ボスニアまで足を延ばした強行行程の為、RC例会の約束時間すれすれにスプリットの市内に入ることになりました。

街の中央に世界遺産の宮殿があるため、ホテルは高速道路から降りてその旧市街地を抜けないとたどりつけません。
グーグルナビで検索すると、車進入禁止の旧市街地を抜ける指示！！

約束の時間に間に合いません・・・！

後部座席では、先輩ロータリアンが・・・！
『ロータリアンは、時間を守るのが大原則、更に服装は、スーツ、ネクタイ・・・特にヨーロッパはその仕来りは厳粛だ・・・！』
と静かな言葉ではありますがプレッシャーをかけ・・・！

仕方なく、ＲＣの例会会場へラフな旅行着のまま到着。会場前の駐車場でスーツケースを開け全員で着替え、時間すれすれに会場に飛び込み例会に参加となりました。

後にスプリットのＲＣメンバーが車で先導してホテルまで案内してくれましたが、旧市内を大きく迂回してトンネルを抜け街の反対側のホテルにたどりつきました。

共和国広場の中にあるホテル
↓

英文は先輩ロータリアンがスプリットＲＣでご挨拶した演説文です・・・！

クロアチアは小さい頃よりの憧れの地だったそうです。
↓

It is a great pleasure to meet you, my fellow Rotarians of RC Split Novi.

We would like to appreciate you for letting us participate in this meeting. We are also thankful for accepting the Make-up today.

We four are fellow Rotarians and came here to Croatia from Japan.

I have been wanting to visit Croatia for 65 years since I was only 10 years old. And I am full of emotions now as my dream is finally achieved.

Stamp collecting was my hobby when I was a kid. And I was impressed with beautifully printed stamps of Croatia, which made me wonder how Croatia is. This made me have interests in this beautiful country.

I would like to visit and enjoy the beautiful sunset in Adriatic Sea, not to mention the numerous world heritage sites.

Speaking now of our activities in Japan, we have currently 34 districts with 3306 clubs, and the number of members is 90,673.

We come from District 2600, Nagano prefecture, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1998. District 2600 has 2,055 members in 57 clubs.

We belong to Matsumoto Airport Rotary Club. It has 54 people including three female members.

Among the many club activities we enjoy barbecues, mountaineering, and golf in order to deepen friendship among the members. We carry out volunteer works in our community, assistance to Inter Act Clubs, and joint activities with two domestic sister clubs. We also carry out aid activities, such as the aid to orphanages in Nepal providing school items and stationery through Patan West Rotary club.

Rotary Club was established by Paul P Harris in Chicago, USA, in 1905.
It is a great joy that this organization gave a traveler like me the opportunity to meet wonderful people like you.

Thank you.

東洋の果てから来た我々を初対面でも歓迎してくれる・・・ＲＣの世界ネットワークに感謝・・・！