ache to go to all of these places (the city one below is Stockholm at midnight).

anddicted
milan - 188k followers
Urban/food account.

urbanoutfitters
3.4m followers

annietarasova
australia - 54.6k followers
Avegan/wellbeing account which I like a LOT (even though I'm not vegan or particularly sporty).

alexstrohl
los angeles - 698k followers
These photos of starry nights are so beautiful - although I'm not sure how edited they are

saatchi_gallery
london - 369k followers

boywithhaemoglobin 
singapore - 50.2k followers
Minimalistic, monochromatic urban photography

 


afterlight
397k followers
I love this app nearly as much as I love their instagram - especially their season-themed photos (aka blossoms for spring, red leaves for autumn etc).

dearchar_

malaysia - 48.5k followers

Interiors and outdoor photography.

punkodelish
428k followers

linda_lomelino 

561k followers  

Very pretty villagey-urban photography, as well as food.

cahmun
vancouver - 37.5k followers
Breakfast foods - I really like the layout of these and minimalistic style.

xoxo

Photography | Shoreditch London

I think I would be right in saying that Shoreditch is a photographer's heaven. Vibrant graffiti splattering crumbled walls, band stickers plastered to the insides of signposts and sprawling tunnels, little pop-up shops selling all sorts of weird and wonderful crap from garden gnomes holding up the middle finger (I was half tempted to buy one but didn't) to vintage candle holders, to activated charcoal water (I know, it sounds disgusting. But the lady there very kindly gave us a free sample and believe it or not, it was delicious and tasted kind of like cloudy lemonade.) Not that I'm a photographer, but I was in heaven, literally.

I loved this wall - I think about a quarter of my camera roll is from here.
It actually said more than just 'good' and there were illustrations as well
but I couldn't get the whole phrase in the shot as I only had my macro lens with me,
and it zooms in quite a lot

xoxo

P.S

I thought I would also share with you how I edited one of my photos - this is not how I edit every one obviously, but I liked the 3 stages of this process and thought it looked quite nice and straight-forward.

This is the original:

Brightness, contrast, exposure all raised on Photoshop
Red and pink undertones enhanced:

Enhanced on iPhoto and Colour Splash added: