This is the world of the high rise, delapidated buildings, increasing street crime, of graffitti saying "Bluegrass". This is the world that greets you with a giant cimbalom on the hoardings, advertising beer. This is the land where a lady will walk you right across town to show you to your tram stop, where the person next to you on the tram explains where to alight in French, the place where 128 people from a dozen countries converged on a community centre that has seen better days, complete with countless dulcimers and cimbaloms to share their music, their cultures; and to offer their love and friendship. The language barriers melted as people struggled to communicate. Through our mutual obsession we made ourselves understood. Old friendships were rekindled and new ones forged, as if we had known each other for years.

As far as new faces were concerned, I met Johannes Fuchs on the first night. From Switzerland, he and his father make superb Appenzeller Hackbretts. We drew diagrams of tuning systems for our instruments. We talked late into the night about making and playing, as we supped the local fire-water. I was quite ill the next day, but glad of the chance to talk to this very talented young man.

Then from Holland, I met Cornelius who plays mainly Kletzmer music on his Saltzburg Hackbrett. A quiet and reserved chap, with hidden depths, he turned out to have made a Dutch radio programme about the small dulcimer. Within days of my return, a tape of the programme was on my doorstep, together with some fascinating Kletzmer music. Also from Holland was a lovely lady called Alexandra. About 3 feet tall, this miniature person had bags of personality and played Rumanian gypsy music on the cimbalom!

And Junko from Japan was a delightful young cimbalom player, who shared the nerve racking times back stage as the international concerts drew onwards to the English, Australian and Japanese contributions. In another informal concert she introduced the Japanese children's song she had arranged with a delightful origami crane and frog. She even invented an origami cimbalom. I also met at last Lydia Mikusova with whom I had conversed on the net, and Beata Ceckova who together with her excellent team worked tirelessly throughout to make the event such a success.

For old friends, it was the second meeting in as many weeks with Gillian and Jackie from Australia, and the smiles and brief encounter with Eva, the Slovakian Cimbalom player who visited Sidmouth with a Bratislavan dance team last summer. This was the scene of many conversations with Hungarian Cimbalom star and CWA president Viktoria Herencsar, and also where her husband Istvan led traditional Hungarian dancing accompanied by a plethora of cimbaloms. Here, a friendship sparked with Ida Tarjani Toth, Vicktoria's teacher and the Hungarian elder statewoman of the Cimbalom. This delightful lady has a delicate touch and a great sense of making the music live and breathe. It was a privilege to hear her play and to talk to her, and I was delighted to acquire her teaching text on Cimbalom from Bratislava's local music shop. I also had more of a chance to get to know Rheinhard Tafferner, who publishes Dulcimer music in Munich.

The Beylorussian delegation was out in force with maestro Eugene Gladkov leading an impressive array of talented and beautiful Cimbala players. This must surely have been his ploy to ensure that at the AGM all the male CWA members voted to take the next Congress to Minsk! His proposal to host the next Congress was accepted unanimously and it has now been scheduled for April 1997.

The Australians ganged up on me and got me onto the expanding committee of the CWA. This was mainly due to my preparedness to open my mouth and voice my views. I still need to ascertain what this will mean in practice and what I can do to help. I'm also keen to hear from readers who have ideas or views about expanding our international connections.

This feels like a new beginning, an opening of horizons. The world seems larger and yet it has shrunk. Something very important happened in Bratislava last October, and I feel privileged to have been part of it. I feel sad that I was the only UK representative who could make it this time. Here's hoping that some of you will have the chance to share the magic with me in Minsk in April 1997.