Soča Fidler, Ljubljana, Slovenia

This is our first letter to you and we hope to receive a word from you, too.

We are a group of Slovene ladies who are fond of English and enjoy travelling very much. Since our pensions are not too high, we prefer to stay within your big garden in case we need your help.

This is not a complaint though, more a compliment really. Since our childhood we have studied your past and present life. We must admit that you are an interesting old lady. Still very beautiful and fascinating, especially because you embrace a variety of cultures and languages. And you are ready to receive some more, although you seem to be slowly closing your generous house to those whose status is perhaps falling short of your expectations. We hope this is just a wrong impression since that would not be very nice, would it? We are fully aware, however, that your garden is not infinite.

May we at this point also remind you of the fact that you have actually broadened your horizons by hosting the Etruscans, Celts, Romans, Lombards, Slavs, Goths, Franks,Vikings, Huns, Arabs, Roma (pardon us for not remembering all of them – we are elderly ladies after all!) in the distant past; even the Ottomans brought some nice presents, didn’t they? Having so many cousins of different origin makes us a big and a relatively happy family. Do you agree? Of course, there are sometimes family rows, as there are in every extended family. We all know that the grass is greener on the other side, but if we try to be content with what we do have, and this is not just a little something, we will be able to understand our differences better and perhaps even enjoy their advantages.

Let us give you an example: four years ago our group decided to explore a tiny patch in the southeastern part of your huge garden – Malta. We had all been looking forward to our big adventure but we were also a bit worried whether we would be able to cope with all the challenges of unknown or unpredictable nature in case we encountered some during our visit. We had prepared well for the trip and learnt quite a bit about Maltese history, geographical features of Malta, the present lifestyle of the Maltese, their two official languages (Maltese and English), the weather, and most importantly, historical sites such as the temple of Hagar Qim and the Ggantija Temples (thought to be the oldest free-standing structures in the world!).

As soon as we landed, all our concerns melted away. We were surrounded by friendly people, communication was not a problem, the weather was gorgeous, so we went ahead with our plans: we went swimming on beautiful beaches several times and took a well organised tour of the island. The Knights of Malta left an indelible impression on us – their mediaeval Valetta, the capital of Malta, is just wonderful! It is a pity though that they lost their moral compass towards the end of their rule (which lasted more than two centuries), so that they were ordered to leave Malta by Napoleon, whose soldiers, by the way, also misbehaved and plundered Maltese churches. They had to leave the island only after two years (the Knights after two centuries) as the British seemed a better choice then. Malta has been independent for 45 years now. Longer than Slovenia anyway!

We took another trip around Malta, but this time it was organised by ourselves: we hired a mini bus and had an exciting crossing to the island of Gozo, where another mini bus waited for us. We were delighted that all our day-trip arrangements held good and that we could talk to local people and explore the island on our own, which was a wonderful experience. We also found out that hashish (spelling may be wrong) in Maltese is not something dangerous as it is in English or Slovene. It simply means vegetable.

Our visit to Malta lasted only a week but our happy memories keep flooding back and we still have a good laugh whenever we talk about our first trip together.

We did realise there were some differences between us and the Maltese, but we certainly liked them and they definitely enriched us. So Ms Europe, we would like to thank you for maintaining your great garden full of different and beautiful flowerbeds, Malta and Slovenia being just two of them.

Of course there are many more. We also visited Crete, Rhodes and Tunisia (Africa is also a great beauty, so it would be wise to keep in mind there are some serious rivals out there). If you wish to hear more from us, please let us know. We would also appreciate it if you encouraged some visitors to the Slovene flowerbed to describe their experience.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Your fans from Slovenia