Since my early teens, I dreamed of one day visiting England. I guess the reason why it has become so much a part of my heart is because of the many English novels I read as a teenager. They portrayed England as a romantic, dreamy and very special country. A few years ago, in the middle of summer, I went there with my partner and his brother. We had a really great time, but England would not have been so beautiful for us if Slovenians had not been there too.
On that August day, we flew to England full of anticipation. My partner's brother was flying for the first time, so he was even more excited. We had arranged almost everything in advance. I'm the kind of person who goes in with a plan. We had our accommodation booked, our itinerary mapped out to the last detail, and we had arranged to rent a car. When we got to the pick-up counter, the car was ready. All we had to do was decide which insurance to take and pay the deposit. With a wallet full of pounds, that shouldn't be a problem, right? But it was! The car rental agency didn't accept cash, only credit cards. And that's where things started to get complicated. We didn't have a high enough limit on our credit card, they wouldn't accept cash despite our pleas, and the bank refused to increase our limit when we called (not as easy to arrange then as it is now).
We didn't know what to do. My partner's brother, who at that moment had enough experience of being on a plane, was ready to change the flight date that day and fly back to Slovenia in less than 24 hours. I said that was not an option. We looked at public transport links and even decided at one point that maybe we could skip everything else and just go to our final destination in Cornwall, where the cottage we had booked for a few days was. Then I remembered Tina and Roko. Tina is one of the best friends of one of my best friends. Both she and Rok are from Dolenjska, and they had only lived in England for a few years at that time. I decided to give them a call. I hoped that they would at least give us some good advice, but we got much, much more than that.
When I described our problem to Tina, she and Rok immediately drove to the airport, even though it was about an hour away from where they lived. They generously and with a huge amount of trust lent us a credit card so that we could rent a car. Rok even signed the rental contract as the main driver for insurance purposes, and my partner registered as a passenger. They were willing to do all this even though we did not know each other particularly well. They believed that we would pay the costs if something happened. And indeed they would, but fortunately that was not necessary. In return for their willingness to help, they wanted nothing more than petrol money for the journey to the airport. Actually, it was nothing against what they gave us. They have given us an immeasurable amount, and for that I will be forever grateful.
They have shown us a huge amount of trust with their selfless help. Belonging to Slovenia and to the circle of our closest friends has certainly played an important role in this. You get to know a friend (even a friend of a friend) best in adversity, and they proved then that they are really great people and great friends.
Maja Horvat, 3. 11. 2025
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