Andrew Weir describes his trip to the World Congress of Esperanto (Universala Kongreso de Esperanto) in Florence this year.

This August I went to Florence to attend my first World Congress of Esperanto. World Congresses are held every year in various cities all over the world, and bring Esperantists from many countries together to meet, converse and enjoy themselves. The most recent congress, held in the first week of August, attracted 2,200 people. This was my first Esperanto meeting outside Britain, not to mention my first time travelling abroad on my own; and it was an unforgettable experience.

I arrived in Florence with a few doubts. I didn't know what to expect from a World Congress. Would Esperanto really work, not just to chat with people whose language you already know but with people from other countries as well? Would I be able to speak quickly enough and understand what was said to me? Would I sink or would I swim? All fears vanished almost immediately after I registered at the congress. What particularly struck me was the friendly atmosphere created by the chatter and happiness from all the congress-goers — and also the ease of communication between people.

The congress theme was "Languages, cultures and education for sustainable evolution". The program was varied and interesting. Between talks, music, plays, meetings, literary events, youth events, you couldn't get bored. Of course, besides the formal events, the informal conversations and friendships made at a World Congress are more important. I must confess, though, that even with Esperanto you can get cultural misunderstandings. I noticed that remarks about my Scottishness were often a way of starting conversations with me; I was speaking with a Belgian girl about Scotland, and I said that I had intended to bring my kilt with me to Florence, but as it's heavy and the temperature was about 40˚C, I was glad I had decided not to. She then told me that she owned a kilt and often wore it in Belgium! My protests that a female kilt isn't a kilt, it's a skirt, were ignored…

Florence itself is a beautiful city full of history (although somewhat warm in August for a Scot!). Even without the World Congress, you could easily spend eight days wandering through Florence and not see a tenth of what it has to see. The young people at the congress organised a night-time walk through Florence (which lots of people, young or not, attended — we were a strange group, and many Florentines admired our Esperanto flag!), which allowed us to see sights such as the Uffizi, the Duomo, the Ponte Vecchio, (a copy of) the statue of David...

It was particularly good that I didn't pay much to go to Florence — I benefited from support from NoJEF (Noriĉa Jubilea Esperanto-Fondaĵo, Norwich Jubilee Esperanto Foundation), and I recommend all young Esperantists in Britain benefit from this possibility for support. I thoroughly enjoyed my first Universala Kongreso. I can't wait for Yokohama 2007!

The author is a student of linguistics at the University of Edinburgh. He became an Esperantist in 2000.