Croatia

(and Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro).

After many weekend and short trips, a full week of holiday was the ultimate luxury. No need to rush into sightseeing, and no thoughts about work for a full 7 days...

It's quite hard though to compress the impressions and memories of an entire week into a few sentences and pics on a blog, but I'm going to try anyway.

I guess what has left the biggest impression on me was the coastline. It was absolutely stunning - only second to the Amalfi Coast - and after a week of driving up and down the Adriatic Road, I feel that I know it intimately.

The water is turquoise blue and clear and all life seems to revolve around the beach. In fact, it didn't seem unusual for the Croatians to walk around in their swim gear all day, whether they were close to the water or not.

The second thing I found unusual was that Croatia is divided into two parts, with a bit of Bosnian territory in between. So in order to get from one side to another we had to pass border controls all the time to the extent that sometimes I wasn't sure in which country we were.

The food was not terribly good in either country (I was once sold a plain chopped up tomato as a 'salad') but it didn't matter, since it was too hot to eat most of the time, or we didn't have enough cash in the right currency and a few times we opted to cook in our apartment, which had a beautiful view over the sea and the old town of Dubrovnik.

The one amazing dinner experience I remember though was in Bosnia. Due to a road accident and subsequent traffic jam, we decided to have dinner at this random little town not too far from the border. It seemed as if the locals were celebrating a kind of pagan thanksgiving festival. There were lots of tents set up by the river and people were feasting on roast lamb. And by roast lamb, I mean entire lambs on metal spears - dozens of them.

We spent the rest of the week swimming and sightseeing and it was not until the second to last day that we discovered this little gem of an island right opposite our apartment. The thing is that from the distance, it didn't look very interesting, but once we got there (by ferry) it turned out to be a little lost paradise with pine covered walkways, secluded bays for swimming and most peculiar, hundreds of wild peacocks, all showing off their fancy feathers.

It goes to show that the best things are sometimes closer than we may think.

The next day we went onto a little Kayak excursion around that very same island and decided that our boat was to be called the Cutty Shark and that we should seek and destroy all enemies. I'm not sure our fellow travellers found our attacks as funny as we did, but we definitely had the most enjoyable time.

Chào bạn!

About three years ago I had this bet with a colleague - I was determined to learn Vietnamese and I boasted that I would be able to have a fluent conversation with his Vietnamese wife within 12 months.

And I really was eager. I bought all sorts of books and joined an evening class at the SOAS. And for about three months or so I diligently did my coursework and practised my vocabulary in my free time.

And then... Needless to say that I still owe my colleague the ten pounds.

But this time I'm serious (yes, I know I've said that before...)! I think it'll be easier this time. Firstly, I know more Vietnamese people now - so I can practise - but moreover, I really feel comfortable around the expat community here.

Truth is, if you have an immigrant background, the question of identity will alway play a part in your life.

Some people may decide that they want to integrate fully and they will reject all things Vietnamese. Others are just rediscovering their roots and they will overemphasise their Asian-ness.

I'm trying to stay clear from both extremes and I'm just happy that I have the opportunity to learn a new skill.

My new Vietnamese tutor is actually a girl I know from the VAS and she herself has gone through the same experience of learning the language almost from scratch... which just proves that it can be done.

Anyone wants to bet? ;-)

Vietnamese Summer Festival

For months, members of VietPro and other volunteers had been organising the "Vietnamese Summer Festival" - a food and cultural fair in Shoreditch market and the first of its kind in London. We've been following their hopes and doubts, their big ideas and their little quarrels over the weeks, curiously awaiting the outcome.

And I must say I was surprised. Not so much by the festival itself, but by the size of the Vietnamese community in London. I never realised that there were so many of us - old and young, established and new arrivals, from the North and the South.

It was an eclectic mix and you could easily believe that you were in the midst of Benh Than Market.

And once again I noticed how industrious the Vietnamese are, a talent that they seem to have maintained even overseas.

Everybody had something to sell, no matter how small or simple. There were lots of stalls just selling tea with chopped fruit or ice cream from the tub - and people were lining up for it...

I didn't buy much - the memory of the recent food poisoning was still strong, but I must say, I had a jolly good time.

Go West

This was one of the invaluable lessons that life teaches you from time to time.

For our regular VAS get-togethers, we tend to meet in the East of London: firstly because most members live in the East, but also because all the good Viet restaurants are concentrated in Hoxton, Hackney or Deptford.

In order to shake things up a little, Xiem decided that we should go West this time, to a newly opened restaurant in Hammersmith which specialises on Central Vietnamese cuisine.

We ordered a large variety of starters and mains - some of the dishes were familiar to me, others I had never tried before. Everything looked, smelled and tasted great, and I felt a bit sorry for the owners that they didn't have more customers. In fact, we were the only ones in the restaurant.

At that point at the latest, I should have remembered my parents words: Never eat at a restaurant which is struggling for customers. Food is unlikely to be fresh.

And indeed, the next day, I woke up with a terrible food poisoning which struck me down for almost 4 days.

Trying to see the positive side, I would say it saved me a pre-holiday diet and I've learned a useful lesson.

We'll definitely go East again next time.

Warsaw

There are many different reasons why people travel: some people want to relax away from home, others want to see something they have only read about with their own eyes.

In my opinion, the best trips are the ones which change your view of the world.

Normally, there are certain expectations around popular places like Paris or Rome and the cities either deliver or they don't. But they rarely surprise.

With Warsaw, I had no expectations at all. I had been to Krakow the year before and all the locals there had told me that Warsaw was an ugly post-war communist city. And to be honest, I only went because my boyfriend and his friends were there to watch the football.

But when I got there I found Warsaw to be very lovely. Slow paced, beautiful old town, lots of streets lined with cafes and restaurants - and excellent cuisine. Far from just the simple dumplings with sour cream that are so stereotypically Polish. And because the place hasn't been overrun by tourists yet, you really get a feel for how people live and how they go about their day to day live.

And I also discovered my latest craze there: frozen yoghurt with tons of toppings - the only way to deal with a sweltering heat of 35 degrees.