Biologists on tour - Rovinj, Croatia

Hello there!

Sorry for being quite on here for so long, life’s been super busy and I’m not gonna lie, blogging and generally doing stuff online just wasn’t a priority (and still isn’t, but I’m on a 6h train ride and I’m bored).

First „major event“ I want to talk about and show you some pictures from is a trip to Rovinj, Croatia. We went with my fellow biologists to do some research and data sampling on a brown algae Padina pavonica. I know that this doesn’t sound exciting at all and you’re probably thinking that I’m a nerd (and you’re right) but surprisingly, it was the best uni field trip so far and one of my favorite memories. And that’s thanks to the amazing bunch of people I went there with and our cry-laughing balcony sessions.

But what did we actually do in Rovinj, except for drinking a lot of wine and beer, chilling in beach bars, getting a tan and calling all this research? Well, we spent our days snorkeling and sampling exemplars of P.Pavonica and measured the rapid light curves in the water using the PAM II spectometer (this thing costs 40000Eur and I was carrying it through the old town of Rovinj that is filled with slippery rocks – that’s what I call an extreme sport). We actually had two of these, one old and one new and the old one was such a diva and wasn’t measuring properly so we decided to call it Pamela (see? Biologists are funny!). After spending three to four hours in the water, we overdosed on cevapcici and coffee and went to the lab. And you know what’s worse than a lab without AC? A lab without AC that’s full of mosquitos:)))) But hey, it was still fun. We devided the work in between all of us and were sending the samples from one station to another  screaming the name of the sample to make us look more professional and interesting  (I operated the area measurements, because it involved photography and well, I claimed this job right away - it wasn’t like I’d let anyone else do that haha) . After we were done with the work for the day (which was pretty late usually), we went back to our apartment and either cooked for all of us (I’ve never seen more food in a pot than there, honestly, the portions we ate were unreal, I don’t understand how we didn’t gain 10kg each) or went for pizza/cevapcici/whatever. And than we spent our evening seither on our balcony or in our favourite Rovinj bar laughing about everything or playing "Excel the game" as we called it, because the data wouldn't analyse itself.

And even though it was an uni field trip, where we had to do quite a lot of work, it was an amazing experience and I can't imagine how it could've been any better. I know it sounds like we did do much, but when you're in good company, everything's fun.

Back in Vienna we played some more „Excel the Game“, got all our data together and started writing on our bachelor thesis. And that’s also why I've been so quiet lately – finishing my bachelor’s degree was rather time consuming, as I had to write the thesis and still study for 3 exams plus I fucked up my back pretty badly, because hey, nothings better than writing an exam while you’re nearly crying because of pain. But everything's done now and I'm enjoying the summer of my life. 

So here are some of the shots I took in Rovinj. We arrived a few days earlier and stayed a few days longer so I actually had time to shoot, otherwise I'd be showing you the Padina samples haha. Also, Padina pavonica tastes like paper. I thought you should now that, I tested it for you.

Have a nice day everyone!

I know the places are still the same ones on the photos, but I couldn't resist.