What a good idea to ask your guests to contribute to your site!

A few weeks ago, my friend (DI Vincent Kager, c/o Ingenieurbüro Eisner, Körösistraße 21/1, A-8010 Graz, Austria) spent a holiday in Rovinj. As he was sitting on the bench in front of the church, taking in the peacefulness of land- and seascape, he noticed a wonderful butterfly which came sailing through the air, only to land directly on his knee. He was overwhelmed by the sheer beauty and size of it and spent a long while sitting there in silence, letting his little friend rest in the hollow of his hand.

Later that evening, my friend went to the internet cafe in the heart of the town to tell me about his exceptional encounter. I am a poet and literary scholar at the University of Vienna I must say that I was so taken by the accuracy and lyrical quality of his description that it moved me to tears. In order to find out the name of the butterfly, I passed his mail on to a butterfly-expert! He immediately came to the conclusion that it was in fact a so-called "Segelfalter". As you will notice, it has the word "Segel" ("sail") in its German name. This butterfly is practically unknown in Austria from where we come. It is one of my friend's unforgettable memories of Rovinj

Allow me here to quote his description in German:

"Von einer Begegnung der dritten Art werde ich Dir berichten,
sie war so aussergewoehnlich sensationell fuer mich:

Rundum ist alles wie im Bilderbuch, die weissen
Segelboote, der Huegel mit der markanten Kirche, die alten Haeuser.

Ich radle die steinige Strasse zur Kirche hoch, setze mich davor
auf eine Bank, gute Aussicht zu den vorgelagerten Inselchen.
Ein Schmetterling, er flattert nicht, vielmehr segelt er, landet zuerst
auf meinem Knie, hebt wieder ab, um oftmals seinen Weg zurueck
zur Spitze meines Turnschuhes zu suchen. Er hat fast die Form eines Rochens, ein gabelartiges Schwanzpaar, parallel, Farbe weisslichgelb-schwarz, eine Fluegelspannweite von gut 10 cm.
Als er erneut auf meinem blossen Knie landet, mache ich die Haende hohl, er bleibt, um minutenlang auf der Spitze meines Zeigefingers zu rasten. Ich habe also auch hier die Erlebnisse mit dem Schmetterling, meinem Schmetterling."

(Let me tell you a story about an amazing encounter that happened to me. It was such an extraordinary and sensantional event.
Everything around me was like in a picture-book,little white boats,a mountain with an imposing church,old houses..
I was riding a bicycle along the stone road towards the church. I sat on one bench facing the beautiful view of a little island in the sea.
A butterfly, which was more sailing than floating through the air, flew down on my knee only to rise up in the air again. After that it kept coming back on the top of my shoe.
It was sort of ray shaped and was sort of tailed like a fork.The tails were parallel in black and pale yellow,and the span of its wings must have been 10 cm.
When it flew back on my naked knee again I spread my arms, and it just stayed there to rest on the tip of my forefinger for almost a minute.
So here is where I had an adventure with a butterfly, my butterfly." )

I am convinced that it would contribute much to bringing the beauty of natural life in the middle of your town close to many German-speaking visitors of your site. That's what a real holiday is about!

In the hope to have been helpful and indeed to receive a CD for my friend
I remain

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Heidi Prüger
Austria

(...) And now I have to thank you for bringing a new world of music into my home. When the brown envelope arrived, I immediately opened it and put the CD in my PC...... "Una barca" literally took my breath away ..... The beauty of the music speaks directly to the heart. I look so much forward to playing the CD to my friends and relatives, and we will be dancing and trying to sing along .... May I be learning your language after all one day, if only I sing your songs often enough, I wonder???

In any case, I thank you so very much for the wonderful surprise. My dear friend sent an e-mail telling me that he had also received the CD and how very taken he was.

Yours sincerely, with greetings to Rovinj,

Heidi Prüger
23. 10. 2002.